Franchise Update Magazine Issue IV, 2015 | Page 49
ANNUAL MYSTERY SHOPPING SURVEY
from the vantage point of a candidate.
Google your brand for keywords and
using different cities to see what your
prospects see. Your franchisee presences and reviews play a major role in
how you are perceived, and make the
difference in generating an inquiry or
ultimately awarding a franchise. Focus
discovery on how they will be successful generating customers instead of all
the wonderful things you do to train
and support them.
W
AFDR STATS
• Only 45% of franchisors measure the
percentage of unique visitors to their
home page that convert to leads
• 4,320 average unique visits monthly
• 139 average leads monthly
• Only 37% of franchisors measure
the percentage of visitors on their
information request forms that
convert to leads
FU: Any other thoughts or observations about any of your research?
Johnson: Social media or what
people are saying about your brand
is more important than what you say
about your brand, and it seems to be
downplayed as still being a non-result–producing “nice to have” instead
of a strategic “must have” that is a
major component of the discovery
process. n
Best Recruitment Website Practices
hen Tim Johnson and his associates at FranConnect
set about measuring how well franchise brands were
doing with their franchise recruiting websites for this
year’s mystery shopping survey, they needed a standard to
measure their analysis. They used the scorecard of Franchise
Update Media’s best practices, created years ago and tweaked
and updated continually to keep it relevant to the changing
marketplace and technologies.
“The best practices represent the data point that drove
the score,” says Johnson. “They are best practices because the
most progressive and thriving brands execute on them. Most
of these reflect common sense, can be substantiated, and will
withstand any argument.” The following are the criteria FranConnect used to measure website effectiveness during their
mystery shopping.
1. BASIC SEO (META/KEYWORD TAGS)
Benefits of franchising
Title tags (very important for SEO and social sharing)
• company name only or title of page only
• company name plus “franchise” and same on all
pages or has title of page next to it
• a few unique franchise or business opportunity
keywords
Benefits of company franchise
2. WEBSITE USABILITY
Franchise content accessibility (from home page)
• 3 different links to access franchise page or 1 link
in main and unique button
• 2 different links (1 in main navigation, 1 elsewhere)
• 1 link in main navigation
• hard to find (only at bottom)
Process of learning (how does someone find out more
about the brand)
Effective use of technology—video
• Video testimonials
• Video spokesperson
• Click to call
• Online chat
• Twitter/Facebook/social media links
Overall Site Presence (look and feel)
3. KEY CONTENT
About Us/History
• Dedicated page
• Franchise team listed
Territory map
• Standard map/detailed area
• Map
Investments
• Investment chart
• Mention build-out and franchise fee and royalty
• No investment mentioned
Requirements (what will it take to become a zee)
Frequently Asked Questions
• Solid FAQs with good descriptions and answers
• Few basic FAQs
• None
Testimonials
• Sprinkled throughout site or has a dedicated page
with video, text, pictures, etc.
• At least one testimonial
• None
Industry background and growth
Earnings claims (Item 19 or other)
Franchise award process (how things will happen)
Initial request form
• Short form with contact info only
• Short form with financial qualifiers
• Short form with time frame
• Short form with lead source
Application
Franchiseupdate I S S U E I V, 2015
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