One Sure Way To Get Bonus Franchise Lead Referrals to Your Development Website
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
January 25, 2023 — When evaluating franchise directory websites (portals), cost per lead is often the key decision factor, assuming quality standards are met. But leads submitted at portals also lead to substantial referral visits to franchisor websites, in addition to being a significant source of leads submitted at development websites, as we first reported in September 2022.
What happens after a prospect requests information about your franchise?
After aspiring business owners submit inquiries at a franchise portal, very few end their search there. Most prospects who are exposed to your brand and request information about it go on to continue their research while awaiting your response.
Consistent with our earlier look at the referral value of portals, data from November 2022 through January 2023 show that 75% percent of them went on to visit your franchise website. Almost a third of those (29% of total submitters) also fill out the lead form on your franchise website right after having requested information via the franchise portal.
“Referral value” or “pass-along value” are terms used to describe this additional value. These very interested prospects get attributed to the franchise website, even though they originated on the portal. This is a good thing, though it may lead to grossly understating the return on your investment in portals if not taken into consideration.
Summary: Franchise portals drive referrals to your franchise development website, in addition to franchise leads they provide.
What explains this phenomenon?
Recent data shows that only 3.1% of prospects are very familiar, and 24.5% are somewhat familiar with the opportunities they inquire about on franchise portals. Almost 38% are first introduced to the franchise on the portal visit. This is part of why third party sites like franchise portals are important to franchise development, especially as consumers spend more of their time on fragmented social media and streaming.
The “Mystery Shop” survey is conducted monthly by FranchiseInsights.com from a large sample of franchise inquirers across the FranchiseVentures lead generation platform. The data presented here is from November 2022 through January 2023.
FranchiseVentures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.
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Published on Tuesday, January 24th, 2023.