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Customise your message to recruit franchisees

Sarah Stowe

Leads and prospective franchisees don’t want to be treated like a number. Here’s how personalisation can kick-start your recruitment process.

According to an article by CMO, “personalised emails deliver six times higher transaction rates, but 70 percent of brands fail to use them”.

Businesses of all sizes have some access to data but few know how to use it. If you are looking to increase the volume of leads that come to your business, here is how you can get started with personalisation as part of a strategy to recruit potential franchisees.

Employ the right team and technology to help you

Having the right team and technology can help ensure you are working smarter, not harder in your recruitment. Are you missing sales opportunities due to lack of personalisation in your emails?

Research shows that personalised emails generate better engagement and conversion rates yet few businesses have the in-house resources to employ segmentation in email marketing.

How is your list segmented? Is it by cold, warm and hot leads? By existing franchisees and prospective franchisees?

Every customer segment will be at different stages in the sales funnel and require different information to meet their needs. You’ll need the CRM and technology that will automate the delivery of personalised content.

Gathering insights about your franchise leads, their journeys and the platforms you’re using to communicate with them is the foundation to success in creating a personalised end to end customer experience. But this is only a starting point.

Use existing data to tailor and target your offering to the right people

Most brands have access to data that can give them insights into their existing and prospective franchisees. Start by taking stock of the data available.

Here are a few places to start:

Use analytics to deliver content to the right people at the right time

If you are only looking at, i.e., unique sessions, bounce rate, time on site within Google Analytics, you are probably missing opportunities to nurture prospective franchisees. Most businesses have access to analytics yet few use it as part of their recruitment strategy.

For example, if you know a sizeable amount of traffic comes from Queensland and there are franchise opportunities available there, you can take them to landing pages that speak specifically to Queenslanders interested in purchasing a franchise. With platforms like Google Analytics 360 Suite, businesses can deliver personalised content to drive leads further into the sales funnel. Use analytics to help you deliver content to the right people at the right time.

 Speak to existing franchisees to identify the key triggers that led them to join the business

A deeper understanding of your prospective franchisees is key to successful personalisation. This is typically done via user interviews. We typically recommend hosting user interviews with six existing franchisees and six prospective franchisees to identify their needs, wants, aspirations. The qualitative data you receive from user interviews will give you insight into how to angle personalised content.

For example, if you’re looking for successful, hard-working business people to joining your franchise network, you need to understand what’s driving them towards self-employment and why they’re interested in a career change. Once you understand these inherent motivations, you can tailor and personalise your content to speak to these aspirations and motivations.

Below is an example of questions to ask during user interviews:

  • What are your top three responsibilities in life at the moment?

  • What was it about your previous job that wasn’t fulfilling your needs anymore?

  • Is there anything that influenced you to consider a career change?

  • What are your long-term goals/aspirations?

  • What factors influenced you to join this specific franchise?

  • How long did it take for you to decide to join the franchise? Why?

Once you’ve gathered your insights, you can position your brand messaging to speak directly to your target audience’s core needs.

For example, if you find that the main driver for existing franchisees to join the network was to achieve more of a work-life balance, ensure your messaging communicates how your franchise will help a prospective franchisee fulfil that need.

Now that you understand the who and the why, you need to understand the when, where and how. In other words, now that you know what messages will speak to your target audience, you’ll also need to know where to seed the messages to reach them at the right time.

Questions specific to prospective franchisees:

User interviews with existing franchisees will give you insights on the motivating factors that influenced them to join your franchise network. However, it’s also important to understand how your prospective customers conduct their day to day life. This will enable you to reach them at the right time and place.

Interview six more users that reflect your target audience who are not existing franchisees:

  • Explain to me your typical day

  • Where do you consume information and media?

  • When do you typically consume this information?

  • Where are you when you’re consuming this information?

  • How do you consume this information? (smartphone, desktop, iPad)

  • Can you show me where you would go on this website to find information about owning one of our franchises?

Once you’ve collected your qualitative and quantitative data, you can combine the two to map out your business’ customer journey. This should highlight opportunities for you to interact with your prospective franchisee on a personal level before they have even entered your website, on your website and after they’ve left your website.

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