Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2011 | Page 57

By John Jorgenson

Faster, Cheaper, Better
Lead generation takes a technology leap forward

T

raditional lead generation
for franchise development has
been a “they will find us” approach. The three most common sources of leads for franchise companies have been:
1) online portals that attract people to
their site and shop an array of brands to
see if a franchise opportunity suits their
interests;
2) franchise brokers who screen online
leads to provide franchisors with qualified
candidates at a relatively high cost; and
3) the franchisor’s own development
website.
New technology now makes a “Let’s
go find our perfect candidate in an open
territory” a targeted approach that is proving very efficient and economical!
We are now living in the Digital Age
and, like it or not, there is a ton of electronic intelligence out there about you.
Consumers leave their digital footprints
everywhere: their car dealer’s website, their
favorite retail sites, their financial institution’s site, etc. Our solution compiles that
information and develops profiles around
that intelligence. It is simple to plug in the
ZIP Codes of an available franchise territory and then use demographic selectors
to determine who the likely candidates
are to purchase a franchise in that area.
The database selection can be targeted
to specific financial and lifestyle characteristics that match the franchise opportunity.
Sometimes this is difficult because it flies in
the face of political correctness. Recently,
we conducted a webinar with a group of
area developers for a brand whose franchisees were predominately male. When
we instructed the ADs to put only male
contacts in their campaigns there was
huge pushback, for example: “Some of our
best franchisees are women!” or “Why would

you immediately rule out nearly 50 percent
of the market?”
It is purely an analytical math formula.
Their system was 96 percent male, and
when we go into a campaign we market to
the most likely data set that will purchase
a franchise from that company. We get
paid to deliver new franchisees. We asked
them, “How great would it be if every lead
you talked to was financially qualified in an
open territory?” That squashed the chatter.
Case study: early adopter
When we built our system (originally for
franchisees to market their businesses), we
integrated an email and postal address data
pipe that provided access to more than 200
million “intelligent” records that can be
filtered by geography, demographics, and
lifestyle characteristics. The data is double
opt-in and refreshed every six months to
ensure very high delivery rates.
The first adopter was CMIT Solutions, a leader in the IT franchise space.
CMIT, which had been using the program
for their franchisees to market their businesses, recognized that the same technology was perfect for generating franchise
development leads. Because a campaign
can be targeted by ZIP Codes, CMIT
targeted the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, where
they had available territory and wanted
to expand their footprint. The first step
was an analysis of the demographic characteristics of what makes a good CMIT
franchisee. The results of the analysis
were six key demographic data factors
that included age range, net income, discretionary spending, IQ, and so on, all of
which are available as selectors.
Once the profile and geo-targets were
established, CMIT purchased 15,500 records in the Dallas area and launched a
three-email campaign (which repeats one

time for a total of six emails) using the
system’s Automated Marketing Campaign
(AMC) feature. Once the AMC is set up,
the user does not have to touch it again.
The emails are sent at a predetermined
interval with a trackable link to a landing
page to capture the contact information of
exactly who has enough interest to click
through, even if they don’t complete the
“request for information” form on the
landing page.

Grow Market Lead

Lead
generation
technology

The proof’s in the data
“I was skeptical at first when my development team proposed the idea,” says
Jeff Connally, CEO of CMIT, “but they
convinced me to give the program a try.
I just didn’t envision that the email campaigns would produce meaningful leads at
an extremely attractive cost.” He agreed
to give the program a shot.
Anxious to get going, CMIT’s development team launched its initial campaign
in the dead of summer in Dallas. “This
summer has set many temperature records
in Texas, and our target demographic
traditionally escapes to cooler climates,”
says Connally. In spite of this, the initial
program produced more than 250 leads,
with 52 engaging in the process. “We
have already awarded one territory as a
result of this campaign, and I fully expect to award another two to candidates
we identified in this, our first use of the
program,” he says.
The cost of the campaign ended up
to be less than $20 per lead and less than
$1,000 per deal. However, says Connally,
“As attractive as the cost is, what I am most
excited about is the ability to target when
and where we’ll add to our 130 locations.”
Says John Cohen, president and cofounder of Rhino 7 Franchise Development, which handles direct franchise sales
for many companies, “It was only a matter
of time until technology would provide
a very efficient way to go after our exact
prospect in a specific market.” n
John Jorgenson is CEO of Easy Way Marketing, supplier of an online marketing platform that integrates all the marketing media
channels, data pipe, and CRM tools franchisors
need to provide franchisees with a turnkey
marketing system. Contact him at johnj@
fcseasyway.com or 410-489-6555.

Franchiseupdate Issue I V, 2011 

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