Bach to Rock named best franchise recruitment website by Franchise Update; Chem-Dry, Christian Brothers Automotive, and DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen also receive “best of” recognition
Franchise Update has named 4 franchise recruitment websites developed by Franchise Performance Group among the nation’s best — and one of the sites was named the absolute best by judges at this year’s Franchise Leadership & Development Conference in Atlanta.
The top honor went to the franchise recruitment website for music school franchise Bach to Rock (www.bachtorockfranchise.com). Honorable mentions went to carpet cleaning franchise Chem-Dry (www.chemdryfranchise.com), auto repair franchise Christian Brothers Automotive (www.christianbrothersfranchise.com), and remodeling franchise DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen (www.dreammakerfranchise.com). Congratulations!
Liz Fulghum designed all four sites for Franchise Performance Group, and three of the four sites were written by FPG lead writer Dan Hieb. The winner was co-written by FPG writers Ellen Margulies and Linda Bryant. Thomas Scott of Brand Journalists managed the projects.
While an average franchise recruitment website converts about 2% of its visitors into leads, FPG clients regularly exceed 4%. Here’s what makes these sites strong.
Franchise recruitment websites are the linchpin of an overall lead generation strategy
Bach to Rock’s franchise recruitment site, bachtorockfranchise.com, was named the the top franchise recruitment website in the nation at the Franchise Leadership & Development Conference.
What do buyers want?
What’s your story? The website ultimately has one purpose: to make the case to a qualified franchise buyer about what makes your opportunity unique, profitable, sustainable for the long haul, necessary to the customer, and smart place to invest time and money.
A smart website creates pull demand, meaning qualified candidates who want what you offer will find you, learn enough to become intrigued, and then reach out to speak with you. Geeks call it the “unique visitor to lead conversion ratio.” Back to Rock, Chem-Dry, Christian Brothers and DreamMaker all have great stories to tell, and by providing a wealth of information, they are able to build trust with visitors who are hungry for content that will help them analyze the franchise opportunity and make a decision about whether or pursue the business. FPG research shows the average franchise buyer (not the average visitor) spends 50 minutes on our sites, and reads more than 30 pages. Your story needs to be told with great copy, intelligent graphics, and video. Consider your website a multimedia version of the executive summary of a business plan. But it should read like a compelling brand story. These sites all deliver what buyers want: a deep dive into the franchise opportunity that allows them to answer key questions before they leave their contact information to learn even more. Transparency and great storytelling builds trust, which encourages people to provide their contact info, and is a major reason the sites have high conversion ratios.
Then, what does Google want?
The franchise recruitment website of Christian Brothers Automotive was named one of the best in the country. Six sites received awards. Four were designed by FPG.
Technical excellence matters a great deal. The site should be properly structured, with clean code that is easy for Google and other search engines to index. The site should also make strategic use of keywords that candidates are using as they do their online research into your brand and others. Most importantly, the website should deliver content that is relevant that is valuable for your audience.
There are myriad SEO techniques that can be used to improve rankings in Google, and FPG puts these techniques to use, but the most important technique is also the most straightforward: Write great content that your audience values. As Google continues to tweak its algorithms to deliver better results to users, the company’s goal is always to deliver relevant results. Here’s Google’s advice: “Give visitors the information they’re looking for. Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your homepage. This is the single most important thing to do.”
Think about your website this way
- It’s a lead generation tool. Almost everyone, regardless of how they originally connect to the brand is researching your business opportunity online, and they will get your story either on your website, or worse, off your website … reading streams of content and creating a brand narrative you don’t control.
- It’s a lead conversion tool. A well told story on your website shifts the candidate’s attitude from “Leave me alone. I just want information and I don’t wanna talk to you and you can’t make me” to “When can we speak?”
- It’s a lead nurturing tool. Actively engaged franchise candidates keep coming back to learn more and see what’s new and what they may have glossed over.
Think about it another way
A strong website converts unique visitors to leads at 4% or more. A poor website converts unique visitors at the industry average of 2%. Put another way, a good website doubles lead flow which translates into double deal flow from the same source.
A bad website is a deal killer. It’s like sending your potential leads into wood chipper.
Extending the power of your franchise recruitment website
Once you have a franchise recruitment website that is search-engine optimized and converting well, there are a wide array of lead generation strategies you can use to drive additional traffic to the site to grow your sales pipeline.
Want to learn more or get started on a new franchise recruitment website? Fill out the contact form at the upper right to get in touch with Franchise Performance Group.
Franchise recruitment websites are just one part of what FPG does to help brands grow, to learn more, download our Playbook for creating a franchise sales breakthrough.