Franchise Marketing Systems

How to Generate Franchise PR

Franchising is a marketing and selling business which many times is driven by publicity and exposure for the brand. Some great franchise systems were successful in their franchise recruiting efforts almost entirely by being effective at developing great PR for the brand. What is Franchise PR? Public Relations is exposure for a brand by using credible sources to publish information and stories on the brand, what makes franchise PR unique is a focus on exposure through resources that are relevant to franchise investors.

One of the primary means for franchise recruitment that Franchise Marketing Systems has found for new franchise brands is to leverage Franchise PR to generate organic leads and develop credibility for the brand. In cases where new franchise brands are able to generate stories placed with news sources such as Entrepreneur, Inc., Money Magazine or others like these, the franchise model is given an immediate boost and sometimes this makes the difference for a successful franchise launch.

What can a new franchise brand do to generate PR and how can you put your franchise in a position to get franchise exposure like this?

First, invest in your brand, look, feel and overall messaging. The cleaner, more professional and consistent your presentation is to the consumer, the more likely that you franchise presentation will be appealing and news worthy. Embrace and announce your unique value proposition. Whatever makes you different and worthy to the consumer will also be important to the franchise investor and everyone needs to be reminded of this differentiator as often as possible and in as professional of a communication as you can. Good differentiators will drive PR and news placement opportunities. Work with a Franchise PR professional. Franchise Marketing Systems has had significant success with several franchise PR groups including Fishman PR, All Points PR, No Limit and The Art Department. Whomever you choose to support your Franchise PR efforts, work with someone who knows and understands the process and has the resources to dedicate to selling the pitch.

One of the things I’ve learned in working with these PR groups is that the Public Relations model is like a sales presentation. The PR Agencies role is to know who to call and then to execute the sales process to get the message in front of the right people who might place the story. Franchise PR is not an accident, it is an intentional exercise that pushes a brand and creates awareness amongst the right people who have decision making power with media agencies. The results of well managed Franchise PR are impossible to argue, leads that are derived through PR close at an enormously higher rate than other lead sources, so it’s work the effort and investment.

Chris Conner

President

Franchise Marketing Systems

Chris.Conner@FMSFranchise.com

Chris Conner: Franchise Marketing

Franchise Marketing Systems, Chris Conner President

At the forefront of any good business model is a great marketing system. Franchising is the art of duplication, so it makes sense that a solid franchise investment offers an excellent franchise marketing system. The best franchises in the world are often closely correlated with the best marketing minds. What effective franchise leaders have been able to do in their execution of a franchise development program is to define a target customer base, build strong messaging to that customer and build a plan to put the brand in front of that customer as frequently and efficiently as possible. In the end it’s really pretty simple, the good franchises have marketing figured out.

When a business franchises, the effect of marketing, good or bad, has enormous consequences. The Franchisor now must be concerned with not only the company’s overall success, but also the success of each franchisee who has invested into the system. The results of a marketing campaign will create a positive or negative ROI for franchisees in the system and ultimately increase or decrease the valuation for the entire franchise business. Marketing as a franchise therefore has exponential importance and requires innovative thinking, strategy and a clear plan of action.

Good franchise brands have a great plan for marketing. Think of the strongest brands in franchising on the market today, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, 7-11, Sport Clips or Anytime Fitness. These brands all stand for something and say something in everything they do. It is clear, concise and always ahead of the consumer curve. They understand what drives their customer and know how to speak to them in a way that they will respond. Dunkin Donuts dropped the reference to donuts in their logo years ago and transitioned to a coffee cup, Sport Clips understood that men wanted a hair care service that was tailored specifically for them and Anytime Fitness gets today’s fast-paced consumer lifestyle and the need for a quick workout solution. All of these brands have great marketing plans where customers and franchisees alike invest in their systems due to the consistency of what they market to their customer base.
Effective franchise marketing starts at the top, but finish at the local level. You can’t have a great marketing plan and at the store level have different messaging going out to the customer. Franchise marketing must be consistent at all levels. The Marketing Fund and Franchisor decision making as it relates to the brand must be in the best interest of the entire system and ultimately be driving bottom line results for franchisees and operating units. The regional cooperative marketing funds should be managed to best leverage regional presence and economies of scale between units in a given area. Local franchise marketing needs to be well-planned, structured and targeted so that the customer’s perception of the marketing message is consistent from top to bottom.
The Marketing strategy needs to be numbers driven. Media placement should be facilitated by the franchisor and the management who should understand the perspective of the franchisee. Ultimately, bottom line ROI is what the franchisee is most concerned with, but the Franchisor should also understand where the franchisee is in their life-cycle of the business. Investing in long-term SEO doesn’t make sense for a franchisee in their first month of business when they need to see cash flow and instant results for their new business. The franchisor should understand how to not only get solid results, but to help the franchisee through all stages of their business’ development. Good franchisors are communicating regularly with franchisees and sharing insight to how best to move the needle on customer acquisition.

Chris Conner and Franchise Marketing Systems work with franchise businesses to design, develop and implement franchise marketing programs. For more information on how to support and grow your franchise marketing mechanisms, contact us: info@FranchiseMarketingSystems.com

How to Franchise: Good to Great

how to franchise your business with Chris Conner

What makes the difference between a good business and a great business? There are so many good businesses out there, why do most of them level off at “good” and never transition to “great”. In our experience working with businesses and helping determine whether a brand should expand through franchising, this discussion and the dynamics of this scenario are reviewed many times over. Really, any business that is even considering franchising tends to be a “good” business. They have proven their model has some merit, their value proposition has some unique differentiation from the rest of the market and the leadership behind the brand has vision for growth and scale. Most of these businesses don’t have what it takes to franchise, but certainly would be considered good businesses by most. These factors are some of the key indicators from our perspective which delineate good from great:

Great businesses have great systems. Generally good “systems” means overall processes, technology and duplicatable processes. A business with good systems operates using numbers and ratios and although the brand may instill emotion, the business operates with very little feeling or thought, it just functions. Evidence of great systems can be found in a business by how technology is used to manage the day to day business. Is there an online ordering system? How does the customer interact with the brand via digital mediums? What sorts of accounting and bookkeeping systems are in place and how accurate are the financial records? What about transaction and customer management technology, is there a system in place that the leadership stands behind and the employees embrace? I once met a successful investor who told me he made a mistake investing in a business one time because he found that they had great technology and state of the art systems, his mistake was not realizing that no one was using the technology. Great businesses leverage systems and use technology to make their processes consistent, customer experiences great and be able to duplicate the business model in it’s entirety.
Great Businesses Have a Brand. “Brand” is so overused that it gets tiring to talk about and hear the word so often, but it does mean something and it does carry weight when considering what makes a business Great. Good businesses have a logo, a website, a brochure and a tagline. Great businesses have an energy that instills emotion and creates a feeling. It is a complete strategy that combines all marketing tools and strategies which unite to send a message to the customer without speaking. A great brand is often confused with something that more people know of or have heard about. In reality, a great brand could be known in a very small market and a no-so-great brand could have more exposure. To build a great brand, there needs to be time, energy and focus put into what the company stands for and understanding what is the true mission of the business. Once the brand is developed, then there needs to be execution to bring the brand to reality and build the tools that appropriately convey this brand to the consumer. What’s the power of a strong Brand? Look at Shinola – a brand developed by extremely brand-conscious and intelligent businessman Tom Kartsotis, who also is the founder of the Fossil brand. Fossil makes a watch that sells for $100 – $150, Shinola makes a watch that sells for $750-$1,000, both are technically manufactured in the same factories using many of the same parts. Shinola has created a brand that instills a feeling and passion in people which in turn gets people to pay 8-10 times more for the same product.
Great Businesses have Great People. Having great people in an organization is positive for the obvious reasons such as more able-bodied leaders and hands on deck pushing the business forward. But what having great people also indicates is that the business and leadership are developing people and supporting the empowerment of the staff. There is a great book by John C. Maxwell called “How Successful People Lead” that references solid leaders as people who develop others and support their success as one of the stages of leadership development. This is not only a skill, but also a willingness to share intellectual property and help others which is ultimately one of the most important characteristics in determining whether a business is Great. Certainly, this plays an enormous role when considering whether to franchise a business as franchisees are the epitome of people looking for support in being developed.

Christopher Conner
Chris.Conner@FMSFranchise.com
Franchise Marketing Systems
www.FranchiseMarketingSystems.com

Franchise Marketing Systems Toronto

Chris Conner, Rick Slater, Canada Franchise Consultants

When Chris Conner originally founded Franchise Marketing Systems, the franchise development work was focused largely in the United States with franchise systems working on domestic growth. The business was new and the overall economy was difficult to say the least in 2009, so Franchise Marketing Systems didn’t have the means to expand outside of the U.S. and through organic growth. As the economy improved, so too did the opportunities for International growth and global franchise expansion work. Mr. Conner was soon on planes to Dubai, Qatar, Canada, Mexico and other International markets supporting brands either coming into the United States or franchising into these international markets.

One market that always seemed to have continuous growth prospects was Toronto. Toronto certainly has always been considered the business hub of Canada and the Canadian economy didn’t take the hit that the U.S. markets had during the recession due to more conservative lending practices during the real estate downturn. Franchise Marketing Systems started with a select group of brands that were based in the greater Toronto market and supported the franchise growth for these brands to initially get some inroads into the market. Defining the legal framework, understanding the marketing and sales channels and just getting to know the Canadian business practices and ways to communicate were all part of the learning process. By 2014, Franchise Marketing Systems was exhibiting at franchise shows in Canada and marketing for over a dozen Canadian brands. Clearly the market for Canadian franchising had opportunity.

In 2015, Chris Conner met a successful entrepreneur who was based in the Toronto market, Mr. Rick Slater who was interested in the franchise business and had developed a successful franchise brand in the past. The two decided to develop a strategic partnership and open an office in Toronto using Mr. Slater’s current staff and facilities. Mr. Conner was quickly aware that the majority of Canadian franchise brands wished to have local Canada-based franchise consultants support their growth. The Franchise Marketing Systems Toronto Office was “opened” and as of December 2015, was located at:

Toronto, ON

Franchise Marketing Systems

118 Eglinton Ave West, Suite 208

Toronto Ontario M4R 2G4

Mr. Conner and the Franchise Marketing Systems development team (www.FranchiseMarketingSystems.com/About) are located in many key markets around the U.S. and now Canada supporting franchise growth and developing new franchise brands. The Franchise Marketing Systems model is a performance based franchise development approach which has supported the growth of many new and existing franchise brands. Franchise Marketing Systems client list (www.FranchiseMarketingSystems.com/Clients)

For more information on how to franchise your business in Canada or to market franchises into Canada, contact Mr. Chris Conner or Mr. Rick Slater:

(https://www.franchisemarketingsystems.com/contact_franchise_consultants/)

Buying a Franchise – Knowing What You Are Buying

Christopher Conner Buying a Franchise My consulting firm, Franchise Marketing Systems helps businesses become franchise models. Over the past several years, I have purchased franchises as part of my work in the industry. It has been interesting to say the least to see the other side of the relationship as a franchisee. Buying a franchise can be a confusing, scary and enormously time consuming process. All of this many times leads to bad decision making as people skip steps and tend to jump into something that maybe wasn’t the best business decision to begin with. The irony of it all is that franchising is by nature a business model that helps entrepreneurs and investors avoid unnecessary risk and skip the learning curve through a proven and validated business model. The buying process provides many of the same benefits just by the simple fact that the franchise legal process requires certain disclosures and information to be presented to a franchisee prior to their making a buying decision. So what can you do in researching your franchise investment to help avoid the pitfalls of a bad investment and find the shining star of an investment you’ve been looking for?

First, do your research. Good business people take their time. Haven’t you heard the saying that Warren Buffett had about his investing strategies, “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” It’s always nice to read things that rich people have said and sound so obvious when you hear them, but the idea here is to look at your franchise investment process as a long term decision. This needs to be planned out, thought through and really understood before you should take action. Do market research, search the industry detail and information to know who is out there and what the consumer market looks like for your potential product or service. If you are going into Tax Preparation as a potential franchise, understand the major players and who is good at what so you know where your brand will fit and what your value proposition would be to the market.

Second, know your rights as a franchisee. The beauty of the franchise investment is that the information is all there for you. Franchise investment law is overseen by the Federal Trade Commission and other state governing bodies, California is the Department of Business Oversight, New York is the New York Department of Law and etc. These governing bodies require that certain information is available to you as a buyer through a Franchise Disclosure Document and that the FDD is reviewed by that particular state’s administrators before the franchise may be offered to people in that market. This means in some cases that the franchise documentation is available through several of the state regulator’s websites and also that the FDD should have been reviewed by the state agency where the franchise is being considered for purchase.

Third, take the FDD to a qualified franchise consultant or franchise attorney to review the document with you and actually provide feedback as to what the franchise offering means to you. Knowing the business and how to read the franchise literature will help you do your analysis. The FDD contains information that relates to other franchisees who are both in the system and who have failed as franchisees. It also will contain information related to the fee structure, initial investment and background on the organizations behind the franchise model.

Fourth, make calls to people who are both in the franchise system and who have failed in the franchise system. There is no excuse! Having conversations….or even meetings with people who have already walked in your footsteps will provide you with the most accurate picture of this franchise investment possible. With the information you have now, you should be able to map out a business model and create a picture of what this franchise is capable of.

For more information on how to buy a franchise, contact Christopher Conner with Franchise Marketing Systems
Chris.Conner@FMSFranchise.com

Atlanta Franchise Tradeshow 2016

Franchise Marketing Systems, Atlanta Franchise Show, Christopher Conner

Franchise Marketing Systems will be sponsoring the September 2016 Franchise Expo held in Atlanta on 9/24 and 9/25. The Atlanta franchise show is one of the countries strongest small market shows and will be this fall’s largest franchise marketing event. The Atlanta franchise show consistently draws a large volume of franchise buyers to the event primarily from the Southeastern United States. In developing effective franchise marketing campaigns, Tradeshows have always been a key aspect to any franchise development model and in today’s technology driven marketplace maybe even more so than ever before.

Tradeshows are the epitome of a solid marketing opportunity from the standpoint that most of the franchise lead generation options and used are web-based, electronic and not conducive to strong relationship building. The franchise Trade show can be a powerful marketing tool where the franchisor is able to meet the franchise buyer face to face, shake hands, discuss the business and make a complete presentation of the franchise’s value proposition. Tradeshows create energy and offer excitement to both the franchise buyer and the franchisor exhibiting at the event. This energy can be leveraged to drive a meeting to a next serious discussion with a higher percentage of the franchise leads and ultimately a higher percentage of closed franchise sales.

The Atlanta franchise show creates a unique opportunity in that the Atlanta market has been a lynchpin in the Southeastern Franchise Market and drives much of the industry trends and growth patterns throughout the region. Despite this being a significant marketing event, the Franchise Marketing Systems pavilion allows franchisors to exhibit at the show for the low investment of $1,700 for a (1/2) booth combined with additional benefits associated with the pavilion arrangement. Franchisors marketing at the show will generally leave the show with 100-150 leads per booth exhibitor providing for a average cost per lead of under $15 making this one of the most economical and impactful franchise marketing events possible.

For more information on the Atlanta Franchise Show or how to take part in the Franchise Marketing Systems Pavilion, contact us. info@FranchiseMarketingSystems.com

Christopher Conner will be presenting at the show on how to make the transition from employee to franchisee in addition to conducting a workshop on how to franchise your business.

Show Details:

Atlanta, GA

Cobb Galleria

September 24th and 25th, 2016

How to Grow Your Small Business

Christopher Conner Franchise Marketing Systems

I am a small business owner, Conner and Associates, LLC, DBA Franchise Marketing Systems, based in Atlanta, GA. I fight the same fight you do every day of every week of every month. Sometimes it seems like all odds are against you being successful and you just can’t do anything right. Government regulations don’t seem to help the small business owner much, more so they favor the big corporations with money for lobbyists. Money is tough to come by as lenders look at small businesses as being higher risk in most cases. All that being said, I wouldn’t change a thing and love every minute of being a small business owner. My business, Franchise Marketing Systems has been fortunate to experience growth every year we’ve been in business. We have definitely had our set backs and trip ups along the way, but in the end, it has been exciting and is exciting to see your hard work come to fruition.

So how do you grow your small business and what can you do to experience the thrill of building something for yourself? First, you need to have a marketing plan. In most businesses it’s pretty simple math to start the process, figure out how much money it costs you to generate new business, what increases in customers do you see when you spend more money on marketing? If you are a service business you can probably come up with a number using math such as, “last year I spent $10,000 on marketing and obtained 10 new clients. Therefore, my cost of new client acquisition is $1000.” Once you’ve determined this number you can come up with a budget depending on how much you would like to grow your business revenues by. As might seem obvious, this is a critical peice of your small business growth strategy.

Now that you have a budget, you need to determine where you are getting your return. Say you spent $10,000, $5,000 on Internet, $3,000 on tradeshows and $2,000 on direct mail, and your clients all came through Internet marketing, your growth strategy should probably focus on web marketing moving forward. By defining your marketing mix, you should be able to generate more business per dollar spent on marketing and see an increase in overall marketing spend efficiency. The marketing mix should always be reviewed on a regular basis to continually analyze where the dollars should be spent and how best to drive customer traffic into your business. If you are wondering, yes, this might require a new job position for someone who could manage the marketing spend and oversee this constantly evolving advertising strategy. One way you can continually track results on this is to assign unique numbers and emails to each campaign in order to find out where the calls/leads are coming from in any given marketing campaign.

When you have the marketing mix somewhat defined, then it’s time to understand how well you are converting these leads and whether your sales people, sales process and overall value proposition are doing the trick. Sales closing rates can vary greatly depending on the industry segment, the price point you sell at and other variables, but you should be able to define what these numbers should look like with a small amount of research. The person who answers the phone, the greeter who meets new customers at the door, the opening introduction given to each customer all will have an impact on how successful the rate of conversion from lead to customer might be. At my company, Franchise Marketing Systems, we have several people who answer the phones, a franchise specialist, a franchise associate, The closer you review these processes and analyze how these portions of your sales process are working, the better you will understand how to effectively grow your small business.

When it “clicks”, you will realize that the ability to grow your business in most cases is directly in your hands and in your control. Only you as the business owner have the ability to make these decisions as to what your budget should be and where you want to allocate your marketing dollars. When you are able to grasp how much in control of this aspect of your business you really are, the opportunities for upward expansion will seem endless and business ownership can be fun again!

Christopher Conner

Franchise Marketing Systems

www.FranchiseMarketingSystems.com

Are you Ready to Franchise Your Business?

Chris Conner Franchise Marketing Systems, Lawsuit

I have spent the past 15 years working with brands who want to franchise their business and grow a brand through the franchise expansion model. Our firm, Franchise Marketing Systems works primarily with start up franchisors and brands who have not offered or sold a franchise in the past, sometimes with mid-sized or mature brands who are in need of additional support for growth. In the several hundred times that I have supported a company going through this process, there are some similar traits to the businesses that really make it in the franchise model and those that don’t.

In a franchise consultation, the first questions that I will ask start with financial viability of a model. How ready are you to present your business as a potential investment opportunity to a buyer? Will someone be impressed with the numbers and the concept and the opportunity for themselves to see a strong ROI on their investment? Obviously, the good models can show a stronger financial record than the weak franchise concepts.

Questions come up such as, “Mr. Conner, I haven’t generated any revenue yet, but look at this market and how much it is growing, is my business ready for franchising?” The answer is probably not, a franchisee needs to see that their is an opportunity for them realize a return and believe that you as a franchisor have the tools and experience to get them there.

The Franchise Marketing Systems consultation then goes into detail surrounding the business model, operating platform and technology that is infused into the business. The tighter the operating model, procedures and structure of the business, the easier it is to replicate.

Again, Questions like, “Chris, what is a CRM and why do I need any technology, I just write it down, won’t the that work?” And again, well, probably not. If you are doing everything on your own as a one man show, this works, but when you start to scale the business through franchising it generally doesn’t work. How can you support someone hundreds of miles away if you don’t have technology which provides information needed to tell you how that franchisee is performing?

The franchise interview then focuses on competition, market opportunity and what the consumer market looks like. Obviously, the better mousetrap you have the stronger the franchise opportunity. The market for consumer demand needs to be expanding as well in order to validate a franchisee investing in the business. The increasing demand and market potential for your product or service should be at the root of why you are franchising your business. If statements are made during the consultation such as, “Mr. Conner, the market has shrunk a lot since people started going to Amazon to buy my products, it’s getting harder to compete when there’s less pie to go around,” it’s obviously going to make for a less compelling franchise offering.

Franchising isn’t for every business, it requires a carefully planned strategy, marketing approach and business model to be successful. Take the time to review the model, market and franchise industry before you step into the market. There are many free consultations available with companies such as mine, Franchise Marketing Systems, do interviews, talk with other franchisors and get a clear understanding as to whether your business is ready to be franchised.

For more information, email me!

Chris.Conner@FMSFranchise.com

Leveraging Technology to Franchise Your Business

Businesses that turn to franchising as a way to expand their brand into new markets generally have a significant learning curve they must overcome as they learn how to manage the responsibilities of franchising and franchise expansion. A new franchisor is like a new business owner who is learning the ways, processes and steps they must take to deal with customers, overcome obstacles and effectively grow the business. What’s new about franchising to most business owners is the responsibility that comes with scaled growth and opening new locations in new markets with the addition of Franchisees in the fold. With the never-ending expansion of technology in all aspects of business and life, franchising certainly has seen it’s reliance on technology and systems increase exponentially as well. Perhaps in franchising more than most businesses, technology has taken on a new meaning as to how critical good tech is to the successful growth of a franchise.

Technology is a broad term, it could mean mobile technology, web marketing, operating systems, sales management systems or financial management systems, so where does it fit into franchising? The truth is everywhere, but there are some key categories that every franchise system should be acutely aware of in order to best take advantage and scale more efficiently.

Sales and marketing technology – every good franchise system needs to have a solid franchise sales CRM in order to manage the large influx of leads and effectively oversee the development of these leads into franchise sales. Typical franchise sales take in excess of 150 leads to convert, a good technology platform is critical to the success of this model. We like Leadmaster, which Franchise Marketing Systems worked together to create a franchise specific CRM (http://www.franchisemarketingsystems.com/services/franchise-crm/).
Loyalty marketing and franchisee lead management systems – every good franchisor has a lead development and loyalty marketing platform that is inherent to the franchise brand. This should be leveraged and provided to franchisees in order to help them grow and develop their customer base. We like Scorpion’s franchise platform (https://www.scorpion.co/franchise-marketing/)
Operations and logistics management software – a good system needs a management tool to operate the day to day business efficiently. A technology platform that allows franchisees to manage the day to day schedule, oversee territory management and facilitate the logistics of inventory and supply management. Different systems work for different industry segments, but Franchise Marketing Systems likes ServiceCEO for service platforms (www.ServiceCEO.com) and for retail operations, Revel (www.RevelSystems.com)

For more information on how to incorporate technology into your franchise model and more effectively franchise your business, contact us:

Christopher Conner

Chris.Conner@FMSFranchise.com

Franchise Marketing Systems – Dallas Franchise Show

Dallas Franchise Show Franchise Marketing Systems Chris Conner

Franchise Marketing Systems will be exhibiting at the Dallas, TX franchise exposition on 5/14 and 5/15/2016. The Dallas franchise show is expected to be a strong showing as the Dallas market is considered to be one of the strongest in the U.S. for franchise industry growth and expansion across a variety of franchise fields. The show is put on by the National Franchise and Business Opportunities Show group who conducts 15-20 shows per year throughout the U.S. and Canada.