What Drives Franchise Prospects to Visit Franchisor Websites After Requesting More Information on Franchise Portals?
By: Michael Alston for Franchise Insights
Oct 11, 2023 — So many prospects who request information on franchise portal sites go on to visit the franchisor’s website that it begs the question – why? Over the last year, we have surveyed prospects who submitted an inquiry AND also visited the franchise website afterward.
About 66% of portal lead submitters made a subsequent visit to the franchise development website corresponding to their inquiry in our most recent survey. The primary reason for that follow-on visit – cited by over half of respondents – was that they were “very interested and just wanted to learn more.”
In addition, 31.5% of portal inquirers said they wanted to better prepare themselves before having a conversation with a franchise representative.
This referral value is a substantial source of value beyond the cost of leads, considering that prospects who would take the time to research a franchise and visit the site are showing a level of interest and intent conducive to more productive conversations with franchise representatives.
What explains this referral phenomenon?
Recent awareness data show that only 6.7% of prospects are very familiar, and 20.7% are somewhat familiar with the opportunities they inquire about on franchise portals. Over 27% are thereby introduced to the unfamiliar franchise on the portal visit. This is why third party sites like franchise portals are important to franchise development, especially as consumers spend more of their time on fragmented social media and streaming.
In the July to September 2023 surveys, prospects were asked why they proceeded to visit the franchisor site(s), the overwhelming response at 50.7% was “I was very interested and just wanted to learn more.” Another 31.5% wanted to “prepare before having a conversation” with franchise representatives. Fulfilling the role of directory sites, the portals didn’t provide “sufficient information” to quench the thirst for knowledge for 8.2% of respondents.
These very interested “referred” prospects get attributed to the franchisor’s website, even though they originated on the portal. This is a very good thing, though it may lead to the improper attribution of interested prospects to the “last touch” rather than the portal which was the source of the lead.
Summary: Franchise portals drive interested prospects to your franchise development website, in addition to franchise leads they provide directly.
The “Mystery Shop” survey is conducted monthly by FranchiseInsights.com from a sample of franchise inquirers across the FranchiseVentures franchise lead generation platform. The data presented here is from July through September 2023.
Franchise Ventures 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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Published on Tuesday, October 10th, 2023.