Getting Prospects to Buy: Franchise Leads Need to Be Quality, Not Quantity

When it comes to attracting potential franchisees who want to buy, franchise leads who are informed and already know about the franchise tend to be more serious. One way to attract the quality leads and avoid spending time on dead-end prospects is to have an informative website. According to a report that came out this year, franchisees used the Internet more than any other source when choosing the franchise they ultimately invested in.

Types of Franchise Recruitment Websites

There are three options that are in popular use when it comes to franchise recruitment websites:

• For those who might want to buy, franchise leads are directed to a separate business opportunity site that links to the consumer website and has a call to action to visit an online brochure or complete a lead form.
• As part of the consumer website, there are one or more franchise pages.
• Franchise recruitment websites that are article format and link to the consumer website. These have a research funnel of pages that drive up prospect engagement, have substantially more content, and include an integrated franchise blog that drives SEO, keeps people already in the process engaged, and increases social media reach.

There currently are not any industrywide statistics on how these different strategies compare, but there is anecdotal evidence that those franchisors who have made the switch from the first two website types to the more content rich article format sites have experience exponential increases in leads who want to buy. Franchise leads have increased by fivefold or more for some franchisors.

Quality Content Produces Quality Leads

These days, those franchisors with the article format recruitment sites are finding that their leads are of a higher quality than ever before. In fact, some estimates show leads have already done about 80 percent of their research once they reach out to a franchisor. The brochure-style websites are losing potential franchisees, since they are not as information rich. One study found article format recruiting websites have a quite high conversion rate of over six percent.

What to Include in Articles

Brand storytelling is very popular among prospects. And, rather than having to comb through an executive summary of a business plan, candidates would rather see the same type of information in a more conversational article form. The writing skills needed to engage and attract franchise prospects are not typically part of a web designer’s job description. Franchisors need to find someone with the specific skill set that will generate quality content and subsequently leads.

Digital marketing agencies, like ClickTecs, typically fill this niche. ClickTecs specializes in designing websites that pop for franchise recruitment. Plus, ClickTecs has many skilled writers on staff who can write knowledgeably on any topic. The articles they produces are optimized for search engines, shareable, informative, original, and feature the franchisor in a positive light without coming off as unnatural.

Switching to an article format recruitment site will guarantee a franchise more quality leads almost instantly.