Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Franchisee Recruitment In A Social Way
To recruit franchisees in the past there were always traditional routes to take like advertising in a franchise magazine or exhibiting at a costly franchise show, but these days franchisors can try social recruiting.
Recruiting franchisees in a social way, how does that work?
Franchisees are not usually the risk-taking entrepreneurial type, they’re not creators, and that’s why owning a franchise is right for them. Franchisees want a turn key operation, not a start-up; they want to know it’s a proven system and even better when there’s proof of other successful franchises. Knowing that they do not usually take risks, that they like a proven system, and they'd like to see evidence, you can bet they’ll be doing plenty of research before they start short listing a few favourites. During this research period, which could take months, you the franchisor need to make sure that the content researched is your franchise content.
Here are some simple social recruiting tactics franchisors can use to recruit franchisees
Blog
Give franchisees a reason to visit your site, the easiest way to do that is to have a blog.
Remember your franchisee is in research mode, and they’re probably entering questions that need answering into the Google search bar, the answers to those questions give you the basis of a blog post. Just a quick search on Google keyword planner tells us that up to ten thousand people a month are searching for “what is a franchise?”, It also has low competition, which means franchisors are not bidding on it for their adverts. Armed with that information a blog post all about what is a franchise and would owning a franchise be a good move will give potential franchisees the answers they’re looking for. Find out what your potential customers are searching for then give them the answers on your site in a blog post.
CTA
Every blog posts should end with a call to action; you must always tell your potential franchisee what to do next. Ideally, you should give them something and in return for that something they give you their contact details. It can be something as simple as a step by step guide, perhaps “how to become a franchisee” OR a Franchise Checklist, a simple checklist which will help you to buy the right franchise. Once you have their contact details, you can build the relationship with them.
Culture
What is the culture of the franchise like? Tweet pictures of other franchisees being supported, live stream get togethers and award evenings, Instagram smiling franchisees, Youtube franchisee case studies. The idea is to get the message out there using the social networks that your franchise has a good culture, which alone means a lot to someone taking on their first franchise.
Source
Use a social media dashboard like Hootsuite to monitor conversations around franchises. Streams can be set up using the right keywords enabling you to see instantly who’s talking about getting a franchise or generally just trying to find out more.
Competitors
A way to source possible franchisees is to see who’s following your competitors. A good platform to do this on is Twitter, go to your competitor and click their followers, possible franchisees could be hiding there. If they are in the research phase, they’re likely to follow you back.
Hashtags
#TFS18 #BFEM17 are just two hashtags of franchise exhibitions that are to take place. People attending the events will be chatting online using the hashtags; they will be asking questions, checking out the exhibitors and arranging meetings for the day. All these potential franchisees all in one place! If you’re exhibiting yourself at the event/s, then chat with these people using the hashtag and arrange for them to visit your stand. If you’re not exhibiting, don’t despair you can still chat with them and arrange to have a coffee with them at the show, just explain you’re not exhibiting at that one, but you’re going along to check it out. You can also look at past event hashtags #TFS17 there will still be plenty of potential franchisees who had used the hashtag when they attended the show but still haven’t found their ideal franchise.
There we have just six ways social recruiting could help franchisors recruit franchisees; there are much more!
If you need help recruiting franchisees then get in touch, we can help.
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In:- Social media