Yea, me either.

But it’s only the 13^th and I have 352 days left in 2012 to make it happen.

This is a question you should be asking your 2011 dead leads. (Okay, maybe not the skinny or spiritually enlightened part but certainly the rich part.)

Chances are your dead leads woke up on January 1^st and wrote down a New Year’s Resolution that THIS is the year to realize the dream of business ownership.  THIS is the year things are going to be different.  THIS is the year to take risks.

January is the time to reach out to these folks.  Tell them resolutions aren’t just for blog posts, refrigerator doors, or facebook walls.  They are for dreamers, entrepreneurs, and winners.  Be Bold. Inspire. Give them a reason to re-engage.

Include a testimonial from a franchisee that signed up last January and how their life has changed.

While I am on the topic of resolutions, add the following to your To Do’s:

• Update testimonials
• Change your portal copy
• Revive your franchisee referral program – they’ve forgotten all about it
• Send a survey to your franchisees – find out what has changed
• Send new franchise brochures and holders to all you retail locations
• Hold a webinar in the evenings or on a weekend
• Refresh your Discovery Day presentation – it’s stale
• Get a list of new validators, give your 2011 guys a break

I will say it again.  Be Bold. Inspire.  Give them a reason to re-engage.  You have about 90 days before we’ve all forgotten our life goals and are counting the days until Spring Break.

Just like you and I, millions of Americans will sit down to a Thanksgiving feast next week.  For some of us the experience is just like the Hallmark movie of the week, for others, it’s a little bit more like a Griswald feature film.

If you part of the latter, you may find yourself checking your smart phone more times than the day of your next Board Meeting.  Which is why, against all reason, Thanksgiving weekend is a great opportunity to communicate with your leads and prospects.

• You WILL receive leads on Thanksgiving.  These folks are information seekers, so give them what they want.  Set your auto responder to be very informative, include links to a recorded webinar, brochures, videos, etc.
• Don’t expect them to remember on Monday.  I’m not sure if it’s the turkey coma or the black Friday shopping, but don’t expect to engage these candidates via phone.  Continue to push electronic information to them through the end of the year.
• Send a holiday message out to your entire lead database.  Again, give them something to read and engage in during their weekend downtime.  This may be the first time they will have an opportunity to actually READ what you’ve been sending them.
• Acknowledge their state of mind with appropriate creative. Something along the lines of…You’ve got 45 days left to make your 2010 year resolution of business ownership.

Gobble Gobble

Often times in lead generation we need to change lanes in order drive the momentum of lead flow.

Sometimes this is as simple as changing the creative message, sometimes it’s pulling an “old school” tactic that we do because (quite honestly) it’s what we’ve always done, or sometimes it’s testing an entirely new media.

As an entrepreneur working in an industry of entrepreneurs, this behavior is a little easier for me than others. So I wanted to post a link to an article of GREAT, innovative companies, who had to change lanes to reach their current success: Click Here to Read More

Let this inspire you to try something new. Can’t think of anything?  Reach out to your various vendors and ask, “What new an innovative programs do you have?”.  I am always surprised by the answer and even more surprised at the low cost test campaigns.  Simple put, change lanes and change your momentum.

One of my early mentors in franchising always reminded me that football games are won in inches not yards.  A franchise lead qualifier gives franchisors that extra inch needed to hit sales goals.

Recently one of Frandeavor’s clients put a lead qualifying team in place, and miraculously the quality of their franchise leads improved! As much as I’d like to take credit for implementing a secret strategy increasing the quality of franchise leads overnight, the truth is the qualifiers did all the hard work.  Snapshot of metrics are as follows:

(Note: 100% of the leads included in the below metrics came from portals.  Metrics would increase significantly for high quality campaigns such as seminars, email blasts, XM radio, etc)

Within 120 days:

% of raw leads contacted increased from 2% to 9%

% of raw leads to Discovery Day increased from 1.46% to 2%. This may not sound like a huge increase.  However, annualized over 12 months, our super client will see 30 more candidates at Discovery Day.  Assuming a 50% closing out of Discovery Day, this will add 15 new franchisees to the system.

Bottom line, if you are looking to increase the quality of your lead generation strategy put a lead qualifier in place.

• Leads will be called quicker.
• Leads will have a clear understanding of the next steps.
• Sales Directors will perform at a higher level, focusing their talents on candidates who are engaged in the process.

Just this week, my phone rang twice with a question I’m hearing more and more. Franchisors want to know, “How do we generate leads in small markets?” For whatever reason, this seems to be the hot topic of the week.  Well, it just so happens I know a little bit about this, as I spent 14 punishing months on the road hitting hotspots like Bowling Green, KY; Billings, MT; and Waco, TX.  I learned a ton, and here’s what I know for sure:

• Uncle Joe needs to vouch for you. Once you identify a target market, reach out to three key members of the community: The Banker, The Commercial Real Estate Broker, and The Mayor. As you begin to work leads in this market, candidates will reach out to their friends and relatives for feedback. The more you can network in the community, the more successful you’ll be.
• Farm (no pun intended) a location. Candidates in small markets know the area inside and out. By identifying a prime location, you establish yourself as an expert and give the candidate a clear vision of where their business is going to be. Oftentimes, you can work together with the landlord to hang an “own your own (insert your name) franchise here” banner. I’m always surprised how effective this lead-generating tool can be.
• Sunday afternoons are still about lemonade and reading the Sunday paper. As a result, half-page newspaper ads are an effective way to generate leads. Tailor your creative to the audience and leverage the prime location you’ve secured. Make sure to pepper the ad with franchisee testimonials from other small town markets.
• Like molasses in winter. Know that candidates in small- to mid-size markets take their time evaluating a business opportunity. Adjust your sales cycle and allow the candidates to establish a pace that is comfortable for them.
• Look ‘em in the eyes: If you are serious about developing smaller markets, make the time to visit candidates face to face. No only will it give you credibility, it will reinforce the support they can expect from their Franchisor.

Interested in learning how Frandeavor can help you generate leads? Contact Christine@Frandeavor.com.

Why? Simply put, because they hit the road.  Hitting the road and presenting your franchise sales opportunity in designated markets is the single most effective way to generate leads and close deals in target markets.  Couple of key benefits:

• Controlled growth: Where you grow is as important as when you grow and how fast. More often than not, franchisors award franchises where they have leads. This results in opening franchises in B & C markets before major markets are mastered. Ultimately, pulling down average unit volumes in exchange for minor top line sales growth.
• Looking a candidate in the eye: Even in today’s world of social media, blogs, and interactive websites, candidates still buy franchises from people they like and trust. Showing up in a market builds creditability and creates trust between the sales person and the candidate.
• Sense of Urgency: Using the seminar strategy to present a limited number of opportunities to a room full of candidates creates a sense of urgency as candidates petition to be awarded the prime locations.

Having executed hundreds of franchise sales seminars, the FRANDEAVOR team can assist you in all aspects of planning a franchise sales show. Contact us today at Christine@frandeavor.com or call 949-498-2611.

Yesterday I sat down to sketch out a lead generation plan for a small start up franchisor. With a small monthly budget, I found myself having to reallocate dollars originally intended for SEO/SEM.  Since leads generated by the franchisors website are far more qualified than other lead sources, I found myself asking, “How can I still focus on SEO without allocating significant dollars”?  After looking back at what FRANDEAVOR has achieved for Snipits.com (44% increase in website traffic), I focused in on the following tactics:

1. Internet Press Releases – Submit monthly press releases to webwire.com. Webwire will push the press release out to multiple PR and news websites for indexing. A couple of things to remember in drafting your press release: content needs to be news worthy, include target key words, and link key words back to your website.
2. Blogs – Add a blog to your website. Each blog posting adds to the number of website pages reviewed by the search engines. The more blogs you post incorporating your target key words the better your optimization. In addition, you can reuse blog content for article submissions on industry sites. Make sure to include a bio and a link back to your website.
3. Social Media – Trying to get your arms around social media can be challenging at best. It’s easy to feel like you are running all over the place without any direction. Think of Social Media as a branding tool. It’s an extension of your brand – just like the sign on the front of your building. Create profiles on facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn with key brand information including photos, website address, and up-to date content.
4. Participate in Media Sites: Remember the more times your URL is posted out in the World Wide Web in the same context as your key words, the higher your website will rank.  YouTube and Google Video are great sites to post newsworthy video supporting your brand. If you aren’t comfortable with a video recorder, post a PowerPoint slideshow to slideshare.com. (Hint: use stats, graphs, and lots of photos in your presentation). Tag all of the above with your key words and URL.

To quote an over used cliché, “boot-strap SEO… less than $300, seeing your website on the first page of a Google search… priceless!”

Interested in having FRANDEAVOR take a look at your lead generation or franchise sales process? Contact Christine@frandeavor.com or 949-498-2611 for a free consultation.

This month I took on a special lead generation project for a major sub franchise (for those of you who know me, yes it is the same major sub franchise that I gave the better part of a decade to).  Our goal was pretty simple, generate as many leads as possible, stay on budget, and oh yeah try and come up with something new.

With my proposal in hand, I went to one of the major franchise portals. (No, I didn’t actually have to speak to the devil to get an appointment).  Working with a web portal is about as far from “new” as I could get.  However, I took advantage of a new service many of them are offering: an opportunity to send an email blast to their database. Using the portals database of prospects, I sent out an exclusive offer to 120,000 prospect email addresses.  Huge results!  The email blast yielded over 1000 leads within a week.

Couple of things to keep in mind in a portal email blast:

1. Confirm how many blasts are going out in the month. You may not get a straight answer but you don’t want your blast going out on the heels of another brand.
2. Get everything the portal promises in writing, this is still a new service for most and they don’t have all the terms worked out.
3. Content: the portals are not writers and they aren’t experts on your brand. Stay active in the creative development of both the email content and landing page.

If you are interested in having FRANDEAVOR manage an email blast on your behalf, please call 949-498-2611 for more information.

I sold a franchise to a Unicorn. Yep, last week I closed a lead that was generated from a blog posting: AKA: Social Media. We’ve all heard stories of mythical leads generated by “free” postings on blogs and social sites, but until last week I hadn’t actually seen one.

If you are like me, you’ve got your twitter account, Facebook fan page, linkedin profile, but how do you convert these medias into active live leads?

1.     Make sure your website is rock solid. All social media efforts point in one direction, straight back to your website.  As a result, your franchise offering needs to be clear, easy to navigate, and compelling. Don’t waste one dime or one minute on social media until your website is powerful enough to convert any traffic into a lead.

2.     Social Media is not free. You need a staff member and a brand champion to lead your social media efforts. This person needs to be a skilled writer, fluent in the language of social media, and they need to be an authentic FAN of your brand.  You need to pay for their dedicated time in executing your social media plan. Don’t assign your social media efforts to the intern or the receptionist; assign it to a key member of your team.

3.      Know your target franchisee. You’ve got to know everything about your target franchisee. By identifying where your target prospect shops, listens to music, and gets their news and hobbies, you can easily target the right blogs and social sites to engage in conversation.

4.     Finally, be authentic.  The great thing about social media is that it’s the people’s media.  It’s not sponsored by Coke, or littered with pop ups.  Social Media is like-minded people sharing ideas on a given topic.  As a result, if you post a sales pitch or canned response readers will see right through it. Be passionate, be relevant, and you’ll become a member of the community.

If you’d like more information on lead generation, please visit our website at www.frandeavor.com. 

Many inexperienced Internet marketers inadvertently rely on a “spray and pray” approach getting their message out to the public.  What is “spray and pray” you ask?  Just like it sounds; “spray” as many banner ads and impressions as your budget allows then get on your knees and “pray” for clicks.  Our clients demand a more sophisticated campaign and often ask, “Is there a strategic way to position Internet banner advertising or are all campaigns based on the “spray and pray” method?”

The answer is yes……. and no.  Even the clever boys from MAD MEN will tell you that frequency and number of impressions are key elements to an effective banner ad campaign.  In order to overcome the diversity and fragmentation of the average Internet user, franchisors must run a high number of impressions to hit the right user at the right time and earn the click.  Because we all surf the net at all hours of the day and easily jump from site to site, the more sites you are on the better.  Add the complexity of communicating a franchise opportunity in a small 720 x 80 leader board and clearly more impressions provide a greater opportunity for a response.

However, if praying for results doesn’t equate to a real business strategy, taking the following steps can dramatically increase the effectiveness of the campaign:

• Secure your banner ads with an agency that brokers large volumes of Internet advertising. They will be able to get you the best rate (i.e. more “spray” for your buck.)  These large agencies often have a think tank that monitors the effectiveness of campaigns on a daily basis. This will allow them to fine tune the number of impressions released daily to ensure the lowest ppc and cpl. In addition, they often times have bonus inventory you can test on alternative sites.
• The banner ad is only the calling card; the landing page is where the magic happens. If you don’t have a strong landing page, save your money for more traditional ad campaigns.
• Run your banner ads on nationally recognized websites that will help secure brand awareness and validate the franchise offering.  These national websites should be viewed as strategic partners.
• Know your prospect profile. The more info you know about your typical franchisee, the better your banner ad placement will be.
• Make sure your agency understands the difference between franchise recruitment and the consumer side of your business.  Look to finance and lifestyle websites vs websites in your designated category.

Christine Mudd – founder of FRADEAVOR

Follows us on Twitter at twitter.com/frandeavor