This morning I spent an hour consulting with a franchise development executive demonstrating the benefits of basic marketing automation. Creating an online discovery path for Suspects (a.k.a. leads) to become self-validated Prospects, to then become financially qualified Candidates and, ideally, Applicants, is fairly common pipeline process. For many franchisors most questions seem to revolve around when they should actually engage, and how. While automated emails, online videos, on-demand webinars and free resources can go a long way to educate and motivate, at some point prospects will have questions that need to be answered by someone on your team. But, as usual, timing is everything.
This executive complained of a call he had yesterday where he was hung-up on. Then he defined a systemic lack of response to his many voice mails and emails. After further investigation it became clear that he was trying to open doors too early and surprised that so many had slammed it on him. Developing reciprocal rapport online takes time, planning, and testing, but once you find the right sequence, people and things begin to click – literally.
When Nurturing Isn’t Enough
While this client uses our monthly Lead Nurturing services to reach about 700 of his active prospects each month, he seemed desperate for other ways to connect with those so unwilling to respond. Beyond stopping his habit to immediately contact Suspects who have yet to self-validate on important topics like franchise investment and target markets, I asked him about LinkedIn. I suggested that once he connected with a self-validated Candidate, send them a LinkedIn connection request to help push rapport building up another notch – before calling!
Getting a LinkedIn connection request from someone you’ve exchanged a few messages or emails with is an pretty innocuous action. It’s nothing like getting an unscheduled phone call or a text message from an unknown number. The LinkedIn connection requestee (?) can choose to accept or not with zero resulting consequences to you. Unlike Facebook, that maintains a public profile and a separate profile for friends, only people Connected with you on LinkedIn will know how much you actually use or post on LinkedIn.
Building Rapport Online
Since this executive is the initial point of contact (POC) representing a franchise that is a FranFocus client, we’ve already created a lot of content around him, his name, his photo and including Thank You videos of him. When you look at the sequence of events from the perspective of an engaged franchise candidate, a good process really opens the opportunity for a social connection:
- Web visitor submits basic contact details on Local Landing Page and, after submitting contact details, is presented with a Thank You page that contains either a photo or a brief video from the POC.
- Marketing Automation sends email to the new Lead on behalf of the POC. This first email communication contains a photo of the POC, his name, email address and phone number that he’s likely to call/text from. Call to Action is for the Suspect to visit your Validation Website. Initial email also includes download link to free resource that includes mention of the POC, with photo, title, experience, etc.
- Suspect downloads free resource, reads details about the POC and follows Call-To-Action and visits Franchise Validation Website. Suspect learns much more about opportunity, submits a slightly longer contact form with questions about net worth, available capital and ideal markets. Another Thank You page is displayed with a different Thank You video from the POC or at minimum a photo of your point of contact.
- A different automated email is generated on behalf of the same POC, with a new call-to-action or a different resource for this new self-validated Prospect, but still includes a signature file with photo, phone number email address and social media connection links (especially LinkedIn).
- LinkedIn connection request sent by POC (with explanatory note) to proactive Prospect.
What the next action step might be in your pipeline is irrelevant. The visual combination of Thank You pages, with Thank You videos and the automated emails with photo signatures have introduced our POC at least four times by the time a connection request is received (also with photo, name, title, etc.). If they happen to look at our Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn accounts for this opportunity, they’ll find different videos from the same franchise development executive. When they receive our monthly lead nurturing newsletter, he’s mentioned again as the key contact person to receive an invite to our monthly Discovery Day Ultimately, he is the ONLY person they need to know in order to get more serious about this opportunity.
Okay – connected on LinkedIn – Now What?
Because his franchise company is FranFocus client receiving our Content Marketing & Social Media Management services, four times a month we are producing franchise development content on their blog and promoting it and monitoring it through their social media accounts. All he needs to do is wait for the content to be published and click Share: Immediately his entire LinkedIn network is notified that he’s posted something, and most of the time it will be related to his brand. Further, he’s encouraged to post other content on LinkedIn that he feels would be highly relevant to connections considering business opportunities and the benefits franchise ownership. He might even share content about specific industry trends, stories about growth in a target market or details about a Meet & Greet he’s planning. Every post he makes reminds his LinkedIn network about who he is and provides frequent updates on the success of his brand. And should it get to be too much, just like an Unsubscribe button on an email, Prospects can “Remove Connection” from LinkedIn.
Hopefully this reciprocal rapport scenario was helpful! Please send me a LinkedIn connection request if you would like to learn more about social selling or any of the marketing systems we provide at FranFocus.
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