Celebrating success is something we British are often very blasé about. In franchising, however, this can be a key indicator to prospective franchise owners about your credentials. Sally Anne Butters, Head of Media at Coconut Creatives, explains how best to promote your achievements.
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Sally Anne Butters, Director of Media at Coconut Creatives, points out important content franchise prospectuses should contain.
You know you want a holiday in Portugal in a private villa so you go online, narrow your search down to three places – your dates are available and they have some good reviews – so you ask them to send you brochures. They arrive and are full of wonderful photos of the villa and surrounding area, so you decide on the mid-range priced one.
Three months later you arrive to find that there are roadworks going on just outside your villa waking you up at 7am every day. You always had that niggling feeling in the back of your mind that this might happen.
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Marketing involves anything you do to promote and expand your business; including market research, advertising, publicity, sales and distribution. Sally Butters, Head of Media at Coconut Creatives, suggests a few cost-saving marketing methods that you can implement if you are working to a tight budget.
Read the full article online here: http://www.franchiseexpo.co.uk/IndustryExperts_august_2012/How-to-market-your-business-on-a-tight-budget151.cfm
You know how some franchises just seem to be everywhere? Ever wondered how they do it? Follow an integrated marketing approach and you’ll be one of them.
A perfect pitch is a psychologically proven method of engaging with someone to help them understand quickly and simply, what you do, how you do it, why you are good at it and why it is relevant to them.
In short this process goes through four fundamental stages of:
1. Clarity
2. Credibility
3. Relevance
4. Believability
Across the business world outside the franchise industry, it is common for a company to have a perfect 90-second style pitch that they use at networking events or to train the sales team. They understand the value of having it, the power it provides in consistency of approach and how it helps engage their target audience.
This is such a powerful tool in franchising, once you understand how important it is and what impact it can have on your business, then you will realise why spending time developing your perfect pitch is paramount.
By utilising a perfect pitch approach, you can train your staff on the phone, email, on your website and at events to engage more effectively with prospects. As so many franchisors and franchise owners attend exhibitions (and we have the spring exhibitions approaching fast) we are also sharing some thoughts on improving your event success.
Exhibitions
Getting to the exhibition with an innovative stand design, appropriate merchandise and plenty of enthusiasm is a great start but there are a few more tricks to a successful show. We always prefer to have at least two people working on a stand, or more depending on stand size. Brief your stand team on what you want them to do and how you want them to record the number and details of visitors to the stand, remembering to cover any data protection issues. We like to set our clients’ stand teams individual goals. For example, if you want 100 leads over a two-day show and you have five people working on the stand that is 50 leads a day, 10 leads per person. Five before lunch and five after lunch each, per day. Breaking it down like this makes it less daunting for the team.
Multi-media
An exhibition provides an excellent opportunity for you to showcase any videos, testimonials, events, discovery days, case studies and product demos on a screen. Visitors naturally stop and watch and this gives your team a chance to approach them.
On-stand speaking
Some of our most successful clients adopt a system for attracting visitors onto the stand in a non-threatening way. A great way to do this is through the use of speaking slots. By scheduling a few speaking slots on your stand, you attract prospects to you.
Speaking at the show
Most exhibitions offer breakout rooms for seminar sessions. At the point of booking your stand, it is vital to get one of these slots. They massively affect the success of your presence at the show.
Don’t forget the press
Leave your media pack in the press room for any interested journalists to pick up to find out more information about your franchise. Always ensure that you include your perfect pitch in your press pack too.
After the show
Details of interested prospects that have actively opted in to receive further details on your franchise should be followed up fast! An eye-catching branded email and personal phone call works best.
Through our work at Coconut Creatives, we have been able to help franchise companies identify and streamline the best marketing solutions for their franchise recruitment needs. This type of experience is something we are keen to share, as we believe that the art of franchise network growth and enrichment is something that any franchisor can adapt to suit their business and individual industry.
Franchisees are all individuals. They are governed by their own unique needs, desires and business objectives and therefore their interpretations of your marketing support and how it relates to their individual territory, will vary. You therefore need a well-defined blend of options that will give you a clear scope of coverage in accordance with your franchise network team.
An organised, well-guided plan is essential
At Rosemary Bookkeeping, we have implemented a professional marketing structure that has been underpinned by Chartered Marketer principles. This means each plan is SMART: specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and timely.
Every plan is then explained and delivered to new franchisees through the initial training process with ongoing ‘check points’ to ensure they are undertaking key activities. This is a structure and system that Coconut Creatives has put in place for a wide range of franchisors across industry and sector both very large established brands and small start-ups.
Who does which bit?
As most franchisors take a royalty from franchisees, it is important to show them value for money!
Communicate all the brilliant activity you are doing in a number of ways:
Also consider circulating the core marketing plan so franchisees can arrange complementary activities in their area. By demonstrating to your franchisees that their hard-earned cash is being spent on promoting the brand nationally, it helps to benefit them as more people will be aware of their business and what it offers.
Don’t forget that communication is a two-way thing. Involve them in the process, take onboard their ideas and suggestions, yet ensure you stick to your overall plan on the best way forward. Some fantastic ideas have come from the Rosemary Bookkeeping network in the past and many of these are now implemented across the network, alongside the activities that were already planned.
Regular contact
Regular contact with the franchise network is essential – via telephone and email communication as well as regularly scheduled face-to-face meetings, ideally with these being held in groups and on a one-to-one basis.
Building and maintaining a relationship with the franchise network adds value to their investment but also ensures that the franchisees feel supported and appreciated both as individuals and as part of the team. Whilst being part of a franchise can provide franchisees with the freedom and flexibility that is not always associated with more traditional roles, they still need to know that they have a point of contact should they require – this of course being a major benefit and attraction to prospects when considering franchising from the outset.
Showcasing case studies
Once you have built a strong relationship with your franchise network and assisted them to win business, you can help them further expand on this.
This task should be quite straight forward as franchisees are often keen to promote their territory and the good work they are doing. Case studies and testimonials are one of the best tools for new franchisees to use when looking to win business in their territory. It says to prospective clients of the new franchisee “I’m new to this business, but the business isn’t new”.
The other bonus to this is that franchisees are often keen to talk about their experiences and successes, in a tone that is relatable by the prospective franchisee audience. Give them the best opportunity to do this by holding an interview with them in their work environment, and if you can video at the same time you have a useful tool for social media too. You never know what you might gain from the material that you collect as well as receiving first-hand feedback about your franchise. This material is great for inspiring other people to take the plunge into franchising, as well as winning more business for the network as a whole.
Public relations
PR is also very important when creating a strong national strategy, especially during the launch of a new franchise territory. Yet PR doesn’t work alone. It is a proven fact that people need to see or hear a product or service at least 7 times before they will engage with it. You can help your franchisees build up their communication touch points by providing them with templates and structures that support key messages and their fundamental activities. For example: if your business is highly dependent on business networking, then providing them with e-shot copy and templates to use on a monthly basis to keep people they meet at networking warm, is another touch point ticked off the list.
Press releases, keep warm activity and well-scheduled newsletters are great to encourage and maintain interest. You may also find that national press releases can be incorporated within your POS and marketing collateral designs. Again, franchise case studies can be used as PR but, if so, we recommend for there to be a clear message or story that resonates with the target audience.
Social Media
Social networking as a promotional tool is gaining pace like the proverbial juggernaut. On Facebook there were 901 million monthly and 526 million daily active users recorded on average at the end of March 2012. Also at the end of March, Twitter is said to have had more than 140 million active users posting 340 million tweets a day.
Originally designed for friends, family and businesses to communicate and stay connected through text and photographs, the coverage of social media is something that can be tapped into quite readily. Twitter has already proved useful to the emergency services for sending out vital information like emergency phone numbers or locations of hospitals requiring blood donations. Users have even beaten traditional media in reporting news such as when the US Airways Flight 1549 experienced multiple bird strikes in January 2009 and crash landed in the Hudson River in New York. A passing ferry passenger took a picture of the plane as passengers were evacuating and tweeted it via TwitPic before traditional media arrived at the scene to report the news. Just think what this tool could do for a business!
As the internet is being used more frequently for business, utilising the possibilities for sharing your product information with different target audiences is becoming easier and cheaper. As well as Facebook and Twitter, you can also use LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, blogs and many more.
Unfortunately, many people can become so focused on utilising the different social networks that they attack it in a rather hap-hazard way; posting updates and messages that haven’t been thought through. We say integrate it into your marketing. This way, you will know what you are going to say and when, therefore you’ll also have a better handle on whether it is working for you.
You can encourage your franchisees to utilise social network sites for themselves. They may then be able to generate additional local interest and build relationships with their customers. It is worthwhile to consider some guidelines however, to ensure the brand message is conveyed accurately and that external comments are managed in the most appropriate way. Having a dedicated ‘Social Media Keeper’ at head office is a good option.
In Summary…
Talking to your existing franchisees, building and maintaining trust is the best way to ensure your company continues to flourish. It’s very much a case of keeping an ear to the ground and being conscious of the fact that the best feedback to use within your marketing may well come from those outside the head office who have day-to-day direct contact with the end-customer and portray the brand in the public domain.
If franchisees understand the importance of the marketing you deliver for them, you should find that they are willing to return support as it protects their individual investment, return and territory reputation as much as it does for the overall franchise.
If you wish to discuss your franchise in more detail, or have any queries about the content of this article, please contact me at coconutcreatives.co.uk or call 01725 511673.
Many franchisors jump in allocating their franchise recruitment marketing budget without taking the time to really understand their ideal franchisee profile. Whether you have a brand new franchise opportunity or you have a 100-strong network, taking time out of your everyday workload to research and compile an accurate profile of what your perfect franchisees are like and how they behave during the franchise purchase journey is absolutely invaluable.
Build at least 3 perfect franchisee profiles for your franchise brand
There is never one simple perfect franchisee profile for any franchise brand so whilst a franchisor might think they know what they are looking for in a franchisee, these are likely to be general ideas rather than built on strong research and proof.
If you already have franchisees, select your top 10 performing franchisees and undertake some research to find out more about them; their skills, expectations, background, personal interests, media consumption and their journeys to purchasing your franchise.
If you don’t have any franchisees yet or if you think you don’t have enough to obtain an educated set of results, you can also extend your research to some of your hottest prospects who have been through a substantial amount of your recruitment process.
You will then be able to create at least 3 profiles of what your perfect franchisees look like.
What to do when you know who you are looking for
These profiles are not set in stone and some elements from profile 3 could be found with attributes from profile 2 (and so on) but getting them down on paper will give your franchise recruitment marketing strategy a focus. They can help to navigate around where to advertise and with what messages to make your franchise most attractive to people you already know could have great success in partnership with you.
If you uncover some similar traits then act on them within your recruitment process. Here are just a couple of examples:
Tailor your Discovery Days – if you have lots of franchisees who play golf then host a Discover Day at a golf club in a region where you wish to recruit;
Integrate case studies – prepare a bank of case studies of current franchisees so you have at least one that each of your perfect franchisee prospects can relate to.
Play to your strengths
There will also be some attributes that you know your franchisees must have to just get their franchise off the ground, some key elements that can’t be learnt and may not be found during a 1-1 meeting. Rosemary Bookkeeping is one business where franchisees must be good at networking to start building their client base; they must have the confidence to stand up and introduce themselves at a networking meeting or Chamber of Commerce breakfast club. Rosemary take the opportunity at their Discovery Days to run a mock networking exercise where they can see if the attendees have the basic skills and confidence that will stand them in good stead for business development. Think of what similar qualifying tests you could devise to help you identify if a prospect is perfect for you!
Many people may think that they are your perfect prospects and, for some mature brands such as O2 and McDonald’s, it may be a case of ruling out prospects, rather than qualifying them in, at the beginning of the recruitment process. They may request that prospects provide an evidence-based report on their suitability to be a franchisee and they can rule out those who cannot complete this task.
It’s up to you
The time you take in getting the basics right will pay dividends. Taking a couple of days to assess your perfect franchisee profiles every six months will end up saving you and your franchise recruitment team several hours each week in dealing with unsuitable candidates and give you reliable information on where to target your recruitment budget and with what primary messages.