10 Best Ways to Market your Franchise

Franchising is a marketing and sales business, it takes a focused effort to build your franchise sales pipeline and establish your franchise network. Today, we will give you the best tips based on our experience on how to market your franchise.

Here are the best 10 tips that should help you get started when you first market your franchise business:

  1. Build Your Online Presence Online
  2. Work Social Media
  3. Redo Your Marketing Materials
  4. Be Content Savvy
  5. Understand the Conversion
  6. Redo your Franchise Logo
  7. Understand How Critical a Franchisee Is
  8. Leverage Your Connections
  9. Go to Franchise Events
  10. Work With Franchise Brokers

1. Build Your Online Presence Online

Today’s market for everything is transitioning online. Amazon and Netflix aren’t the only ones who are transitioning entirely to online business, the entire world has gone online. Find ways to add to your presence and make the investment. Add your franchise and your brand to as many listing sites as you can find, do it professionally and spend the time to get your brand in front of people who are already looking for a business. Read further below for a local franchise marketing guide.

Online Presence
Build your Online Presence Online to Market your Franchise

2. Work on your Social Media

Everyone’s talking so much about social media that I’m sick of it. That is….sick that I didn’t invest in Facebook when everyone else did. Social media is here to stay and it is part of our lives, business, and everything. You need someone on your team who is driving traffic, formulating your message and pushing your franchise brand through social media. It is easy to mess this up with corny, ill-prepared social media messages, it needs to be done right or you risk looking like an MLM.

3. Redo Your Marketing Materials

Trust me, people can tell you built your brochure on a word document with stock images. Just because you PDF’d the presentation doesn’t mean that it looks professional. Put the time and money into a presentation that is well thought out, professionally done and will actually warrant someone calling you back or responding to your email follow-up. Everyone is visual today, you need a good graphic designer who can present the franchise the right way.

4. Be Content Savvy

The web is becoming more competitive for everything, particularly in the franchise space. You need to be a thought leader in your market. If you sell shoes, find something to write about shoes every week, make it engaging, and interesting and spend the time coming up with thought-provoking ideas that will build your followership. Haven’t you heard the saying, “write about it and they will come”?

franchise funding options
Be Content Savvy to Market Your Franchise

5. Understand the Conversion

Marketing is a multi-step process, don’t be good at getting the person’s attention and bad and getting them to contact you. You are wasting your time on the prospecting part of marketing if people come to your site and don’t give you their contact information. Build tools that are compelling, offer something to the visitor and give them a reason to want to get to know you.

6. Redo your Franchise Logo

Someone said this to me the other day and it was like a brick hitting me in the chest. My pride was hurt, but after looking at it, the comment hit home. I bet the same is true for you, have a professional come up with something that means something and says something about your brand, not a 99Designs logo contest winner you didn’t put thought into.

DynamicDental New Logo
DynamicDental New Logo

7. Understand How Critical a Franchisee Is

Franchisees deserve to criticize the brand they are about to invest in, that’s their right when they are the ones making the investment. Read through your website, find the spelling errors, and know your presentation thoroughly enough to not lose a deal because you spelt “friend” wrong on your brochure.

8. Leverage Your Connections

The largest single category of franchise sales takes place through referrals (38%). This may seem obvious for the large franchise brand that is driving referrals in by the hundreds because they have locations on every street corner, but you would be amazed how many times your vendors, friends, relatives, associates and others you know will be the early on franchise investors in new franchise systems as well.

Talk to people and present to them, it’s worth the time even if you feel embarrassed trying to sell your buddy a franchise.

9. Go to Franchise Events to Market Your Franchise

Franchise tradeshows and exhibitions can be expensive to take a booth out and exhibit your brand, but you can always go and attend these events. The cost typically is very reasonable, just time and effort. The people at these shows, events and networking opportunities can probably help you either find a franchisee or they might actually be the franchisee.

Franchise tradeshows and exhibitions

10. Work With Franchise Brokers

Particularly when you are early on in your franchise system’s growth, you need all the help you can get from those who are willing to work on a commission basis with you. Franchise Brokers spend their own money to generate leads for you. Yes, you should pay 50% plus commissions if you are a newer franchise, it makes all the sense in the world, to win with royalties and franchise validation.

Contact us today at 800-610-0292 to learn more about franchising your business.

Why are Sports Franchises increasing in Value Fast?

We sometimes forget that the professional sports teams we watch on Television every week are virtually no different than the Mcdonald's or H&R Block franchises down the street.  The owners tend to be billionaires and there is obvious exclusivity associated with professional sports franchises. Still, in the end, it is the same concept, same system, and same franchise platform that makes the business model so effective. 

In recent years, the valuations for basketball franchises have led the way in the news with great increases in valuations, football is not far behind and most other professional franchises seem to also have amazing values associated with the franchise businesses.  They are growing each year in their value and there are many different contributing factors that are driving this trait.

As a pretty regular person like myself, the idea of owning a professional sports franchise seems like a pipe dream, but the factors that are driving growth in these segments can be valuable to understand when considering investing in other franchises and in positioning your own brand for franchising.

What are the statistics for professional sports franchise growth?

1. The Values of NBA Teams are increasing exponentially fast, up 74% from 2015 to 2016.

2. The average NFL team value is $2 billion, up 38% from 2014  (The top team is Dallas Cowboys at $4 billion – incredible considering Jerry Jones purchased the entire franchise for $140 million)

3. In 2015, Major League Baseball teams eclipsed the record, $1.2 Billion Average Valuation with the Yankees leading the way at a $3.2 billion value

What Makes Them Valuable and such an appreciating asset?

There are a few key elements that make these sports franchises so valuable to investors. First off is the structure that is used and the consistent business model in place in each league.  It is in place to carefully protect the integrity of the brand itself and the overall association with the teams, such as the NFL, MLB, and NBA.  The teams have a structured, rule-driven platform they must operate within to stay compliant with league rules and structure.  The business model is based on a diverse revenue stream combining Advertising Dollars, Sponsorship revenue, Royalties, Ticket Sales, and Endorsements.  The leagues generally share this revenue generously with the teams and the teams support the league's initiatives to grow the fan base.

As in any franchise system, the value comes down to a number of key elements:

The training involved is also held to a higher standard. They provide upper levels of experience with the end consumer and make sure that all processes are of value to those who participate in the franchise's end result. They strive to provide a consistent experience for the end consumer when it comes to watching the games or visiting the fields.

When it comes to branding, these leagues excel in virtually every category, they genuinely are marketing and branding experts and support the franchisee’s business and customer growth.  You’ll find TV marketing, revenue sharing, and even royalty sharing from the ongoing advertising and marketing plans.

Each league is dedicated and consistent in providing Goodwill and charity work – providing value to the community and always communicating to the public why and how the franchise is involved in the market.

Franchisees benefit by showing they are willing to give back to those who support their team so it’s important that goodwill is part of the franchise process.

A few other factors that make the value grow even more is that the supply of professional sports franchises is extremely limited and exclusive.  Each franchisee must be approved as to who will be permitted to join the franchise network and must pass careful scrutiny as to whether they will be approved for franchise ownership.

With the growth in demand for the services and the product, the demand for the franchise model is growing quickly, and the valuation of the franchise increases.  It is the ironic scenario where when a franchise brand increases the demand from the consumer, the franchise value increases as well.   It is a case of a franchisor dedicating their efforts to driving the consumer business and in turn creating demand for the franchise investor.

If you’re considering a franchise of your own or franchising your business, be sure to call our office today to see how we can help you choose the right one for your future.  Although you may not be considering a billion-dollar investment in a professional sports franchise, the concept, key elements of the franchise relationship and strategy should be the same for any franchise investment.

By looking for key criteria in a franchise model before you make an investment into the system, you will significantly increase your odds of a positive and successful franchise endeavour.

For more information on franchising, Contact Us at [email protected]

Splash and Dash Franchise

In 2009, Dan Barton approached Christopher Conner with a unique concept.  Mr. Barton had been in the gym business and had successfully worked his way to the top levels of management with the Gold’s Gym franchise organization.  He was CFO at the time and was making a transition into the pet industry. 

It was a risky move for anyone to leave a global franchise organization as CFO and step into an entirely new business.  The new concept was to be Hollywood Premier Pets, which was in effect a failing pet retail business located in Palm Desert, California.  Mr. Barton had purchased the business and was instituting his new marketing model to help the business come back to life and franchise the model out to other pet stores that were ailing from similar circumstances. 

Dan Barton would be at the time, the first client for Chris Conner and Franchise Marketing Systems. Mr. Conner had to be sold on the concept and being that Franchise Marketing Systems was a new business at the time, it was imperative that the first client be a success.

What was of particular interest about the Splash and Dash model was the residual, repeat business that was created through customer acquisition and loyalty programs.  Mr. Barton had effectively leveraged his experience in the gym business, famous for memberships and recurring billing and utilized the model for the pet industry.

The pet retail business was plagued with what is the primary issue for most retail businesses, how do you get customers in the store often enough to achieve critical mass volume, cover your overhead expenses and ultimately see a consistent profit?  The Splash and Dash concept fixed this dilemma.  In three short months of owning Hollywood Premier Pets, it became clear that the model worked.

The first order of business was to develop a brand that could be scaled globally.  The pet business was big, but it was getting significantly bigger every year, Splash and Dash had what it took to be a global brand, but Hollywood Premier Pets did not.  The organization transitioned entirely to Splash and Dash and the franchise model was created to offer the platform to other stores.

With Franchise Marketing Systems, Splash and Dash developed a strategic plan for franchise growth that focused initially on marketing to existing pet retail and grooming businesses.  This was what all parties involved saw as the low-hanging fruit and immediate opportunity for the pet franchise model.  These businesses were already in the industry and for the most part, were struggling, the value proposition of Splash and Dash would be extremely relevant. 

The franchise fee structure, territory model, support programs and infrastructure were designed to support this growth and allow for duplication of the Splash and Dash model.  

Next was the packaging of the Splash and Dash franchise model.  The systems needed to be documented and organized so that virtually anyone could pick up the franchise operations manual and understand what steps 1 through 20 were and become Splash and Dash of their market. 

The business model was heavily focused on developing clients and therefore had a strong sales component.  Dog Groomers and pet retail owners traditionally were not good salespeople and needed heavy training programs in place to teach, train and then maintain their sales model. 

Good systems were developed to be able to manage the sales and understand what metrics should be in place so that a store could be gauged as to how successful they were in implementing the pet services franchise system.  Branding, marketing, collateral and all associated materials were then developed to be used in all of the Splash and Dash franchise locations and to add value to franchisees.

Then, Franchise Marketing Systems developed the marketing, business development and franchise sales models to go out into the market and recruit new franchise owners.  Within a very short time period, it was obvious that Splash and Dash was a brand with the ability to grow quickly as a Master Franchise was sold in Australia, another in Canada and by the end of the first year of franchising, 23 units franchisees had purchased the model in the U.S. 

New strategic initiatives, technology and management were put into place to support this growth and manage the growing number of responsibilities that came with this growth. In 2014, Mr. Conner and Mr. Barton held strategy meetings again for the purpose of redefining the model which had reached almost 100 locations. 

The new version of the Splash and Dash franchise was a from-the-ground-up retail franchise model that could be offered not only to existing pet industry professionals but also to entrepreneurs who wanted to get into the pet retail and pet services franchise market. 

Today, Splash and Dash have over 100 locations of the business model in operation around the world. Mr. Barton has written books on the industry and is asked to speak at pet industry conventions on how to market and build your pet business more effectively.  Splash and Dash continue to add new franchisees on a rapid scale and the organization has been proven to be one of the industry leaders in the entire pet services franchise market.  Splash and Dash is a perfect example of franchising allowing a new business model to scale quickly and capture market share.

 

For more information on how to franchise a pet business, Contact Us.