Shining the Light on Fundamental Franchise Lead Generation
Unlocking High-Quality Leads with Proven Tactics and Insights from Industry Expert David Martin
Table of Contents
Generating high-quality leads in franchise development feels a lot like finding a needle in a haystack. The landscape is constantly shifting, with new strategies, tactics, tools, metrics, and budgets emerging at a wild pace – a full-time job for several people. Guessing games cost not just money but also time and opportunities, leading to the recruitment of unsuitable candidates and brand stagnation.
At the heart of franchise development marketing lies a singular, crucial goal: to generate high-quality leads that move the recruitment team forward. Franchises that dedicate themselves to mastering the art of lead generation, allocating the right resources, and refining their marketing processes ultimately win.
So, what does it take to develop a robust, productive lead generation strategy for franchise development?
David Martin, CEO of David Martin Creative Services (DMCS) and an expert in the field, “sheds light” on effective franchise development lead generation.
“In the early days of franchise development marketing–when we all started–it was, hey, let’s run some ads in Wall Street Journal. It’s a much more complicated world now.”
David Martin, DMCS
High Costs of Missteps vs. The Rewards of Mastery
The path to lead generation features plenty of hazards. The cost of guessing about your lead generation strategy can be huge, quickly becoming one of the most significant expenses in franchise development. The risks? Wasted resources, time, and money, along with a pipeline filled with the wrong candidates. This wastes the precious time of recruiters and kicks up discouragement within the franchise network, making it feel like the brand is stuck in a rut.
Conversely, franchises that crack the code of effective lead generation can expect to see their investments bear fruit. Success includes more efficient use of money, a pipeline full of suitable candidates progressing further in the discovery process, and a marketing team that is not just busy but productive, focusing on the most fruitful channels.
David Martin’s Blueprint for Success: “Get Your House in Order”
Drawing on his deep background in franchise development, David Martin advises all brands to “get their house in order.” In other words, how is your marketing foundation? The temptation is to fall for the silver bullet – the tool, agency, or trick that promises a quick return with little input. This is a trap nearly every brand falls for when it comes to lead generation.
Without a solid marketing foundation, the silver bullet approach is doomed to fail.
Instead, David outlines a basic plan to help you build a solid foundation for success in the competitive landscape:
- Understand Your Candidate’s Experience: Franchise development marketing requires a holistic, consumer-centric approach to uncover blind spots and optimize the candidate experience. In the same way that working with a system like ROS® helps you uncover gaps in your sales process, exposing the “dark areas” and pieces that aren’t working during marketing touchpoints is a solid first step.
Mystery shopping your marketing and recruitment is a great first step to shine light on messaging–the words you use to position your brand’s value proposition–or marketing gaps.
David recalls working with a brand. The first thing he did was visit the franchise recruitment website and test the phone number. It went to voicemail, which is not a great first impression.
Test your marketing funnel—ads, your website, portals, emails, and social media. What are your candidates experiencing - Consider Low-Hanging Fruit: Lead generation doesn’t have to cost a lot out of the gate. Referral programs, LinkedIn content, and email marketing can be quite effective and low-cost for a brand. Before running expensive ads, many brands will test messaging and efficacy of the creative work on organic social media, then use the highest performing content as ads. This saves resources and dials in your work before spending big bucks on Google or LinkedIn ads.
Don’t neglect organic traffic to your website. Does your website load quickly? Do the photos and graphics appeal to your ideal candidate? Do you communicate the pain points that your candidate is looking to solve, or do you talk about how great your brand is?
Ensure your website experience offers enough depth to get visitors to fill out the form and convert. - Continuously Review and Optimize the Process: Your leads are precious and need to be nurtured correctly. Tracking your cost per lead across all channels allows for granular analysis of what works and what doesn’t, enabling data-driven decisions that refine and enhance the marketing strategy over time. Quality of leads is more important than quantity, so you’ll want tight alignment between marketing and sales.
Testing, learning, and adapting are essential for staying ahead of the curve and ensuring that lead-generation efforts remain effective and efficient.
“You must take a molecular approach to lead generation, meaning every form field is analyzed. Everyone who enters the system is analyzed to determine how they got to us. What campaign did they come to us on? How is the quality? What was the step one call like? Are they moving forward? Did they schedule a step two call? Then we can take that information and reverse engineer and go, ‘THAT campaign is hitting.’”
David Martin, DMCS
Pro Tip: Marketer Ricky Deakyne shared his thoughts on creating your Ideal Candidate Profile. This is a critical component of understanding your candidate and a major portion of your marketing foundation. Read the article here.
Integrating Marketing with Sales
It’s crucial to remember that even the most sophisticated marketing strategy cannot pull the weight of a lacking sales process. The ultimate goal of lead generation is not just to attract candidates but to convert them into franchisees. This necessitates a seamless integration of marketing and sales, ensuring that once leads are generated, they are nurtured and guided through the discovery process with expertise and care.
David Martin’s insights focus on the path to achieving this synergy, aiming for a holistic approach where marketing and sales operate not in silos but interconnected with data-driven insights. This strategic alignment is the key to not just generating leads but delivering high-quality, valuable prospects and future franchise family members.
“No amount of marketing can fix a broken sales process or bad operations or a bad model.”
David Martin, DMCS
This is where a system like ROS® is invaluable. It provides the necessary structure to analyze data and refine the sales process and funnel, making sure marketing and recruitment are in alignment. A robust system will let you go back to each step to see what is working, what needs improvement, and where the hard work needs to happen. The focus is not just on lead quantity but quality and prospect experience.
Good marketing, complemented by a robust sales process, provides the foundation for a thoughtful lead-generation strategy to flourish. With the right approach, resources, and expertise, the mysteries of lead generation are revealed, giving a clear path to success that is both achievable and sustainable.
It’s important to remember that franchise development demands more than volume and guesswork. It’s about honing your strategy with precision and integrating marketing intentionally and thoughtfully with sales. David Martin’s insights spotlight a holistic approach, emphasizing the importance of laying a solid foundation and continuously refining your approach by examining the results.
When you take time to understand your ideal candidates’ experience, leverage low-cost tactics like referrals and social media, and fine-tune your processes along the way—you’re not just generating leads but nurturing relationships that fuel sustainable growth.
Roadmap/Checklist
- Conduct a SWOT analysis: Identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats gives you a clear picture of your marketing’s current state, uncovering gaps you might not even know you have.
- Secret shop your brand: Figure out the holes from a candidate’s perspective, giving you an idea of your success in maintaining a seamless candidate experience.
- Confirm uniformity across all channels: Ensure consistent branding, messaging, and culture to build essential trust and credibility with all potential leads.
- Get your house in order: Review existing messaging and content to ensure they’re current and relevant, keeping the brand fresh and engaging.
- Focus on key channels: Google Ads, social media ads, and SEO are effective marketing channels. These help you drive targeted traffic and improve lead quality.
- Utilize brokers as a channel: Leverage broker networks to expand reach and tap into new markets.
- Build a robust content strategy: Focus on developing valuable and relevant content that showcases your unique expertise, letting you engage and educate potential leads to foster trust.
- Incorporate earned media and PR: Gain media coverage to enhance visibility and reputation.
- Use portals selectively: List on relevant portals to increase exposure to targeted audiences.
- Implement a good referral program: Encourage referrals from existing franchisees to generate high-quality leads at a lower cost.
- Develop an email marketing program: Send regular valuable and relevant email campaigns to keep your brand top of mind and genuinely nurture leads.
- Audit your website: Ensure your website performs well and guides candidates effectively.
Track key performance indicators: Monitor cost per lead, website traffic, and lead nurturing to provide actionable insights to optimize marketing efforts.
Contact the ROS® team today to learn how we can help you understand and leverage better lead generation.
Connect with Davd Martin on LinkedIn.
The Recruitment Operating System® (ROS®) is a proven system to help franchise companies implement and execute a predictable, repeatable, and sustainable franchisee recruitment program.
Based in Temple, Texas, we work with brands worldwide.
