Vast Majority of Franchise Prospects Focus on a Few Concepts for Research and Contact

August 10, 2022 – While many changes in franchise buyer behavior were noted over the last few years during the height of the pandemic, some things remained relatively constant. Despite the availability of hundreds of franchise offerings among dozens of categories in the directories at FranchiseVentures digital brands, most prospects still narrow their focus to a single concept when requesting further information.

In looking at data for more than ten thousand franchise inquiries in the month of July, about 41.8% selected a single franchise opportunity for follow up. An additional 16.6% inquired about a second franchise, and 9.9% requested follow-up from a third concept. In total, 68.3% of all prospects inquire about one, two or three franchises.

This is not a behavior unique to the most recent month. Looking at data for the month of July each year since the pandemic unfolded in 2020, our analysis shows results similar to July 2022.

What is unusual is that we know that many of these prospects did not begin their searches with a specific idea in mind. We know from website and mobile app usage data that about 43% of users search initially for “any category”, without selecting a particular category for research.

Further, we regularly feature an article about the role that franchise portals (directory sites) play in the awareness and discovery of franchise options. In a May 2022 survey, 70.6% of prospects inquired about franchises they were “completely unfamiliar” or “vaguely familiar” with prior to their search.

How To Take Advantage of this Opportunity

The implication of these findings for franchise development teams are straightforward:

• Franchise portals and mobile apps provide a useful role in generating awareness and consideration of your franchise
• They help prospects comb quickly through hundreds of options across diverse categories to narrow the search to a few options for further consideration.

Following up promptly by email and/or text has a high probability of putting you in contact with an individual who has only inquired about a few options, and may be hearing from you first.

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, August 9th, 2022.