Deliver A Consistent Flow of Referrals for Your Franchise Development Website

By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights

October 9, 2024 — Inbound inquiries to your franchise development website yield more informed prospects who demonstrate intent – they are aware of you, and want to learn  more. How can you get more of these referred visitors? 

Cost per lead is to many a key decision factor when evaluating franchise directory websites (portals), assuming quality standards are met. But leads submitted at franchise  directory websites also result in substantial referral visits to franchisor websites, in addition to being a significant source of leads submitted at development websites, as we most recently reviewed in May 2024.

Two-thirds of leads from franchise portals result in additional ROI through referred visits to your franchise development website, in addition to the leads they provide.

After aspiring business owners submit inquiries at a franchise portal, only a minority end their searches there. The vast majority of prospects who are exposed to and inquire about your brand go on to continue their research while awaiting your response.

Consistent with our earlier looks at the referral value of portals, data from July through September 2024 show that 66% of them went on to visit franchise development websites. Of those who visited, 29% (or 19% of total submitters) also fill out the lead form on your franchise website right after having requested information via the franchise portal. 

Data show 29% of the referred visitors from portals also submit an inquiry at the franchisor’s website shortly afterwards.

“Referral value”  or “pass-along value” are terms used to describe this benefit, which is in addition to the immediate “conversion” value of a franchise lead. These very interested prospects get attributed to the franchisor’s website, even though they originated on the portal. Despite the error in attribution, these follow-up visits are very valuable, providing more informed prospects. 

These referrals must be considered in calculating the return on advertising spend (ROI) at franchise lead generation portals. Regularly reviewing sources of referred traffic on your website analytics platform (e.g. Google Analytics) is the best way to know what sources are the most productive. You can set up a dashboard or recurring email to yourself showing the sources (referring sites and advertising platforms) for your referral visits.

Set up a dashboard in your analytics platform or a recurring email to yourself showing sources (referring sites) for your referral visits.

The “Mystery Shop” survey is conducted monthly by FranchiseInsights.com from a large sample of franchise inquirers across the FranchiseVentures lead generation platform. The data presented here is from prospect surveys from July through September 2024.

FranchiseVentures is the leading franchise lead-generation platform for potential franchisees to thousands of growing franchise systems in the United States and Canada. Its franchise lead generation brands include Franchise.com, Franchise Solutions, Franchise Gator, Franchise Opportunities, Franchise For Sale, SmallBusinessStartup.com and BusinessBroker.net, and together they provide the largest aggregation of prospective franchise buyers in the U.S.

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Contact FranchiseVentures to get your share of today’s aspiring franchise owners.

 
Published on Tuesday, October 8th, 2024.