Tips and Tricks for Launching a Successful and Strategic Franchise Development Website

December 15, 2016

In today’s increasingly technological world, an attractive, effective, and consistently updated franchise development website is a mission-critical component of your brand’s franchise development efforts.

By John Wuycheck

Earlier this year, we decided it was time to overhaul Blimpie’s web-based franchise development efforts starting with a new franchise development website. We began by building a web development and content marketing strategy with our agency, 919 Marketing. Nearly a year later, we are proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together as blimpiefranchise.com has become a state-of-the-art franchise development website that is consistently updated with content that showcases the brand story and the emotional and financial value of becoming a Blimpie franchise owner.

However, Blimpie is just one of many brands that needs to create or overhaul a franchise development-based online presence. In today’s world, it’s no longer effective to simply showcase the franchise opportunity as a tab/webpage found on the consumer or client-facing website. All websites are (or should be) built with the target audience in mind, the potential customers and franchise prospects, and most brands’ targets are usually distinctly different.

Therefore, it is advisable that all franchise brands build a development website as a completely separate entity from the consumer/client-facing website. And after recently going through that development process, here are a few tips I’d share with any franchise executive who is considering partnering with an agency to build a new development website:

Think Long-Term and Work Backward

Like any effective marketing or sales program, success starts with a well-thought-out strategy. Work with your agency to conduct research on your franchise prospects. Who are they? Where are they searching for information online? What keywords are they prioritizing? Use this information to build your game plan for navigation, content and everything else that goes into the website visitor experience you want to deliver.

Prioritize Consistent and Engaging Content

Work with your agency and/or web development partner to focus on where and how frequently site visitors will be able to access the content that will influence their decision. Of course, this all starts with the words and images of which the website itself is comprised.

For Blimpie, it was important to put the brand’s story and products front and center on the homepage as our key value proposition is centered around the brand’s 50-plus years of experience making subs. From there, all of our content/navigation was built specifically to satisfy the needs of our franchise prospects who are eager to review more about the franchise opportunity, request more information and check out the media center.

Speaking of the media center, it is vital for any brand to use its development website to contribute to the conversation that’s already happening about their brand online. With Blimpie, we’re doing this in a variety of ways, including:

Showcasing the benefits of owning a Blimpie franchise in our free Blimpie Franchise Information Report.
Highlighting some of our top PR hits with major national outlets such as USA Today, Fox & Friends, and Entrepreneur in our Interactive Media Coverage Brochure.
Consistently updating our Franchise Opportunities Blog with podcasts, blog posts, articles, etc., directly related to the Blimpie franchise opportunity.

Don’t Forget Calls to Action

Don’t be afraid to consistently, yet tastefully, encourage site visitors to share more about themselves and engage with you directly. Yes, you certainly want to make it easy for your site visitors to learn more about your brand and the franchise opportunity, but it’s also imperative to make it easy for them to follow up with you and take the next step toward owning a franchise. Here is what we recommend:

Put a phone number and an information form near the top of the homepage as some site visitors would prefer to cut to the chase and get started.
Use active copy in the main navigation to help site visitors figure out where to go next. For example, we used “review the franchise opportunity” and “request franchise info” to steer our site visitors in the right direction.
Provide site visitors with an incentive to share their contact information. In our case, anyone who fills out the Blimpie Franchise Inquiry Form automatically receives the Blimpie Franchise Information Report.

Humanize Your Franchise

Your brand name and/or legacy may pique someone’s interest, but what pushes someone to the point of sale is the human element behind the brand. Each location belongs to a specific franchisee who has a story to tell. So, when creating content and photos for the site, showcase emotion.

Show how your franchisees and customers interact and enjoy their day. Focus on portraying the unique and exciting moments that happen in stores each day. It’s a great idea to include franchisee testimonials and let the franchisees do the talking.

Additionally, use photos of in-store interactions between store owners and customers as opposed to stock photos of products and storefronts. This will make your website, and your brand, more relatable and show your site visitors the kind of lifestyle and happy moments they’ll be able to enjoy if they become a franchisee.

Other Great Franchise Development Websites

As I said, we’re not alone and we believe some other franchise brands have done an excellent job building an online presence for their franchise opportunity. Here are some examples:

Planet Smoothie:For any brand thatwould like to see another example of a Kahala Brand highlighting the value of the franchise opportunity with powerful content, check out planetsmoothiefranchise.com.
Golden Corral: For established brands interested in building a new website devoted to the franchise opportunity, see goldencorralfranchise.com.
Beef Jerky Outlet: For younger brands not quite ready to invest in a separate franchise development website, visit beefjerkyoutlet.com.

Building websites is no easy task. It’s particularly difficult to build a website in ways that reach and attract potential franchise owners. However, in today’s increasingly technological world, an attractive, effective, and consistently updated franchise development website is a mission-critical component of your brand’s franchise development efforts. Like anything else, the key is to simply get started and surround yourself by experts who know what they’re doing. That sounds like basic advice, but it’s definitely the key and too often ignored.

Good luck to all of those franchise executives embarking upon any franchise sales web development projects in the coming months. There will certainly be bumps along the way, but I assure you that the journey should be a lot smoother if you follow the tips above — and it will be well worth it when more qualified leads start heading your way.

John Wuycheck has served as Kahala Brands’ Senior Vice President of Development since September 2014. He has worked for a wide variety of successful and nationally-recognized franchise brands, including HomeSmart International, Edible Arrangements, and Seattle’s Best Coffee.