“So what is a landing page and why do franchisors need one? Isn’t it just another web page? I have plenty of those.”
Good questions! A landing page is a web page, but it’s unlike any other page on your franchisor website. The reason? Landing pages have a very specific purpose. They are used to attract highly interested franchise buyers into your sales funnel. Those warm franchise leads are captured by a contact or opt-in form created solely for that page.
Typically, the landing page makes an offer to the lead: download a free franchise e-book, sign-up for my franchising blog or newsletter, or access my exclusive video content on the latest franchise opportunities. The creation of a dedicated landing page with a singular message and a specific call-to-action focuses your franchise lead on your specific offer without distracting them with other elements on the page.
“Ok. Now I know what a landing page is, but how do I get all those potential franchise buyers to my landing page?”
Getting warm franchise leads to your landing page can be difficult, if you don’t have all the necessary components of a successful franchise landing page. Here’s what you’ll need to create a great franchise landing page:
- Data capture form: this is the most important part of your franchise landing page. The information you gather through a form will allow you to follow-up with any potential franchise buyer leads you generate.
- Call to action: create a clear call-to-action (CTA for short). Repeat it at least twice, but ideally it should appear three times — the beginning, middle and end of your landing page. Make sure your CTA incorporates important keywords related to your franchise business. One example of a CTA is: Sign-up today for a free 1 hr session with a professional franchise consultant.
- Special bonus offers: make it too good of a deal to pass up. Dangle enough cheese in front of the mouse and eventually they will bite.
- Testimonials: utilize great quotes from past franchisees and include other credibility builders such as association seals, logos or guarantees.
- Thank you page: a little gratitude goes a long way. Be sure to say thank you after a franchise lead successfully signs-up through your form.
- Google Analytics: information is power. The right analytics can help you dive deeper into your franchise lead interactions. The more information you have, the better situated you are to capture even more prospective franchise buyers going forward.
To illustrate the point further, take a look at this example of a landing page with all the main elements highlighted for you. A similar page could be created to drive traffic to your listing of available franchises.
“Now that I have a great franchise landing page, how do I drive traffic to it?”
When you’re looking to drive traffic to a landing page – for example: a listing of new franchises – you need to utilize a pay per click (PPC) campaign. PPC is a marketing strategy where you bid on relevant keywords – like franchises, franchisor or franchise fees – in an effort to come up near the top of search engine results.
These PPC campaigns will drive potential franchisees to your specially-created franchise landing page instead of directing them to your franchisor website homepage. Driving traffic through PPC to your franchise landing page allows you to measure your conversions down to the exact cost per franchise lead and even down to the cost per franchisee.
“With all those search engines out there, how do I know which one is best for a franchisor?”
You can start a PPC campaign on any number of search engines including Yahoo and Bing. If you want the biggest traffic and the best measurement tools, however, we recommend franchisors use Google and Google Analytics. They simply can’t be beat! Google Analytics provides extremely helpful tracking and conversion codes which can be pasted into your franchise landing page and also on the more important thank you page for your franchise CTA. Google’s tools will make it easier for any franchisor to run a successful PPC campaign.
Here is a glimpse of the behind the scenes mechanics – upon completion of the data form an e-mail is automatically generated asking the prospective franchisee to confirm their e-mail address. They are directed to your thank you page once their e-mail is confirmed. The conversion code on the thank you page is now triggered and counts the franchise lead as a “conversion.” In marketing lingo, a conversion is basically when someone successfully responds to your CTA.
“A franchise landing page sounds like a great tool, but how much is this going to cost me?”
Let’s provide an example of a potential pricing structure for a franchise landing page: if it costs you $1 per click for a particular keyword phrase like ‘franchise agreements’ or “selling franchises” and 100 people click on your link after conducting a search and arrive at your franchise landing page, and if 20 of them fill out the form, confirm their requests by clicking a confirmation link in their email inboxes and arrive at the thank you page with the confirmation code, that would create a 20% conversion rate. The cost for each franchise lead would be figured by taking the $100 in clicks divided by the 20 conversions for a total cost of $5 per franchise lead.
The ultimate goal is to track how many of those prospective franchise buyers actually convert into a franchisee. If 2 out of the 20 franchise leads actually convert, then it technically cost you $50 per franchisee. You would need to evaluate whether the campaign is successful enough to continue depending on how much your franchisor services cost. This is referred to as your return on investment or ROI.
“As a franchisor, does it make sense for me to have a franchise landing page?”
As you can see from the above example, PPC advertising can get expensive. Not only do you have the cost of creating a successful franchise landing page, but you may also have additional costs for video, audio or just persuasive sales copy. Since clicks can add up fast, we don’t recommend using a landing page driven by PPC for inexpensive services or products. Prospective franchisees, however, are going to make a significant investment in your franchises. Based on that potential upside, it’s definitely worth the time and effort to create a great franchise landing page.
If you’re looking for a deeper dive into PPC campaigns and their costs click here for PPC campaign averages. One way to control costs with PPC is to do the necessary homework: research the most effective franchising and franchise keywords and determine upfront what they are going to cost.
“So what’s the bottom line for Franchisors?”
Landing pages are another great marketing tool in the franchisors marketing tool belt. The beauty of a franchise landing page is that it can be tested, tweaked and adjusted accordingly. Following your PPC budget is completely transparent and you’ll only pay when a prospective franchisee looks for, finds and clicks on your franchise offer or CTA. This ensures that it’s truly an interested franchise buyer.
Give a landing page a shot! See how it goes, but make sure to analyze your efforts and determine the ROI of your franchise landing page campaign. If the numbers make sense for your franchisor business, like it says on the back of your shampoo bottle — rinse and repeat!
