Franchise lead generation is the process of generating inbound inquiries about a franchise with the goal of turning that interest into the sale of franchise unit(s). Turning those leads into sales is the primary goal of sharing proprietary data from Franchise Insights. This includes tips on maximizing initial contact, to understanding the lifetime value of leads, and overcoming the obstacles introduced by Apple’s well-intentioned email privacy and mobile app tracking transparency initiatives.
There is also feedback from actual franchise prospects on the franchise sales process.
Franchise leads come from paid, owned and earned media sources. Paid sources include search engine marketing, social media advertising, and franchise directory websites or “portals”, which play an important role in the research and discovery process leading to franchise ownership.
Key “owned” sources included the franchisor’s own development website, and referrals from existing franchisees and employees. Data show that a significant source of “bonus” referral leads follow inquiries on franchise directory websites.
Examples of “earned” sources include media mentions, articles and social media posts. Search engine results pages (SERPs) for key search terms are highly valuable, given their role in the search process of persons researching franchises.
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?