For any franchise to succeed, it’s crucial to attract as many high-quality leads as possible. With the right approach to franchise lead generation, you can connect with the right audiences and bring them through the sales funnel.
Here, Ignite Visibility’s Director of Consumer Sales & Marketing, Mark Hite, will review some of the best franchise lead generation strategies to help your brand stand out and help you grow your business.
What’s Covered
- What Is Franchise Lead Generation?
- Strategy #1: Utilizing LinkedIn’s Advanced Targeting Capabilities
- Strategy #2: Hyperlocal Paid Ads for Regional Targeting
- Strategy #3: Hosting Virtual Franchise Discovery Days
- Strategy #4: SEO-Optimized Lead Magnets for Franchise Investor
- Strategy #5: Using AI and Predictive Analytics for Targeting
- Strategy #6: Email and Marketing Automation for Lead Nurturing
Expert Insights on Franchise Lead Generation
To succeed in the long term as a franchise, you must know how to generate franchise leads the right way.
Connecting locally with your target franchise prospects is essential. By leveraging platforms like LinkedIn and coordinating your franchise lead generation strategy with your franchisees, you can acquire more qualified leads and effectively grow your network.
Remember, it’s always best to focus on high-intent leads who are most likely to convert, which will help you make the most of your available marketing budget.
High-intent leads tend to:
- Actively engage with your website to learn more about your brand and how your franchise works, often visiting many informational pages
- Download lead magnets like eBooks and other educational content
- Have buying power
- Have a deep understanding of your brand and an appreciation for it
Action Item: Implement a combination of highly targeted franchise marketing strategies to connect with potential franchisees at the right time and in the right places. With proper management, these strategies will help you outperform competitors and expand your franchise network on both a national and local level.
What Is Franchise Lead Generation?
Franchise lead generation involves getting more potential customers into the sales funnel to convert. To get the most from these efforts, you must take a targeted approach and understand how to effectively reach audiences who are most likely to convert.
Of course, you may wonder, “Who generates leads in a franchise?” Do franchisees generate their own leads, or do they rely on the support of the franchisor? The answer is a blend of franchisors and franchisees.
While franchisors ensure all marketing strategies are aligned and streamlined to meet the brand’s overarching goals and work to connect with potential franchisees, franchisees will be responsible for helping grow each branch of the franchise in its respective location.
In other words, franchisors often perceive franchisees as leads, while for franchisees, leads are end customers.
Through a collaborative effort, franchisors and franchisees can work together to optimize franchise sales lead generation.
Understanding Franchise Leads and Their Journey
Before getting deeper into franchise lead generation, let’s consider what defines franchise leads and the specific journey they take to convert in your franchise growth strategy.
Generally, franchise broker leads are prospective entrepreneurs and investors who want to buy and own a franchise. They’ll express explicit interest in owning and operating a franchise and enter the sales funnel.
The franchise sales lead generation funnel involves the following key stages:
- Awareness: Here, franchise and franchise broker leads will want to learn as much as they can about potential franchise opportunities. They may encounter marketing content or learn about a franchise through expos, word-of-mouth, or other sources.
- Interest: Prospects who become aware of a franchise should develop an interest in the business, at which point they’ll want to ensure that a franchise aligns with their goals and values. In doing so, they could engage with a franchise’s website, read case studies and testimonials from previous or existing franchisees, attend webinars, and review other materials to determine whether the franchise is a good fit.
- Decision: Once interested, prospects will compare and contrast the best opportunities to see which one is most likely going to work for them. Here, they may request franchise disclosure documents (FDD), evaluate finances, and connect with each franchise’s representatives.
- Conversion: When the prospect is ready to make a final choice, they’ll reach the conversion stage, where they’re ready to convert into a franchisee. This process involves selecting and securing an ideal location, finalizing all financing, and initiating training. The key here is for the franchisor to provide plenty of support for successful and efficient onboarding.
Of course, franchise lead generation isn’t without its challenges. Some of these potential obstacles include:
- Low-quality leads who aren’t ready to invest in or own a franchise for various reasons.
- Steep competition in a popular industry, such as fast food.
- The misalignment of marketing and sales teams resulting in disjointed campaigns.
- The absence of precisely targeted lead generation strategies.
- A lack of information to move prospects down the funnel.
Now, let’s take a look at some effective franchise lead generation strategies that can help you overcome these challenges.
Strategy #1: Utilizing LinkedIn’s Advanced Targeting Capabilities
LinkedIn remains one of the best B2B social media marketing platforms for franchises to connect with franchisee leads. Using LinkedIn for franchise lead generation can be cost-effective and highly targeted to acquire new prospective franchisees at every stage of their journey.
Your LinkedIn franchise lead generation strategies should involve organic posts along with precision-targeted ads. Posts could help you connect with new leads as you promote new locations or opportunities. Cultivate new connections with prospects who fit specific criteria like title, experience, geography, etc., and then create automated messaging to nurture contacts until they are interested in scheduling a call.
You should also be running LinkedIn ads simultaneously, since they are high quality, low volume and high cost. LinkedIn Ads allow you to easily select the audience you want to target based on various attributes, including company, job title, industry, and skillsets. The key is to connect with every lead you generate.
Additionally, you can retarget existing audiences with “Matched Audiences,” which can help you reach people who’ve engaged with your brand without converting. As these prospective franchisees come to recognize and trust your brand, they’ll be more likely to convert with future ads.
LinkedIn is also continually evolving with new ways to enhance your marketing. For example, you can use Accelerate, which is the platform’s “AI-driven, objective-based campaign tool” that allows you to integrate your own retargeting lists and other data into LinkedIn’s professional data. The result is the ability to connect with more high-intent leads in your franchise growth strategy.
The improved Campaign Manager also helps you streamline every aspect of advertising, easing planning, measurement, and more to keep your strategies proactive. Tracking is also easier than ever, thanks to automated Dynamic UTMs.
The average conversion rate on LinkedIn is particularly high at 3-5%, and audiences on this platform have twice the buying power of the average audience. These and other advantages make LinkedIn a critical opportunity for targeted franchise ad campaigns. Combined with LinkedIn lead gen forms and high-quality ad media, ads on this platform can easily convert more qualified prospects.
When gauging the effectiveness of your LinkedIn campaigns, there are also certain key metrics to track that can inform you on how to generate franchise leads more effectively, such as:
- Engagement Rate: Tracks likes, shares, comments, and other interactions.
- Conversion Rates: Measures the total percentage of people who sign up using forms or perform other desired actions.
- Cost Per Lead (CPL): Determines the overall cost of lead acquisition.
- Impressions: Displays the number of times your ad appears to measure brand awareness efforts.
- Click-Through Rate: Indicates the percentage of people who click through each ad.
Strategy #2: Paid Ads for Regional Targeting
If you want to learn how to generate franchise leads, you need to make effective use of paid media. The pool of potential investors in the franchise development world is already very small. You want to target all states where a franchise can sell and identify target markets to push extra budgets to.
There are different types of paid ads, including:
- Search Ads: These are paid ads that appear as “sponsored” results in search engines, potentially getting more traffic than their organic counterparts while appearing at the top of search engines.
- Display Ads: In addition, platforms like Google Ads allow you to develop visual ads for your franchise lead generation strategy, including images and videos that appear on various websites or in streaming services.
Use AI Tools to Assist With Targeting
To excel with your ads for franchise sales lead generation, consider implementing some of the most popular AI tools available. For example, tools like BrightLocal and Local Falcon use AI to pinpoint specific demographics, locally targeted keywords, and competitive data that can hyper-target your ads.
Monitor the Geo-Grid View
Regardless of the platforms you use to run your ad campaigns, be sure to regularly track ad performance based on location. You might discover that there are certain “hot spots” with plenty of franchisee and customer acquisition opportunities, while others might be more difficult to target and require adjustments to your campaigns.
Measure metrics like impressions, views, click-through rates, and conversion rates to gauge your ads’ effectiveness for franchise lead generation. Based on the insights you gather and how they measure against your goals, you can determine how to continually improve your campaigns to perfection.
Implement the Latest Features for Hyperlocal Ads
If you want to boost franchise lead generation on Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and other platforms, it’s important to get hyperlocal in your targeting with the right tools.
For instance, you can use geofencing in Google Ads to connect with people within a specific virtual boundary to connect with potential franchisees in a particular area. As people in the right demographic enter this area, they’ll be more likely to see hyper-targeted ads that speak to them.
An example here could include a franchise looking to reach areas where aspiring entrepreneurs are easier to find. Think about where a prospective franchise location would appear, such as a city’s business district, a networking event, or co-working spaces.
As you learn how to use Google for franchise lead generation, you may also make location-based bid adjustments based on which geographical areas you want to focus on more, such as areas where ads get more clicks from high-intent leads.
Meanwhile, for customer acquisition efforts, you could implement local inventory ads (LIAs) that display products available in nearby stores for people searching on Google, which can go a long way in increasing foot traffic to existing franchises.
Conduct A/B Tests
If you want to maximize franchise lead generation on Google Ads and other platforms, A/B split testing is essential.
These tests entail using two iterations of an ad or another piece of content and seeing which performs best, with one element changed between them. For instance, a franchise lead generation strategy might run two ads with a visual or call-to-action change, such as one ad saying “Own a Franchise with Proven Success and High ROI!” while another focuses on another value through “Be Your Own Boss with Our Franchise Opportunities!”
With in-depth analytics behind your strategy, you can truly determine what’s working and what needs improvement as you hone your efforts. Over time, you can optimize your franchise growth strategy as you figure out how to generate leads for a franchise more effectively.
Strategy #3: Hosting Virtual Franchise Discovery Days
Discovery Days are essential for franchisors to connect with potential franchisees. They’re a great way to help franchisors and franchisees determine if they’re a good fit, and it’s possible to host in-person or virtual meetings.
Virtual Discovery Days are particularly popular among both, as they can give franchisees the introduction they need at their convenience while also saving franchisors a lot of money in the process. In-person Discovery Days could require hotels, airfare, meals, and other costs along with valuable time that you and your team could direct toward other tasks.
The key is knowing how to host the perfect virtual Discovery Day to connect with your franchisees.
The following are some interactive ways to go about this:
- Organize virtual tours that can present prospective franchisees with behind-the-scenes footage of your team and franchise at work.
- Host live Q&A sessions that help answer any questions that a potential franchisee may have.
- Share success stories and highlight testimonials from satisfied franchisees, which can greatly influence franchisees and boost franchise sales lead generation.
- Live polls, such as one asking about what matters most in choosing a franchise, be it brand reputation, profit potential, location flexibility, or another factor. Insights gleaned from these polls could help you further determine how to generate franchise leads more efficiently based on what prospects want most from brands like yours.
Take these opportunities to really put potential franchisees in the shoes of a franchise owner, enabling them to envision themselves as a part of your organization.
Effective follow-up communication is also critical for reaching out to Discovery Day attendees and nurturing franchise and franchise broker leads. Some franchise lead generation strategies you can implement here might include personalized thank-you messages in an email or text with a recap of key points, additional insights like case studies and testimonials, retargeting ads, and one-on-one consultation offers.
Strategy #4: SEO-Optimized Lead Magnets for Franchise Investors
Search engine optimization (SEO) is another critical element of franchise lead generation strategies. In addition to optimizing your website with on-page SEO elements and other tactics, you’ll benefit from optimized lead magnets.
Lead magnets are exactly what they sound like: They’re designed to get the right leads with the right strategy.
Tailor your lead magnets to target specific investor personas or stages along the investment journey, which will keep your content relevant and continually increase conversions.
Some of the most popular lead magnets for franchises include eBooks, checklists, and other long-form content that really gives franchisees a sense of what your company is all about.
These materials will include keyword optimization, links, and other SEO components to appear for broad and local searches on Google, supplementing paid ads and other parts of your franchise lead generation strategy.
Tips for Optimizing Lead Magnets
There are many ways to optimize your lead magnets to appear in search results, such as:
- Including relevant and high-volume industry keywords like “franchising opportunities in [location]” and “how to start as a franchisee”
- Getting backlinks to your lead magnets from other authoritative sites in your industry
- Including links to other content on your website to help with interlinking
- Optimizing images and video content appearing in your lead magnet, including alt text that indicates what’s in the image to appear in search results
- Targeting more conversational long-tail keywords with high intent.
- Optimizing for voice search with queries people are likely to say out loud.
- Mobile-responsive designs to connect with leads on any device with a streamlined user experience.
- Appealing to AI-powered search results like AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Ultimately, if you’re figuring out how to generate leads for a franchise, lead magnets will likely take top priority in your SEO branch.
Strategy #5: Using AI and Predictive Analytics for Targeting
To help hone your targeting, you can use AI and predictive analysis to gain a deeper understanding of your audiences.
AI tools can look at existing franchisee data to determine what makes for a good franchisee in your company or in a certain area. Based on certain characteristics, including sales and overall customer satisfaction, you can see who’s most likely to be a good fit for your brand.
For example, HubSpot, Salesforce, and other platforms can track lead behavior, letting you know which leads are most likely to convert. These tools can also generate content and conversational chatbots that can help you both capture and nurture high-value leads.
Some other franchise lead generation strategies and tools you can use for AI-powered targeting and analytics include:
- AI-powered lead scoring and qualification based on machine learning models and past franchisee data.
- Automated virtual assistants and chatbots that connect with prospects and automate franchise sales lead generation.
- Operating on privacy-by-design principles to keep your AI systems compliant with all relevant privacy rules and regulations, including franchise disclosure laws, GDPR, and CCPA. You can also protect franchisee data using data encryption and anonymization.
- Ensuring the tools you use work with your current CRM and other systems to get the most from your data.
At the same time, you need to make sure the use of AI is consistently ethical in all franchise lead generation efforts, with sufficient transparency, the absence of bias in your data collection and usage, and sustained consumer trust among your target audiences.
Strategy #6: Email and Marketing Automation for Lead Nurturing
To simplify your franchise lead generation strategies, automation is integral.
There are plenty of ways to automate the lead nurturing processes as you discover how to generate leads for a franchise more easily.
For example, you can set up email sequences in drip email campaigns to connect with leads at various stages to keep them engaged, sending relevant information such as success stories and other details to maintain interest.
Certain CRM tools can also assist with franchise lead management, such as:
- FranConnect: Many franchises use this platform for its automated workflows, multi-location reporting, and lead tracking capabilities.
- ClientTether: This solution focuses on sales and lead engagement, providing franchises with automated follow-up capabilities and management of the entire pipeline.
- FranchiseSoft: For a suite of franchise-specific CRM features, turn to FranchiseSoft, which offers sales automation and compliance tracking in addition to lead management capabilities.
- Salesforce: You can easily customize this software to meet your franchise’s specific needs as a leading CRM, with AI-powered automation and lead scoring.
BONUS Strategy: Lean Into Franchise Lead Generation Portals
Another way to maximize visibility is to use a reliable franchise lead generation portal, such as Franchise Gator, Entrepreneur.com, or FranchiseOpportunities.com.
These platforms can showcase your franchise opportunities with in-depth details about cost, location, and advantages, forwarding leads generated to your business.
Think of franchise lead generation portals as directories for franchises, supplementing more customer-facing platforms like Google Business Profile and Yelp listings.
Measuring and Optimizing Franchise Lead Generation Efforts
To yield the best possible results with your franchise lead generation campaigns, you need to know how to measure your strategies and determine how they’re performing against your goals.
For one, you should measure some key metrics for evaluating franchise lead quality, such as:
- Lead Source Performance: Find out which channels are getting the most leads in your strategy, whether it’s organic search, paid ads, franchise portals, or another type of source.
- Conversion Rate: See how many prospects actually sign franchise agreements and eliminate any bottlenecks that might be impacting the sales funnel.
- Financial Qualification Rate: Measure the percentage of leads that meet your franchise’s specific financial requirements.
- Time-to-Conversion: Find out how long it takes for leads to sign from initial contact.
- Lead-to-Discovery Day Ratio: You may also determine how many people are seriously interested in your franchise opportunity based on the ratio of leads to Discovery Day attendees.
Work With Ignite Visibility for Effective Franchise Lead Generation
Now that you know more about how to generate leads for a franchise with your marketing, you might want some help to drive real success. As one of the top franchise lead generation companies, Ignite Visibility has plenty of experience with franchise development, with 85 franchise clients spread across more than 2,000 locations.
Our franchise lead generation agency can work with you to incorporate each of the following items in a comprehensive franchise lead generation strategy:
- LinkedIn advertising and other social media strategies
- Precise geo-targeted paid ads
- SEO-optimized website content and lead magnets
- High-quality videos and other Discovery Day content
- In-depth analytics and reporting to help with future campaigns
If you like this idea, get in touch with us today, and we’ll connect you with one of our franchise marketing experts.
