Micro conversions are interactions that can either appeal to new potential franchisees or optimize the end customer experience, making them integral elements in franchising.
Identifying and tracking micro conversions for franchising can help you expand your franchise network while continually improving your national to local marketing strategy.
Here, you’ll learn more about how to use micro conversions from Mark Hite, Director of Consumer Sales and Marketing, with detailed examples, effective tools you can use, and strategies that work specifically for franchising efforts.
What’s Covered:
- What Are Micro Conversions in Franchising?
- Macro vs. Micro Conversions
- Different Types of Micro Conversions Specific to Franchising
- Micro Conversion Types for Local Franchise Marketing
- How to Track Micro Conversions for Franchising
- Franchise Development
- Local Marketing
- Franchise-Specific CRM Software
- Customer Engagement Platforms
- Optimizing Franchise Growth Based on Micro Conversion Data
My Expert Opinion on Micro Conversions for Franchising
Just based on the fact that the global cart abandonment rate is a staggering 70.19%, businesses of all types need to use highly effective strategies to move people along the buyer’s journey. Certain bottlenecks could prevent people from converting to customers, and you need to eliminate them as much as possible, whether you’re a franchisor targeting prospective franchisees or the owner of a franchise location looking to attract end customers.
Enter micro conversions, which can help you streamline conversions and turn more leads into happy customers or partners, giving your franchise a chance to really grow. I find these tools to be essential in getting those initial leads that might be a little reluctant to move more swiftly toward a full conversion. Just a few key conversions here or there could make it much easier to bring people to the bottom of the sales funnel.
When using micro conversion for franchising, determine which type of audience you want to target and which types of actions they’re likely to take at the beginning of their journey. Using various tools to help you set these up and track them, along with knowing how to measure micro conversions, can help you get the most from these assets.
What Are Micro Conversions in Franchising?
A micro conversion is a small initial action that a franchise’s target audience takes to move them toward a macro conversion, e.g., a sale or partnership. You can use micro conversions for franchising to connect with franchisees or franchise customers, hooking them in with interactions that drive interest.
Ideally, your micro conversion base would be highly efficient at moving people from those first touchpoints to the macro conversion. After all, you want to minimize friction across the customer journey and minimize the distance between attracting leads and macro conversions.
For example, a micro conversion targeting a franchisee could entail encouraging prospects to complete a download, sign up for a webinar, or consult with the franchise for more information about franchising opportunities.
Meanwhile, end customers could encounter micro conversions enticing them to locate a franchise near them after landing on the franchise’s main website. Another micro conversion targeting customers could get them to join a loyalty program.
In the end, a solid micro conversion base will ease the transition from lead to customer, ensuring people don’t stray from your brand after that first connection.
Macro vs. Micro Conversions
With a better understanding of micro conversions for franchising, you should also consider macro conversions.
While the micro conversion is that starting point (or series of them) where you bring people into your funnel, the macro conversion is the ultimate goal. Every micro conversion you include should lead to that endpoint.
Different Types of Micro Conversions Specific to Franchising
There’s no shortage of micro conversion types you can use for your franchise marketing strategies. However, the conversions you choose will depend on your audience and the macro conversion you want to achieve.
Micro Conversion Types for Franchise Development
If you want to use micro conversions for franchise development, there are plenty of creative ways to go about incorporating them. Here are some examples to get you started:
- Completing an online query form – Once potential franchisees visit your website, you could encourage them to complete an online query form, either within your landing page content or with a lead magnet like a popup window.
- Newsletter signup – If you have an email newsletter, this opportunity would be great to get more franchisee candidates onto your email list for continued engagement. Newsletters could detail updates to your franchise or certain opportunities for franchisees. Check out the example below curtesy of Omnisend:
- Clicking a “Learn More” CTA – Whether on your website or another platform, you can include a “Learn More” button that franchisee audiences can click to take them to more informational content.
- Watching a franchisee success story – Inspire prospective franchisees with videos crafting a story of one or more franchisees’ success, with direct testimony from franchise owners.
- Downloading a franchise info packet – Your franchisees will want to know as much as they can about your franchise and what it’s about, from its history to its business model and the benefits offered to franchisees. You can provide all of this information in a downloadable packet, eBook, or another format.
- Viewing franchise investment FAQs – Interested franchisees are also likely to have many questions about your business and franchising opportunities, in which cases you could direct them to an FAQ page or section that answers some of the more common questions.
- Booking a discovery day meeting – Discovery days are among the most effective tools you can use to connect with prospective franchisees. Include CTAs allowing candidates to schedule a discovery day meeting, whether virtual or in-person.
- Trying an ROI investment calculator – Make sure your franchisee audiences know how much revenue they can expect in exchange for the initial costs of owning one of your franchise locations. A calculator can be a convenient and customizable way to do so.
- Following social media channels – Include buttons linking to your franchise’s social media pages on your website’s footer, in emails, and other touchpoints to get potential franchisees to follow you on Facebook, Instagram, or other platforms.
- Attending a franchise webinar – Hosting webinars is another great way to inform and encourage franchisee candidates, giving them a platform to learn the ins and outs of franchise operations while giving them the chance to ask questions in Q&A sessions and interviews.
Micro Conversion Types for Local Franchise Marketing
If your goal is to convert customers to drive sales for a specific franchise location, the following are some ways to do so using micro website examples and other strategies:
- Signing up for local promotions or events – When one of your franchise locations has a promotion or is either hosting or participating in a local event, advertise these opportunities with clear CTAs to sign up and attend.
- Clicking “Get Directions” to a nearby location – To help people find a franchise location near them, include a convenient “Get Directions” button on your website for each location, which you could power with Google Maps.
- Filling out a form for local services – Give potential customers the ability to easily request local services with fast and convenient online forms.
- Adding items to an online shopping cart – If you operate a hybrid franchise comprising an online store and physical locations, make it easy for potential customers to add items to their cart. If the customer doesn’t make a purchase at that time, follow-up reminders could get them to come back and complete their orders.
- Downloading a local coupon or discount – Any time you have a sale going on at one or more of your locations, generate some downloadable coupons or discounts for these events, or include codes that people can save for their next purchase.
- Booking an appointment online – If your franchise offers appointment-only services, make it easy for your audiences to schedule an appointment directly on your website, through social media, or other channels. Check out this booking procedure illustrated below, curtesy of Prototypr.io:
- Engaging with local social media posts – In your social media posts, include a line or two asking people to like, share, or comment on the post, which could help drive more engagement. You could then interact with each commenter, further helping you establish a more personal connection with audiences.
- Leaving a review on Google or Yelp – After customers make a purchase or engage with your services, politely ask them to leave a review on Google or Yelp, whether through your website, emails, SMS text messages, or other formats. The image below illustrates a few differences between the two review platforms:
- Joining a local loyalty program – Include CTAs to get more people to join your company’s loyalty or rewards program, clearly highlighting the incentives for doing so.
- Downloading a franchise’s mobile app – Does your franchise have a mobile app? Ask people to download it across your marketing platforms for even more brand engagement. According to one survey, nearly one-third of respondents were more likely to make a purchase through a mobile app over in-store or website shopping experiences.
How to Track Micro Conversions for Franchising
To get the best results from your efforts, you must also know how to measure micro conversions, including what tools or ideas are good to track micro conversions at every stage.
At the same time, not all micro conversions are easy or important to track to gauge campaign success. So, which is the best example of a micro conversion that’s worth tracking?
To begin with, prioritize those conversions that are most important to your franchising efforts, including trackable downloads of informational materials or clickable CTAs across platforms.
Once you’ve chosen the conversions worth tracking, you can use various tools and strategies to effectively measure all of the critical data around them. In turn, you can determine how well each conversion is performing and figure out which steps to take to optimize them for even better performance.
What tools or ideas are good to track these micro conversions, exactly? Let’s look into some examples for each of the following:
Franchise Development
For franchise development purposes, you can track micro conversions using customer relationship management (CRM) platforms that work best for franchises, including HubSpot and FranConnect.
These and other tools can help you track conversions from potential or existing franchisees in your sales funnel.
Check out this comparison between some of the best CRM platforms of 2024, courtesy of Zapier:
Local Marketing
When tracking conversions for local marketing with specific franchise locations, you can use Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager for click tracking and event setup. Keep in mind that today, all conversions count as “events” according to Google, making these items the key to measuring your efforts.
To begin with, you need to set up an account on Google Tag Manager to begin tracking conversions, followed by connecting your franchise website to Google Analytics.
Within Google Tag Manager, you can then set up events as “triggers,” which will connect with your tags to indicate when a person has completed a micro conversion.
Google Analytics will then be able to keep track of conversions with clear metrics, including clicks.
Also, you can use Google Analytics to fully visualize your funnel from micro to macro conversions. The goals you set can help you establish funnels to track campaign progress.
Goals in Analytics may include:
- Destination – The particular URL that visitors go to on your website.
- Duration – The length of time a visitor spends on a page.
- Pages per session – The number of pages each visitor views on your site.
- Event – Each time a user triggers a labeled event
Franchise-Specific CRM Software
As you track your campaigns’ progress and map the customer journey, you can use solutions like HubSpot for Franchises, Salesforce, and FranConnect to track franchisees or customers, seeing where they fall off on the path to macro conversions.
If you identify any bottlenecks, you can then work to eliminate them and keep people moving through.
Customer Engagement Platforms
In addition, there are numerous customer engagement platforms available to monitor conversions and progress.
For instance, Mailchimp can give you in-depth insights into your email campaigns, including newsletter subscribers, open rates, clicks, and more.
Meanwhile, Zoho CRM is another relationship management solution to help you establish and nurture relationships with your customers until they reach the desired macro conversion.
Here are some additional tips to guide your tracking:
- Set the right goals. To excel with micro conversions for franchising, you must set goals for them that align with your overarching franchise objectives, such as converting leads into profitable franchisees or keeping existing customers loyal.
- Categorize all micro conversions by franchise lifecycle stages. These stages could begin with initial acquisition, followed by onboarding and continuous engagement.
- Choose key performance indicators (KPIs) that work specifically for franchises. For example, consider what counts as a qualified franchise lead vs. a converted franchisee or customer, and factor those into the metrics you track, including clicks, views, and sales.
Optimizing Franchise Growth Based on Micro Conversion Data
With the help of detailed analytics and reporting using tools like Google Analytics, you can determine what’s working and what needs improvement in your conversion efforts.
To optimize the performance of micro conversions for franchising, it’s best to use A/B testing on both local and national levels.
A/B testing involves running two versions of the same conversion with a single different element, such as a visual or message. When running each, you can see how each performs with analytical data.
Consider what the data says about how your conversions are performing—as an example, you might see high clicks on a “Get Started” link for franchisees but minimal form completions on the next page, which could indicate that your page or form design is the issue.
On the local level, franchise locations could see high “Click to Call” conversions but far fewer in-store visits, indicating a need to follow up with customers more diligently.
Effectively Create and Track Micro Conversions for Franchising With Ignite Visibility
By properly incorporating micro conversions into your franchise marketing efforts, you can more effectively move people toward total conversion, but you need to know how to measure micro conversions to get the best results.
For help generating, integrating, and tracking micro conversions for franchising, you can always count on the experts at Ignite Visibility.
Our franchise marketing team will be able to help you:
- Determine which micro conversions are most likely to connect with audiences
- Set goals for each of your conversions that align with your franchise objectives
- Measure conversions to gauge performance
- Continually improve conversions to streamline the sales cycle
- Integrate micro conversions into a holistic franchise digital marketing solution
Like that idea? Contact us today to learn more about what our professionals can do for your franchise.
