Mapping the Candidate Journey on Your Website

In this week’s Bottom Thoughts there are great tips about engaging, re-engaging and monetizing cold leads. But before you get there, before you focus on your cold leads…let’s do some reverse engineering and focus on the web journey of your franchise leads.

Do you know:

1. The average amount of time that candidates spend on your website?
2. The top geographic locations that they visit your website from?
3. The web pages they spend the most time on?
4. The videos they watch?
5. The buttons they click?
6. The percentage of web visitors that convert to a contact?
7. The sources of traffic to your website and the quality they bring?

Your website is your most important digital asset and must reflect the magnitude of the decision that you are asking franchisee candidates to make – to trust that an investment in your franchise system will transform their lives for the better. Trust takes time and if visitors are bouncing off your website, then you’re missing important opportunities. 

Can you envision a website that reflects your candidate journey, that answers their questions, that offers an honest counter narrative, that immerses them in franchisee success stories, that shares brand culture, and that allows them to discover what it feels like to join your team! 

Does your website do that? If not, your bucket is leaking.

Bottom Thoughts 

It isn’t abnormal to dismiss an unresponsive candidate as cold. Why? Simply put, they are not responsive, thus, cold seems to make sense. But, are they dead? That is a very important lead generation question.

Perhaps they are just not ready to talk. Perhaps your form was too simple and didn’t ask if they were just looking for more information or ready to have a call. Perhaps they are dead for your brand because they are not in a developing market or they don’t have the capital to win. Point is, there are many different reasons someone goes cold, but perhaps are not dead.

A few suggestions:

1. Evaluate email 1. Do you clarify what they want as a next step? 
2. Don’t hammer them with branded emails. You are not selling a pack of gum – you are selling a life change. 
3. Do you introduce people to your process? Meaning, are you giving them look-a-like stories for them to engage in on their own?
4. Are you looking at other indicators – such as opens, or, better yet, are you offering them an alternative to a phone call, like a webinar? And, are you looking at opens and sign-ups as indicators that they are still warm?

Point is, you may be able to find some awesome value by turning over your old leads. Why? They already decided (most likely) that franchising was interesting. And, that is half the battle. Now, give them alternative ways to stay engaged in the idea of owning a franchise.