There is an enormous choice of franchises in Australia – from fast food, coffee to bookkeeping and mobile services – that it can be difficult to be noticed by prospective franchisees.
In order to attract both quantity and quality of franchise applications, franchisors must consider the driving factors behind a franchisee’s mindset: “What are the motivations for buying a franchise?” “Where do potential franchisees search for opportunities?”
Gloria Jean’s Coffees’ Story
Gloria Jean’s Coffees first started in Australia with a mission to provide their customers with high quality speciality coffee. The coffee house began by opening its first store in Miranda, Sydney in 1996. By 2003, Gloria Jean’s had stores in every Australian state and territory and is now close to reaching 500 coffee houses across the country, as well as over 900 stores across 33 other countries.
So how did Gloria Jean’s Coffees expand to such high numbers so quickly? Other than serving great coffee, an innovative marketing strategy is involved, as well as trying different tactics until finding one that works.
One innovative marketing strategy consists of taking the franchise online. There is so much information available on the internet it makes sense for franchisors to take their business where it is the most visible.
Getting Online
In 2005, Gloria Jean’s Coffees wanted to expand their online brand presence, as well as recruit more franchisees. At the time, they were advertising with popular job opportunities website but weren’t getting value on their investment and weren’t receiving many sales leads.
The coffee house franchise decided to look into advertising with the online directory, FranchiseBusiness.com.au, the official directory of the Franchise Council of Australia.
Online directories follow the same concept as print directories – they provide a list of businesses that are sorted by business type and include contact details such as phone numbers, e-mail and physical addresses and a link to the official website. The difference with online directories is that they are indexed by online search engines, meaning they can be found easily by those looking for opportunities.
Gloria Jean’s Coffees’ National Franchising Manager, Miki Caswell, said she originally felt “sceptical” about advertising on online directories but was told it would yield good results in terms of brand presence and lead generation.
Integrate Your Approach
Online marketing is a board term that covers email marketing, banner advertising, search engine optimisation (SEO), online exposure, website visibility and more. The most efficient way to manage and maximise your efforts is to integrate. Online directories, like FranchiseBusiness.com.au, offer many ways to improve lead generation and brand presence.
According to Ms Caswell, the best advice she can give to franchisors is to use the email marketing feature on FranchiseBusiness.com.au, which allows you to send an email blast to people who have opted-in.
“I’ve already referred other franchisors to use this,” said Caswell. She also recommends using banners, media releases and images.
Overcoming the Difficulties
At the start, Gloria Jean’s Coffees had trouble converting their leads because of the difficulty in finding people who can afford to invest in their franchise. To overcome this problem, the coffee house franchise took a two-handed approach – a dual focus on brand presence and franchisee recruitment.
Ms Caswell said Gloria Jean’s Coffees still advertise in newspaper publications and franchising magazines but more for the brand presence benefit than franchisee recruitment. The coffee franchise found that online advertising and their website presence generated “far greater leads” than print in this current day and age. FranchiseBusiness.com.au has been crucial in generating a large number of leads.
“It’s given us strong online advertising presence, seems to be the most widely viewed site and increasing leads from this site has been terrific,” said Ms Caswell.
“Not only do FranchiseBusiness.com.au assit in tailoring your advertising needs according to the results but they do the thinking for you when it comes to better ways of advertising to increase lead generation.”
“We’re looking forward to seeing the results in the next 12 months as our leads have been pleasantly increasing.”
The Cost of Online
Gloria Jean’s Coffees spend about $2,000 per month on advertising on FranchiseBusiness.com.au. The online directory attributes to approximately 1,000 new leads each month to Gloria Jean’s listing.
Being listed in an online directory is a great way to improve your online presence and lead generation. With many potential franchisees utilising the internet to research franchise opportunities, it is important to be visible in the right places.