Tag Archives: franchise lead generation

Bad Economy Needs Good PR

The question everyone wants to know the answer to. I sure don’t know what is going to happen. For my business, I sure hope things change. For many small business owners, they feel the same way.

Change is going to happen, no matter what, with a new President in the White House. We can only hope for great change, but only time will tell.

When talking with clients or colleagues, the consensus is that we are in this dump for at least another year. This means franchisors will have to buckle their seatbelts in 2009 and hold onto as many assets and as much cash as possible to keep their concepts and dreams alive.

As I have said many times before, franchisors should be using PR as a part of their offerings. Some PR firms charge way too much and under deliver. Make sure you ask the right questions when hunting for that perfect firm. Know some of the answers before scouting, such as:

Can you guarantee placements? No. You can guarantee advertising, because you buy it, but interacting with the media does not create guarantees. As a former journalist, I cannot tell you the amount of times I received a call from a publicist and hung up the phone on them, one because they didn’t know the brand they were pitching, and two because they didn’t know the journalist they were pitching. Ask your desired firm what their media credentials are. If they tell you they have a giant database of journalists they interact with on a daily basis, ask how. The journalist contacts I have I consider friends. I am not going to feed them a garbage story. We have established relationships – and it has helped that I am a former journalist. Before you let your publicist pitch your story to the media, have them pitch it to you. Make them do it on the spot. Remember, these are your brand communication ambassadors, it is vital they understand your brand. If they don’t teach them the ways.

Will I sell a franchise from the PR you generate? Perhaps. But that’s partly up to you. PR can create opportunities for leads, but it is up to you to close them. A brief in a small daily probably won’t generate leads, so if your PR firm is constantly driving briefs, get rid of them. A large feature with photos in a major daily just may create a steady flow of leads. Have your PR firm go after the big fishes, not the baby ones. If you only get a handful of secured placements in the first few months, don’t be disappointed, be happy, because that means your firm is taking the right measures to educate their contacts about your brand. Momentum takes time. Be willing to give your firm 3-6 months before the placements start pouring in.

Can my brand make it into the Wall Street Journal? Absolutely. Don’t stop your dreams short. But do understand that momentum, again, takes time. As long as your publicist keeps pinging the ears of journalists, opportunities will come. Hold your PR firm accountable.

Budgeting Communications a Must for 2009

This year has been a horrible year. Budgets are getting slashed and many franchisors are conserving as much cash as possible for 2009. However, the double edge sword of the matter is that CEOs are pushing their franchise sales teams to generate more qualified leads and close more qualified deals. The problem is that without creative measures, leads will not magically come in all by themselves.

Creativity will be a huge trend in lead generation campaigns in 2009. But creativity comes at an expense.

I know it’s time to conserve cash, but if these creative measures can produce steady leads and your top notch team can close the deals, then isn’t it better to spend in a horrible economy? Won’t spending help your brands not only survive but thrive ahead of the competition?

If you haven’t invested in a communications team to drive leads in 2009, you should. In fact, you must. If your brand falls behind the curve, the competition will take over and when things go from horrible to great, your brand will be too far behind the competition in relevancy.