Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2011 | Page 48

Grow Market Lead

Jeff Sturgis, president of Franchise System
Advisors, shopped 107 franchise brands
through their recruitment websites. Only
three out of four called him back after his
initial request was submitted online.
to begin building a relationship.
His overall takeaway was that, from
a process standpoint most brands are
doing pretty well. “But there’s a lack of
personalization and relationship-building
going on. I believe that good franchise
recruitment is based on a conversation,
not just a process.”
Website content

Steve Kennedy, Web.com’s director of
business development, simultaneously
was reviewing the content of the 107 recruitment websites. He identified several
trends and benchmarks that shed light
on best practices—based on both what
franchisors have on their websites and
what they don’t.
For example, only one third listed
the benefits of franchising, although two
thirds addressed the benefits of joining
their particular company. Surprisingly, just
over one third of franchisors mentioned
items critical to a prospect’s decisionmaking process, such as available territories (37 percent) and the investment
required (38 percent).
For his next set of criteria—which
included financial requirements, FAQs,
testimonials, and industry background
and growth—about half of the 107 franchisor websites he surveyed got it right
(or got it wrong, depending on how you
look at it). Including this information
on a recruitment website can play a big
role in favorably influencing a prospect’s
decision to continue investigating that
brand—or to click away and consider
another brand whose website provides
the information they are seeking. Only
30 percent included financial performance representations, while two thirds
(68 percent) laid out their franchise
award process.
Kennedy also found that the website
bounce rate from the home page increased

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