Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2013 | Page 66

Grow Market Lead
64

It’s closing
time
BY STEVE OLSON

Wasting Your Website?
Don’t misuse your greatest development tool!

W

hen recruiting franchisees, all roads lead
to your website. So ask
yourself, are you capitalizing on this powerful prospect generator? How you design your website and
promotional pages can make or break
your online lead generation success. If
your presentation isn’t first or second
best in your business category, you can
lose to your competitors. In the eyes and
minds of the potential buyer, your web
presence defines “who you are.” Invest
the time and effort to get it right.
As an exercise, think of your recruitment site as your own Broadway stage.
The curtain goes up as interested visitors
come to see your franchise act. Does
your performance motivate and compel the audience to rise from their seats
and applaud? After all, you may excel in
driving visitors to your website, but if
your story doesn’t engage prospects to
respond, you’re just another Broadway
flop. There is no second act, as buyers
abandon your theater for a better franchise showing. Check these best practices for delivering a response-driven
recruitment site.
• Directly refer franchise inquiries to your franchise page, not your
home page. Prospects are looking to
find out about your opportunity, not
to buy your products and services. If
your franchise site is part of your consumer site, then create a franchise URL
(e.g., “magicleanfranchise.com”) that
sends visitors directly to your franchise
page. This also helps you separate and
track consumer visitors versus franchise visitors.
• Avoid the sea of sameness with
compelling messaging. Buyers yawn
at generic statements like: “We provide
great startup training and support for
Franchiseupdate I ssu e III, 2 0 1 3

our franchisees.” Who doesn’t! Change
that meaningless copy like one franchisor did to: “As a franchise owner, we
help you 24/7 with our live support
line during your first three months in
business.”
• Write “micro content” copy
that is quick and concise. This is an
electronic medium, a miniature TV
screen that must tell your story in as
few words as possible. Instead of “When
you come to our comprehensive training class our operations team will share

You may excel
in driving visitors
to your website,
but if your story
doesn’t engage
prospects to
respond, you’re
just another
Broadway flop.
with you everything you will need to
know so that you can get off to the right
start,” simplify this to: “Your 40 hours
of training gives you the key tools and
systems to start up your business.”
• Less is more, don’t reveal the
whole story. Franchise sites are often
overloaded with information, which can
confuse and lose visitors, forcing them
to decipher too much at once.
• Your site should deliver a multisensory experience. Engage guests with
strikin