With a vast and growing proprietary data set of U.S. franchise prospects, startup and business for sale inquiries, we use the tools of data science to discover franchise development trends and explore the impact of location and demographics on franchise lead generation.
September 27, 2023 — When evaluating franchise directory websites (portals), cost per lead is often a key decision factor, assuming quality standards are met. But leads submitted at franchise portals also result in substantial referral visits to franchisor websites, in addition to being a significant source of leads submitted at development websites
September 20, 2023 — When lead sources are compared, “price”, and even “cost per sale” – are incomplete, if not misleading. There are additional critical components of value in assessing return on your investment in franchise portals or other third party lead suppliers.
September 13, 2023 – Aspiring business owners come to franchise directory sites to see what’s out there, and for the convenience of comparisons in one place, and ease of connection to franchise representatives.
August 23, 2023 – Aspiring business owners engaging with franchise sales teams were largely satisfied with their experiences, according to recent mystery shopping surveys over the last six months ending in August 2023. Almost half (43.3%) said they were either “satisfied “or “very satisfied”
Aug 2, 2023 — After ChatGPT was launched November 30, 2022, and Microsoft added ChatGPT features to its Bing search February 7, 2023, speculation swirled about the impact on Google’s dominance of web searches. Google launched Bard globally on May 10 this year after opening by invitation starting March 21.
July 26, 2023 – Apple announced a new “Live Voicemail” feature for its anticipated September iOS 17 iPhone software update. Rather than banishing the caller directly to voicemail without ringing, as the “silence unknown callers” feature does, the first several seconds of the caller’s message is presented in text on the home screen, giving the call recipient an option to pick up the call.
June 28, 2023 – As seen in recurring surveys, most franchise prospects (38.3%) prefer to be emailed for initial contact with a franchise they have chosen, according to monthly “mystery shopping” surveys by FranchiseInsights.com April-June 2023.
May 31, 2023 — In looking at data for thousands of franchise inquiries during the month of April 2023, 41.6% selected a single franchise opportunity for follow up. An additional 16.1% inquired about a second franchise, and 9.8% requested follow-up from a third concept.
May 24, 2023 — A very small percentage (5.2%) of aspiring franchise owners are already “very familiar” with the franchises they inquire about, and another 20.3% are “already somewhat familiar” with them
Norfolk, VA, May 10, 2023 – Research shows that only a fraction of franchise prospects are likely to return your call before receiving an introductory email from you. In an April 2023 survey, only 12.9% of respondents are “very likely,” and another 22.6% say they are “likely” to take a cold call. The traditional “call first” approach will likely lead to your frustration with at least a third of franchise leads.
March 15, 2023 – Aspiring business owners talking with franchise sales teams were largely satisfied with their experience, according to recent mystery shopping surveys over the last six months ending in February 2023. Almost half (48.7%) said they were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied”, and only 12.4% said they were “unsatisfied” or “very unsatisfied.”
Now that Microsoft has unveiled its chatbot-enhanced search results into new downloads of the Bing mobile app, and to Bing desktop users by signup on a limited basis, we can further analyze the impact of chatbots on paid and organic search marketing, following up on our earlier article.
Kudos to the franchise sales teams who reached out to all of the inquirers who requested information from them in February 2023. There is no doubt that they will be finding new franchisees, unlike those teams that did not follow up with an initial contact within seven days.
February 15, 2023 — What is now more interesting to Google searchers than Kim Kardashian, and almost as interesting as TikTok? Based on recent Google Search trends in the US, the answer is ChatGPT. Over one billion visits to the product occurred between its launch November 30 and February 5, 2023.
January 18, 2023 – Analyzing our content viewed over the past year, we developed a “Top Ten” list of the most popular topics among our insights in 2022 based on the readership of articles in topic categories. Along with each topic, ranked in descending popularity, are a few key and most recent articles that address each particular subject.
January 11, 2023 – It’s a new year, with new opportunities for franchise growth ahead. Yes, there are economic, legislative and regulatory headwinds, but who would bet against the collective entrepreneurial spirit, creative energy and grit of the franchise community?
By: Franchise Insights December 21, 2022 — If U.S. adults are spending almost 46 minutes a day on TikTok, surpassing even YouTube, why not advertise there? Have you experienced it yourself, or watched someone mindlessly scrolling TikTok videos? Meanwhile, Instagram and YouTube are falling all over themselves trying to tap into the demand for TikTok-like …
November 30, 2022 – Consistently, most franchise prospects (38.5%) prefer to be emailed for an initial contact with a franchise they have chosen, according to the monthly “mystery shopping” survey by FranchiseInsights.com in November 2022. But 36.5% indicated a preference for a phone call over a text for initial contact this month. Further, in all …
Norfolk, VA, November 22, 2022 – The percentage of franchise prospects who are very likely to return your call before receiving an introductory email has reached an all-time low. In November, only 1.92% of respondents are “very likely,” and another 21.2% say they are “likely” to take a cold call. That means about 23.1% are …
November 16, 2022 – This month a shocking and record low percentage of inquirers about franchises for sale were contacted by all of the franchise systems they requested information from, according to the FranchiseInsights.com monthly “Mystery Shopping” survey. Only 42.2% of inquirers to franchises reported that they were contacted by “all of the franchises they …
October 26, 2022 — While the headlines are about an “advertising recession” underway, with Meta to provide even more insight in its earnings report today, Google’s earnings release yesterday explains the pain felt by franchise development teams over the last year. The reported growth in Google global search revenues of 4.25% understates the impact of …
October 19, 2022 — A substantial flow of leads to franchise development sites comes from prospects originating on portal websites that are used to acquire franchise leads. In a recent article, we quantified from user surveys that 70% of prospects submitting an inquiry subsequently visited the franchise website, with 41% of those also submitting a …
October 11, 2022 – Despite soaring interest rates, volatile financial markets, declining consumer confidence and increasing lead costs, none of the U. S. franchisors responding to a recent survey say they have cut back their development budgets significantly for 2022. Moreover, one third (33.3%) have actually increased their expansion plans for this year. There was …
September 28, 2022 — Franchise marketers using the data on keywords that converted to visitors to tune their paid search programs suffered significant signal loss on September 1, 2022 when Google stopped providing this data in its Analytics products “to meet a higher privacy threshold.” What does this mean for franchise lead generation through pay …
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA — September 21, 2022 — In comparing lead sources, “price”, and even the holy grail – “cost per sale” – are incomplete, if not misleading. There are two other critical variables in assessing return on your investment in franchise portals or other third party lead suppliers. In a prior article, we quantified the …
September 14, 2022 — In comparing lead sources, “price”, and even the holy grail – “cost per sale” – can be misleading. There are two other critical variables in assessing return on your investment in franchise portals or other third party lead suppliers. In this article, we discuss the first one. What happens after a …
August 31, 2022 – Most franchise prospects (55.3%) prefer to be emailed for an initial contact with a franchise they have chosen, according to the monthly “mystery shopping” survey by FranchiseInsights.com in July 2022. Further, in all but two of the 30 monthly surveys by FranchiseInsights.com over the last three years, email was the clear …
August 24, 2022 — A minority (6.2%) of aspiring franchise owners are already “very familiar” with the franchises they inquire about, and another 20.8% are “already somewhat familiar” with them, according to surveys of interested franchise seekers to portal sites collected from May through July 2022. They come to franchise directory sites for the convenience …
August 17, 2022 – In July 2022, an improved 60% of inquirers to franchises reported that they were contacted by “all of the franchises they inquired to,” just below the average rate of 61.3% seen over the last twelve months. Those who reported being contacted by “none of” the franchises at seven days after inquiry …
July 20, 2022 — Since we last wrote about the decline in Facebook (Meta) Lead Generation, three more months of data show that the situation may have stabilized for franchise lead generation advertisers now one year after Apple’s iOS 14.5 release, though at substantially higher costs and lower lead volumes. If you have found your …
June 29, 2022 – Since the introduction of Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) features with the September 21, 2022 release of iOS 15, email marketers have been scrambling to adjust their marketing processes and expectations to the changes. While a comprehensive response is beyond the scope of this article, we are attempting a high-level summary …
June 15, 2022 – Most franchise prospects (45.8%) prefer to be emailed for the initial contact with a franchise they have chosen, according to the monthly “mystery shopping” survey by FranchiseInsights.com in June 2022. Further, in all but two of the 29 monthly surveys by FranchiseInsights.com over the last three years, email was the clear …
June 8, 2022 — A minority (6.4%) of aspiring franchise owners are already “very familiar” with the franchises they inquire about, and another 23% are “somewhat familiar” to them according to surveys of interested franchise seekers to portal sites collected January through May 2022. They likely come for the convenience of comparisons in one place, …
May 25, 2022 – Despite March’s largest increase in U.S. inflation in more than forty years, the majority of U. S. franchisors have no plans to increase initial franchise fees, according to a benchmarking survey by Franchise Insights in April 2022. A minority (13.5%) of respondents do expect franchise fee increases in 2022 in the …
May 18, 2022 — Since February 2022 when we last wrote about the decline in Facebook (Meta) Lead Generation after Apple’s iOS 14.5 release, three more months of data show that advertisers for lead generation shouldn’t expect results to improve any time soon. Meta’s own CFO estimates that consumers opting out of tracking will cost …
May 11, 2022 – In April 2022, only 53.2% of inquirers to franchises reported that they were contacted by “all of the franchises they inquired to”, just above the 53.1% lowest rate seen in April 2021, but far below the average rate of 61.3% seen over the last twelve months. Fortunately, those who reported being …
April 20, 2022 – In March 2022, U.S. inflation showed the largest 12-month increase since December 1981. The year-over-year increase was 8.5%, up from 7.9% in February 2022. The Consumer Price Index rose just over 8.5% in March 2022, compared to March 2021, propelled by categories like energy prices and rents, as used vehicles and …
February 23, 2022 — If you have not heard about the $300 billion drop in the market value in Meta Platforms (formerly known as Facebook), perhaps it is because you have had to work double-time to mitigate the volume dip and effective cost of franchise leads to achieve your franchise system growth goals. The introduction …
February 16, 2022 — The percentage of prospects inquiring about franchises and businesses for sale who cited email or text as their first choice for initial contact was dead even in February 2022, in a departure from recent months, and largely due to a dip in the preference for email compared to January. In addition, …
February 8, 2022 – In January 2022, 57.6% of inquirers to franchises reported that they were contacted by “all of the franchises they inquired to.” On the other hand, those who reported being contacted by “none of them” dropped to a recent low of 15.4%, according to results from the FranchiseInsights.com monthly Mystery Shopping survey. …
January 26, 2022 — Even though over 28% of franchise prospects in January 2022 reported being already “somewhat familiar” or “very familiar” with the franchises they considered, they chose to inquire about them at franchise portal sites among hundreds of other listings. These findings are consistent with our prior data from August 2021. When you’re looking …
January 13, 2022 – First, the bad news. Supplies will be tighter, and costs higher for building a pipeline of franchise prospects given: Increasing Competition with Employers – Growing franchise systems will be competing with desperate employers who are offering better pay and more flexible work conditions to retain or add team members in an environment …
December 28, 2021 — Aspiring owners say that they are most likely to respond to an email as the initial contact about a franchise they are interested in according to the December 2021 “mystery shopping” survey by FranchiseInsights.com. But in a reversal of the trend seen in the first half of 2021, prospects now …
December 22, 2021 – The flow of franchise prospects usually ebbs on days leading up to holidays, as travel and spending time with loved ones takes precedence. Following the Christmas holidays in the US, franchise inquiries usually increase, as interested prospects have extra time to ponder and make big plans for the coming year. But …
December 16, 2021 — In a dramatic recovery, employment in the U.S. reached 95.8% in November, as the unemployment rate dropped to 4.2%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Indexed to January 2020 before the pandemic emerged, November employment at 95.8% was back to 99.4% of the employment rate seen in January 2020 (96.4%). …
December 9, 2021 — In a survey conducted December 1-8, 2021, 61.7% of franchises responding say they expect to spend “more” or “much more” on franchise leads in 2022. Confidence in a better 2022 is seen in franchise systems in all stages of growth. Active U.S. franchises responding to the benchmarking survey hailed from a …
November 23, 2021 – While over 60% of active U.S. franchisors surveyed by FranchiseInsights.com reported no changes planned for their fees in 2022,. one-third (33.3%) increased fees in 2021, and 40% plan to increase initial franchise fees in 2022. Three times as many franchises plan to increase their fees by more than 50% (4.8%) than …
November 17, 2021 – Almost two-thirds (64.9%) of active U.S. franchisors surveyed by Franchise Insights in November, 2021 reported no changes to their fees in 2021. Exactly one-third (33.3%) increased fees in 2021, and a small percentage (1.75%) actually reduced their initial franchise fees this past year. More franchises increased their fees by more than …
November 11, 2021 — Are you seeing more competition for the best franchise prospects, or finding it harder to identify the number of prospects you need to achieve your franchise development goals? Are you experiencing soaring franchise lead costs in filling your pipeline? The flow of aspiring business owners took the biggest hit in the …
October 27, 2021 —The Consumer Price Index rose almost 5.4% in September 2021, compared to September 2020, propelled by categories like used cars and trucks soaring 24.4% and energy climbing 24.8% on average in U.S. urban areas. High prices for homes inspired a four-decade low in consumer perceptions of “good time to buy a home” …
October 13, 2021 — Over the past few years, paid Facebook advertising has become an attractive source of paid franchise leads for development teams, given its broad reach and extensive targeting options. But 2021 has become a challenging year for this resource. On Monday, October 4th beginning just before 12 pm Eastern time, Facebook and …
UPDATED: How Google and Apple Privacy Initiatives Are Likely to Impact Franchise Lead Generation September 29, 2021 — Google issued an updated timeline for their previously announced sunset of third party cookies. Instead of being sunset by 2022, Google will prevent cookies from being collected in the second half of 2023. The reason given was …
September 15, 2021 – When you’re looking for information on an unfamiliar subject, you might “Google it.” But what if you don’t know what you are looking for, or what criteria to use to compare the choices, or what options are available in a geography or category or price range? How do you satisfy yourself …
August 11, 2021 — A majority of aspiring owners say that they are most likely to respond to an email as the initial contact about a franchise in the July 2021 “mystery shopping” survey by FranchiseInsights.com. Text messaging was second in order of preference for initial contact, followed by a voice call when respondents were …
June 30, 2021 – Apple launched a “Silence Unknown Callers” feature in its September, 2019 launch of iOS 13, but the April 26, 2021 release of iOS 14.5 featured prompts to set it up when viewing the “recent” call list as seen in the graphic above. This development means that many consumers are not going …
June 23, 2021 – In June, franchise sales teams performed at the highest levels in over eight months according to results from the FranchiseInsights.com Mystery Shopping survey. Respondents reporting that they were contacted by “all of the franchises they inquired to” reached 63.5%. Further, those who reported being contacted by “none of them” dropped to …
April 28, 2021 — In January 2020, Google announced that by 2022 its Chrome web browser would no longer allow sites’ collection of 3rd party user tracking “cookies.” Cookies are unique identifiers tied to a browser that track a user’s web behavior across the web and report that data back to the owner of the …
April 21, 2021 –The highest percentage ever of aspiring owners seeing information about franchises cited text messaging as their preferred channel for initial contact in an April survey by FranchiseInsights.com. Almost a third chose follow-up by text (32.6%), edging out “voice” at 30.2% of respondents asked to rank voice, email and text. Likely contributing to …
March 17, 2021 – If you’re looking for information on a topic, you “Google it.” But what if you don’t know what you are looking for, or what criteria to use to compare the choices, or what options are available in a geography or category or price range? How do you satisfy yourself that you’ve …
March 3, 2021 – One thing that the pandemic hasn’t changed is the desire of franchise prospects to have some form of initial contact prior to receiving an incoming phone call. Tip #1 – Send an email or text to make initial contact Consumers have taken measures to block or silence callers whose numbers are …
Jan. 13, 2021 – Potential business buyers who contact franchises to explore ownership are three times more likely to leave a mobile for contact than a traditional landline number. That’s a good thing for franchise development teams – it opens up new communication channels with texting as well as voice calls, and numerous industry reports …
December 29, 2020 – While the Internet offers great convenience for prospective business owners to research and contact franchisors at any hour of any day, it also creates a challenge for franchise development teams who want to respond to those prospects in a timely fashion. And a new analysis of the largest pool of franchise-investment …
TCPA and DNC Regulations Trip Franchise Development Teams If You Call or Text Franchise Leads, Please Read This December 11, 2020 – On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments (transcript here) over the definition of an autodialer, specifically whether the “definition of ATDS in the TCPA encompasses any device that can …
November 25, 2020 – Usually we use this space to share unique, proprietary data about franchise and business buyers, but today’s insight is to give thanks for the entrepreneurial and heroic accomplishments of the people and institutions that make our economy grow. We are thankful for the millions of entrepreneurs each year who begin the …
If You Call or Text Franchise Leads, Please Read This November 20, 2020 – Usually we use this space to share unique, proprietary data about franchise and business buyers, but today’s proprietary data insight is that a lack of knowledge around the regulatory requirements for communicating with prospects is pervasive in the franchise and business opportunity …
October 1, 2020 – When we last reported results from our monthly survey of interested franchise buyers in May, franchisors were contacting 62.5% of prospective franchisees sourced from FranchiseVentures lead generation platform. In fact, this reading was the second highest in all of 2020, despite the uncertainty and organizational disruption brought by the pandemic. Soon, …
May 21, 2020 – According to a May survey of interested franchise buyers, more franchisors are consistently following through with each inquiry and attempting to make contact. In May, 62.5% of respondents report being contacted by each of the one or more franchises to which they inquired. This is all the more important, considering that …
April 24, 2020 – According to an April 2020 survey of interested franchise buyers, online franchise opportunity directories and their associated mobile apps play an integral role not only as a tool for comparison shopping, but also for discovery and consideration of less familiar franchises. Over 79% of prospective buyers chose to submit an inquiry …
April 16, 2020 – According to a survey of interested franchise buyers, more development teams are following through with each inquiry and attempting to make contact. In April, 59.6% report being contacted by every one of the one or more franchises to which they inquired. This is all the more important, considering that almost 43% …
April 16, 2020 – A comparative analysis of February and March advertising spending of FranchiseVentures clients revealed a spectrum of mindsets toward development investments, as brands contended with the financial and operational challenges wrought by the coronavirus. The two determinants of spending are 1) budget, and 2) the availability of leads (buyer demand). Some of …
March 5, 2020 Tip #1 Send an email or text to make initial contact Given the unwanted robocalls that we all get, don’t we ignore phone calls from numbers we don’t recognize? Prospects want some kind of introduction to know more about your franchise before calling you or taking your call. In a 2020 survey …
Norfolk, Virginia, February 7, 2020 — Franchise Ventures released a new tool to help franchise development teams improve early engagement with prospective franchisees. The Franchise Insights mobile app makes it easier to quickly respond to new prospects, and helps unify each prospect conversation across phone, email and text. “The mobile app helps franchise development teams …
Over 63% of franchise systems plan to spend more to recruit new franchisees in 2020, and a closer look at key segments shows that confidence is strong in franchise systems in all stages of growth. Plans to maintain or increase spending were strong across emerging, established and large franchise systems, according to a survey across …
In a strong showing of their confidence about the future, nearly two-thirds of franchises plan to spend more to recruit new franchisees in 2020, according to a survey across the Franchise Ventures demand-generation platform. “Business confidence is evident in franchises, the leading category of small businesses,” said Michael Alston, president of Franchise Ventures. “Growth-oriented franchises …
Oct. 10, 2019 – Ask any franchise development team what the No.1 franchisee recruitment challenge is, and chances are you’ll hear “contact rate” mentioned. The percentage of franchise inquiries with a successful return phone call is consistently lower than targets in industry Mystery Shopping surveys. This is even more astounding when you realize that the …
Oct. 10, 2019 – Smartphones are growing at an even faster rate this year as the No.1 way that franchise prospects begin their investment process. After several years of single-digit growth, the smartphone share of new franchise inquiries grew 12% over the past 12 months – reaching a full 73% of Internet inquiries originating on …
Feb. 19, 2019 – According to a survey of active franchise systems conducted by Franchise Insights, franchisors plan to raise their recruitment budgets this year as favorable growth conditions continue. More than 86% of franchisors plan to spend at least the same amount in 2019 as they spent on franchise lead generation in 2018. And …
Feb. 1, 2019 – What’s smarter than a smartphone? Two smart phones – yours, and the one in the hands of the local entrepreneur who wants to know more about owning one of your franchises. In less than a decade, smart phones connected to the Internet have skyrocketed to become the No. 1 channel for …
Jan. 29, 2019 – If you’re an emerging franchise, making the leap from an owned-and-operated business to the franching model, you’ve got a tough task. Your first few sales are based on the promise of your concept, not a track record in serving franchisees. Fortunately, many prospective franchisees are looking for ground-floor opportunity, and may …
Jan. 11, 2019 – Franchisors, there’s a huge mismatch in your new-unit sales funnel – 67% of all franchise inquiries are sent outsite of business hours, times that don’t lend themselves to an immediate phone conversation. And that problem gets tougher for national franchisors, when you consider the vast expanse of the 50 states and …
Jan. 2, 2019 – If you work in new franchise development, you know how crucial the first phone call is – and how hard it is to make that phone connection. Year after year, contact rates for the franchising industry remain challenging, and now we know why. It boils down to this: There’s an eye-popping …
Nov. 20, 2018 – So you want to grow your business – don’t we all? Internet marketing changes the franchise funnel, starting long before anyone talks on the phone or reads a contract. Industry consultant Art Coley sees a critical path he calls the pre-engagement phase, when a potential franchisee moves from being possibly interested …
Oct. 11, 2018 – Franchise development teams, take note: The mobile Internet revolution has up-ended the top of your marketing funnel. Internet franchise portals are the leading source of inquiries from potential franchise owners, and the smart phone is their Internet connection of choice. That’s according to new research shared at the Franchise Leadership and …
Oct. 8, 2018 – With a growing economy, savvy franchisors expect that competition will increase – not just for customers, but also for franchisees to own new locations. Forbes offers five timely tips for recruiting franchise owners, starting with “Profile your all-star candidate” – read more in Forbes