CMO Peer Talks: The Visibility Game Changers for Emerging Franchise Brands

well welcome everyone um thank you CMO Pier tops for hosting this incredibly exciting event today we have an amazing panelist of Industry leaders so I am delighted to welcome you to the highly anticipated webinar the visibility game changers for emerging franchise brands um as mentioned we have an incredible panel today of Industry leading experts that will help you unlock the secrets of success in a very competitive world of franchising so and I'm honored to be your host for this exciting event my name is Jessica Martin I'm the CMO with payroll Vault and we will be joined by this power pack panel of Industry influences who truly understand the ins and outs of the franchise businesses or of business and the franchise industry so let me kind of introduce our esteemed guest today we have Leanne Caruso she is a certified franchise executive bringing her wealth of knowledge and experience to the table we have Michelle Rowan she's also a CFB who will share her her insights gained from years of working in the franchise industry and then we're also joined by the dynamic tenashi Martin who will bring a fresh perspective and Innovative strategies to the discussion and then Andrea perrotti dronchek hopefully I said that right um she is an MBA that will provide valuable expertise on boosting brand visibility even when resources are limited and I'm sure that we can all kind of relate to that in some respect and last but not least Krista Gregg she is a seasoned professional in the field and will round out our panel of experts so during this webinar these industry influences will be dropping gyms and sharing their Insider knowledge on how to make your franchise brand shine brighter and bigger than ever before so this is not just an opportunity to learn from the best it is a chance to connect with other like-minded franchise enthusiasts and also most importantly tap into the expertise of top-notch Industry influences so no matter the size of the business or the limitations you may face this session promises to be a game changer so let's go ahead and get started um if you haven't connected with the promo Republic CMO pure talks Community please do so go ahead and snap the QR code and follow that way you can keep up with us and get all of the little juicy gems a little bit later on okay today what we are going to talk about is how can emerging Sprint emerging franchisors develop a unique brand identity in 2023 a lot has changed and a lot will continue changing and then what is the secret to being chosen for an award and do Awards actually help ratings um and just with visibility as a whole and which affordable marketing tactics and channels offer the best RI Roi for brand growth so we have a lot of information to cover today and let's go ahead and dive in so Tanashi I'm going to hand it over to you for your introduction first okay awesome on first up look at that hello everybody I am Taylor say Martin I am in the midwest the true Midwest all my life right outside of St Louis Missouri um I have been in franchising for over 20 years even though I look 25 I am told I will take it um and I currently I am the directors of franchise development marketing for Puro clean um restoration uh brand which has been amazing they are a rock star amazing culture based servant leadership executive team over there and I am really enjoying uh my first few months I'm only four months in so I'm still in the thicket of getting all things uh squared away and just a movement in the right direction to keep that brand exploding um and really excited to be here to give you uh my two cents so thanks for having me thank you so much Michelle would you like to do a brief introduction as well uh sure yes I'm Michelle Rowan uh and I've been in franchising for 15 years on the supplier side I'm the president and CEO of franchise business review so we work with franchisors to get feedback from their franchisees to use internally and we also do feedback from uh headquarter teams and line employees so for franchisees as well so we're all things feedback within franchising and we also have our franchise satisfaction awards that we give out and those are open to all brands that have 10 franchisees or more and it's all based on what your current franchisees are saying about your business so that's I think probably why I'm on here today and to talk about the award side and opportunities for smaller Brands thanks for having me we love it we love it okay how about you Andrea hi good afternoon um I have run franchise development um brand sales marketing um for more than a thousand locations across 65 Brands and uh our 65 countries and 30 Brands um so the topics of all things Revenue generation Network expansion are near and dear to my heart um I am currently based out of uh Connecticut just a little bit outside of New York City and I commute to London every month as the global Enterprise director for a company called newflex nuflex is in the world of co-working we have eight brands that we run and uh I'm working on product development and uh Network expansion for them so I'm excited to talk about emerging Brands and awards and uh how we can tactically with the greatest Roi uh generate Revenue thanks for having me and I think you might have the longest commute to work of all of us or shortest because I only commute one week out of the month so that's how I convinced myself anyway perspective yeah and last but certainly not least let's um introduce Krista yes so I am probably the newest person on the panel to franchising it sounds like I um have over 15 years of professional experience in marketing public relations digital media but in 2019 my husband and I decided we were going to join forces and start a bio one company um and start our own franchise and so I actually have put on the suit with bio one we do biohazard decontamination hoarding biohazard blood cleanups remediations and um after owning and running a successful business I joined the corporate team officially last year as their marketing director and so I'm so excited that I can take my Joby job experience that I call um and mold that into something that I'm deeply passionate about with bio one and that I've seen from the ground up so um yeah I'm so excited to be here with all of you as well wonderful and Leanne would you like to introduce introduce yourself today yes thank you hi I'm Leanne Caruso I am based out of Tampa and I have been enfranchising for over 12 years I've been a marketing for well over 20.

um I'm same age as Tinashe I guess so I look 25 I wish but um anyway so I I have a fractional uh CMO marketing consultancy so I primarily do um fractional CMO work for franchise Brands typically emerging in some in some suppliers and I also do franchise development marketing Consulting as well so thank you for having me well thank you all this is going to be such an exciting topic today so let's go ahead and dive in and I want to know how can emerging franchisors develop a unique brand identity in 2023. would anyone like to take the lead on this I I would love to um I've given this a bunch of thought and I love the word develop because uh creating a unique brand identity really requires building blocks and um for me uh the foundation of these building blocks for the most successful brands are really based on making human connections and so the first layer in a very practical sense of making a human connection is to capture hearts and minds and I've long used this approach you know to build Brands to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage and it's not an easy strategy to develop and execute but once you get it right it's like the the bond that you create with your uh customer is uh really difficult to break so just if we just go through the check boxes of how to do that it's like the first thing that you want to do is uncover the objective problem so what problem are we solving for are we solving for and based on the brand obviously in your service that'll be different but are we trying to save money are we trying to save time are we trying to um get over some sort of safety issue what what problem are we solving for and if you can determine whether you can solve for that problem or not then you have to go to the heart right and you have to say um what barriers are getting in the way of opening the heart of my prospective customer and more often than not what gets in the way of opening their heart even if it comes down to laundry detergent or co-working space or Camp Bow Wow you know it is often based on fear and so you got to figure out a way or the fear of making a wrong decision so once you've figured out the objective problem that you're solving for then you have to figure out the problem uh that you're solving for in terms of opening the heart and then once you've established that you figure out you put your communication plan into play right then you get your messaging and you express why you can clearly uh solve for that problem and why you are most uniquely positioned to solve for that problem and then finally you figure out how the heck am I going to communicate this all well I'm a big proponent of conversational marketing and so the first step is really let's move away from and a very tactical level let's move away from static web forms and let's have chat Bots uh on our website let's move away from social activity where you're talking at the person and let's get engaging social activity let's move away from uh let's move towards experiential marketing so bringing people in to engage with your product or service while igniting their senses taste smell touch um and and the other thing is I think most importantly in capturing hearts and Minds is then driving home that accountability and in the world of franchise the by the very nature inherent in the model is that it's locally owned right it's local typically never let the truth get in the way of a good story even if it's not completely locally owned but it there's that local ownership that there's that local accountability there's a face associated with that local brand and so that then needs to be woven in to all of your communication so find out what problem you're solving for objectively and psychologically number two is be able to clearly articulate how you're going to solve that problem in an effort to Open Hearts and minds and then number three is start utilizing conversational marketing tactics in uh in order to convey that that uh to convey Your solution and most definitely Drive accountability if it's not the franchise owner then somebody who works for the franchise owner or you know a spokesperson for the franchise owner um I have found that to be very helpful in in establishing the building blocks for a brand I love that there were a lot of great takeaways and I think you know one of the things that you hit on that's so important right now is maintaining that connection and making it an engaging connection and something that's important so does anyone else um have anything that they would like to contribute yeah I just wanted to add this idea to that you really have to have your your your team on board about what your brand identity is and they are your brand so I know that there's a lot of discussion around how involved your CEO or your CEO those top leaders are on social and I think it's crucial I think that that transparency of who your people are that are driving this brand is really important and that um that they're making connections to the people behind the brand um I will say and I apologize if everyone on this call does this but the where you combine the number of years your team has been in an industry or something comes across as a little um that's not how experience Works you're not adding up everyone's experience and it just comes across as you're trying to oversell yourself so instead I think it's really important to be transparent about who you are what what those foundations of your brand are and get involved in the conversation which I think is what Andrea is saying that you to make it engaging it has to be the people not the not the brand that are asking these questions or posing that storytelling side of what's happening so use you the team member if you don't have franchisees yet tell their stories what were they doing before they came into the brand uh and to Andrea's Point too really making sure that people in the community know that a franchise is a locally owned and operated business is a huge differentiator because there is a lot of uh lack of awareness as far as they think it's a corporate person coming in so tell the story of why that person chose to get into business and how involved and connected they are to the community no no I would say I'd love to to add on to that Michelle um those were all things that I was going to say um between the two of you but on top of having your team on board really focusing on the customer experience because your brand identity is going to be reinforced by delivering that exceptional service um they're going to be your raving fans and they're also the ones that are going to spread the word good or bad which could be detrimental or extraordinarily positive for your business so as well as having your team being on board with your brand identity within the community make sure that your customers that you're you're delivering the best customer experience possible I'll also add to I like to work backwards sometimes on this where I ask myself in three to five years and this is probably more applicable for new companies coming up but in three to five years what types of reviews do you want to see online from your customers what are the key words that they're saying what are those what are the descriptive adjectives of your business that you really want them to shout from the rooftops of how amazing you are what do you want franchisees to be saying about working and starting their own business for this type of company and how do you want them to feel and what are those key values there and then also in the home office anyone working there how do you want them to be talking about this franchise and how do you want them to share their experiences I think word of mouth and how you make people feel um which is such a key element of this conversation already so far but building up your core values and your brand internally I like to start with how do you want that to look like three to five years down the road what do you want to be seeing online and how do you want people talking about it yeah I was gonna actually kind of mimic that a little bit Krista is kind of going back to very very peel back Basics is do you know who your customer Avatar is what are you what it what are your customer avatars right you as a franchisor have a different Mission than the franchisee franchisees are boots in the ground or they will be and they are right they are products and services boost in the ground in their local community as a franchisor you have a more of an audacious task right because you are trying to bring along those franchise Partners on those franchise owners that are going to lock arms with you in a in a multi-faceted way so not just Roi not just kpis not just bottom line revenue but in every sense of the manner because they are like we all have agreed so far they are your brand but so who are you attracting do you have a strategic plan to map out your customer avatars and have three to five that you are marketing just to those three to five customer avatars and you are speaking their language you are giving them all the fields depending on who they are right um because I am not Krista I am not Michelle I am not Andrea or Leanne we are going to see things steal things experience things in different ways and so for me the way I like to approach it and when I came into Puro Queen and I'm still there so I've not arrived yet trust me um but because it takes a little time but when you really get a great strategic plan behind whom are your ideal customers or I call them strategic Partners to be honest with you um in the the audience that you're going for and marketing to um there is a plan that you can develop on a very almost Elementary level to really set a campaign in and forward and moving forward to capture the those ideal people and get into some really great conversations that are geared towards them and your brand already almost pre-qualifying them and we love that word right who doesn't want to pre-qualify I want to pre-qualify right um but if you can pre-qualify them and really having those generic not generic but really great campaigns for those avatars you are already one step ahead and that also sets your brand identity apart because all your marketing is going to come out of that right that's going to set you apart in each one of those avatars and your brand is going to be known for maybe conversions maybe for you know there could be just multiple ways you could go with it but I think just very Elementary is uh do you have a plan you actually have a plan and know who you're talking to I think all of those are super important facts and I think the what I kind of got out of the conversation from all of you is that your key driver is going to be your brand identity it seems like that's what is really going to set your mission your values your um your culture the overall Vision which is going to then reinforce the customer experience and then it's also going to help you dive into those client avatars and I think do any of you before we kind of move on to the next question do you have a way within your individual brands that you have outlined that brand identity you know is it a living document is it something that it starts out as a document and then is reinforced through internal Communications that start with leadership and then kind of trickle down like do all of you have um a specific way that that happens within your within your franchise I'm getting there so because I'm kind of newer to Pure acquaint right I am I am evolving and looking and refreshing and rehashing in new Sops down the pipe right but um it yeah that's my goal 100 is to have that bankable go back to revisit it monthly with my team um because if you're staying really um honed in and focused and supportive of each other you know throughout your brand and even across arms in different departments right it takes everybody especially if marketing takes it takes a team of people um I revisit it often I go back and say okay what was our goal where are we going with this okay this is the savitar this is the savitar okay are we gonna maybe focus on one greater than the other sorry uh you know next quarter you know it's just a great thing to have in front of you that you can always go back to um in that strategic plan I spoke about earlier which doesn't have to be very very lengthy it can be it can be very robust I have seen hugely robust strategic plans and I have seen some that are um just like almost like a breathing living document and and those have worked well also but um we Revisited at least monthly and that kind of helped keep the team and the brand if you will as executive leaders it keeps us focused on where our mission and what our goals are and so almost there almost there I'm getting there yeah I agree I mean I think that's critically important and it does in in our world too and just uh you know just go back to Michelle's point it does start from internal but it starts from it starts from from corporate right and so so but but it starts even before that it starts as your um during the Scott during the discovery process for the franchisee right because you have to they are embodying they are your the franchisee is your voice in the local market and I think that so what we would typically do and it depends on on brand to brand but you know we make sure that from that very moment during that Discovery process and during Discovery day that we're layering in our or core values and we do that we've done that through video long form and we've also done that through short form the elevator statement and then drilling down into words we use words we don't use how we you know handle this and that is done throughout the entire Discovery process with the franchisee and then throughout all of the monthly calls we start again with that to root them into what our core values are and what we're sending out to the market and the value that we bring to um uh to to to the the ultimate consumer because if you don't have that human connection with the franchisee you're kind of done uh the the other thing is that I think it really helps to and and and that needs to be delivered in multiple ways it can't just be delivered in the same way each time and that's why we use multimedia we use a you know a minute video and the elevator statement so that it's short form and practical um uh so yes that is a brilliant Point Jessica it has to be a living breathing document I I know that from payroll vault's perspective leadership got together and actually outlined the entire brand ID from a lot of the points that you said taglines um the client Mission Vision goals are you know our core values and as I'm putting together materials and our team are we're collaborating about things we have that document up and where it's a constant presence in our everyday to make sure that that hopefully flows through and flows out a hundred percent well and as we grow because bio one we're still small and Nimble with you know in terms of our home office but as we grow as we continue to hire I that's going to be more critical than ever for our team because I need people to look at the brand Through My Lens and I I can't people aren't going to read my mind you know and so I think um Ashley Mitchell gave a great presentation at um the conference in Atlanta um the franchise experience uh or what is it franchise fxc franchise consumer experience I cannot I can never get that acronym right um there's so many in our world you'll just be like you know the one you know literally just start saying that I was just there that one um but I loved it because she she created these values and she created the system um in her network where it goes back to okay here the priority values and how we make decisions and so everyone from the franchisee all the way up whenever they're making important decisions everyone has that same guide of how to think about things and I'm not I'm sure nothing's perfect but man that that has to be powerful um so I want to be Ashley when I grow up and have that set in stone um and then going back to Andrea's point a second ago just buy a one for biohazard cleaning there's no one that just immediately like is born into this world and says yes I'm gonna clean up blood for a living I'm going to you know help people and it's just it's such a unique industry that we we can really teach a lot of skill but if the Will's not there if the personality is not there if you're not compassionate about your community if you're not compassionate about helping people um I if you if you don't uphold those brand values and you're just in it because you want to be a lucky Lou and think it's kind of cool it's not going to work you have to have the will you have to meet the brand personality and then we can teach you the skill and we can do that all day long but that's a really big piece of our Discovery as well is these folks that we're bringing on to our system it's so important that they already have those brand values well there's so much that we could really deep dive into all wonderful points and thank you all for sharing we'll kind of jump forward to the next big question what is the secret to being chosen for an award do Awards and ratings help Michelle do you want to kick us up it would be weird if I said that they didn't there are so many awards out there and there's awards that are based on your your local community that you're in so your franchisees could even help you kind of keep an eye on it but um if you if you're in the beginning stages you probably aren't engaging in a PR Company right off the bat and I know that we're trying to talk about things that are affordable your time is well spent on applying for awards if you have what the criteria is that they're looking for um under I think that the people that are giving the awards are more in tune with what the qualifications are and how meaningful it is but you can take that information and use that as a way to really differentiate your brand or reinforce it's it's I don't know that we'll talk about it today but it's the same way that I feel about data and using third-party data using a third party award is a great way to help establish credibility when you are trying to build your brand and build that awareness of what you stand for so I always say you know it's definitely worth it there's tons of free opportunities out there and there's others that are paid so if it's a paid opportunity you know talking to people to understand what value it brought to their business or how they use it in their process to talk to their consumers or to their target candidates that they're looking to bring in the system is important so the the thing with Awards is they're not all equal and some are based on really substantial and important things and others are fluff but again you're you're if you're a newer brand if you're trying to extend your dollars this is a great way to extend that and build credibility with your consumers and your target markets that you're looking to help you grow so for our award the franchise satisfaction award we invite all brands that have at least 10 franchisees open and operating to participate in our research we offer a free version of the survey to make sure that our award is based on franchisee feedback and not pay to play so asking those questions about what goes into an award I think can be an important thing but that I would say weighs more on people that are limited in time or resources to fill out these forms I was one of the judges for franchise updates uh Innovation award for several years in a row and it again it's free but you have to take the time to tell your story of what why you think you deserve the award so if you have a person that could do that on your staff it's a great use of resource I think um and then I don't know a lot about the entrepreneur award but I know that Leanne can probably speak to that but those kinds of things where they have an audience they have a credibility get your brand in front of that audience any way you can so Leanne I don't know if you want to jump in on kind of how they pick their 500.

Yeah I'm happy to one of the things I like about this question is what is the secret to being chosen for an award and the first thing I thought of is we have to apply yes that's it they're mostly all free especially the ones in franchising and that's yeah and and there's no reason not to other than time and bandwidth and making the time to actually put the effort into the applications some of the applications are pretty extensive um like Michelle said PR companies often fill them out for their brands or their brands do it and even um some um for those of you who don't know I most recently came from entrepreneur and oversaw the Entre the franchising division of entrepreneur um so the franchise 500 which is so significant to so many Brands and is really a powerful validator to your Brand's success it's also great a great Benchmark I know you know our good friend Paul Pickett from wild birds has been on the list 43 years I think and watching them grow throughout the years it's such a great way to kind of track your success throughout and like Michelle said you know find out what the qualifications are for the award because especially if we're talking to emerging Brands and micro emerging Brands here today even if you don't qualify or make the franchise 500 you're still eligible for other lists to make so they have new and emerging they have you know fastest growing they have food they have all of those other awards that are available and every single one of them is free and so being on there and just having that exposure being on the list and this applies to you know all of the different awards that are out there even franchise update has some great awards that you can apply for the innovator Awards and and they they do those ceremonies it's just another great stamp of approval third party validation um I'm a big fan big fan of the awards and it's just a way to stand out and I and I know that people search for in the magazine to find Brands and they actually can get new new franchisees from it so um if if you're attending the leadership and development conference uh in the fall they offer if you sign up for the early bird do it because with that they'll will secret shop your website so that's even free Intel that you're getting you can win an award if you actually do well as far as um it's it's based on your website and then your web response to a lead your call response to a lead and um and then they do a franchisee satisfaction award that's based on our survey but if you if you apply for that early bird they do all of that for free just for you attending the conference and signing up early so you can win an award and plus you're getting all this you're getting their time and their resources back to give you Intel on your process so there's a lot like that as well where there's so much more benefit to it than just the actual award-winning so if you don't get it you're part of that research as far as how well is franchising doing on converting candidates to to an actual deal in their system so take advantage of all of that yeah for some of the questions in the in the chat I believe the the applications are open now and I think they close I'm not I'm not at entrepreneur anymore but I'm pretty sure they close like towards the end of August um you can go online at entrepreneur.com500 and submit an application and and to that point um any any time even the applications aren't open and you're a new brand you can apply for um a listing on the site and just fill out your free application and you have a free listing on those sites as well and it's not just entrepreneurs so definitely check out the other opportunities available oh sorry um just a little stack for you um even at from our entrepreneur works at Puro clean because we've uh thankfully gotten quite a few over the last few years and uh actually just got a new one of an inaugural a multi-unit award and I was like oh look I get I Ward and you know because they so they do you know keep you kind of in the loop uh you know when you uh put your application in first off they they can rep you in your your stats and your info into other Awards uh and present them to you and you might not even necessarily know per se so that's kind of a cool Factor just so you know and actually we get two franchisees who are actually um opening in the next two months off of entrepreneurs leads from their Awards page so it uh it does it does make a huge difference and can can really give you some really great qualified leads that uh kind of want know what franchising is one of the enfranchising and are really seeking those companies out um we have two opening next month so it does work yeah I I completely agree agree with that and it works on multiple levels uh First Hat the secret to being chosen for an award every time any company that I've ever worked for uh that we've submitted for an award or any of the franchisees who have won awards on a local level have won really because of the story listen you need the numbers to validate it you need the background to validate it but everybody loves a good story so the more you can bring your brand alive on the page the more that you can within the defined questions bring your story to life on the page you have a better opportunity to win I mean again you have to have the fundamentals uh of the criteria for uh to win the award but bring that story to life I've often had PR agencies right fill out the application for me but most often when we win it is when we internally have layered on the additional embellishments and passion that can often only come from internal into the story um and then yes encouraging franchisees on a local level and helping them what we would do is help them to identify local awards that they can apply for um and that has a rumbling up effect right because it's the franchisor getting the award and then it's showing the franchisee also in uh uh exhibiting success on a local level and it works I Awards all day long yes I love that and kind of before we move on to the next topic there were when we're when we're looking at awards and then you know we're all about tracking and measuring and what are some of the insights that you can give the new uh the newer or more emerging franchisors about how to track that um if it's paid how do they track an Roi or an engagement level um if they if it's organic how can they kind of look and see how their visibility is increasing do you have any advice for the newer franchisees on that or franchise Wars well I think it's it's really important to um track everything so if you are coaching your development people the first question should be how did you find out about us because even when it came through a specific site or form it's usually not the first touch we've all heard it it takes seven touches it takes 33 touches whatever it takes those awards are going to be that one additional impression that you have on it so just asking that question will help pick up on what resonated with them um and then if you if they go through your process understanding all the ways that they know about your brand before they've talked to you but I think that's one and then just tracking everything with your digital marketing is crucial but I think that you can't track every lead back to its single source so the the culmination of what you're spending is important so when we go to the leadership and development conference I'm always amazed at the franchisors that can articulate what their cost per acquisition is so wherever that's coming from no that number and then you'll know when you do sign up with a new website when you do sign up with a lead generation what is your expectation of how much you'll spend there before you'll get a return on it and then other ways that it's helping you besides just that conversion to a customer or to a candidate to a franchisee whatever that is know your data and then make sure you're utilizing it don't just get the award reference it put it in your email signatures put it on your website coach your development team to talk about it or your franchisees and their local markets to talk about it with their stories like Andrea said your franchise owner does not come in knowing everything that they need to know about the business so that's one of the ways a franchisor can really help them is setting them up with those toolkits on like if you're approached for a story or a media thing get these three things in every story whatever or put this in your email signature hang this sign in your store that's a great way you can help and it will help it will help you at the franchisor level not just the store level that's right I love it does anyone else have anything that they would like to to contribute I have nothing to contribute that I just I want to acknowledge like that was all I kept thinking about Michelle is once you finally get the award how do you maximize it for your business how do you take that story that you're building to get the award and then take it and infiltrate it across the entire system and I think Michelle's summary was fantastic in that because I there's so much build up to get there and then when you finally get it I think we can all probably agree that more can even be done after you get the award to really maximize that value and that potential and that exposure it's the one time you can't be afraid or be um shy about celebrating your success in a very public very wide way yeah 100 no Humble Pie just got it yeah yeah you know what is it work it girl whatever let me see the 90s you know it just it's all about that you can't can't uh can't be home it's ever it's Evergreen we think that it's only that that news of an award is only a lie for I don't know the first whatever it's not that award is Evergreen until a new board in that class is submitted and even when it's not I mean entrepreneur you keep that this year this year this year so yeah I agree I love that I love thinking of it in an evergreen perspective okay are we ready for the final one which affordable marketing tactics and channels offer the strongest Roi for brand growth that's a big one yeah you can go so many different directions I see everyone's wheels turning and they're like okay where do we even start with that one how do we even unpack it well and not only like and I don't I don't necessarily have a distinct answer but as I was reading this question Roi and tracking Roi versus also growing the brand those can be two very different elements of your business right and that was the first thing I did was like okay how am I going to separate Roi I can easily do with tracking leads and doing digital activations and then you know brand awareness I mean that's sponsorships that's events that's what's like and and so my brain automatically wants to separate those I don't know if anyone else had that experience either I I do so that's exactly what I do when I'm building a marketing strategy it's like okay I have to eat now right so I have all my direct response oriented activities so that I can eat now right so it's how you activate your paid you're digital but paid digital digital is offset in multiple different ways right because oftentimes if you look at just Pages like oh my God the ROI on on you know straight up pay-per-click I can't imagine but if you're managing a fully integrated paid digital campaign then it works so if you've got straight up you know pay-per-click and then you have your remarketing and retargeting and you have your SEO and you have your channel partners and you have the right landing page with an activation then then that is can be outrageously cost efficient so you have your what can I do to eat now and then and then Krista to your point is what do I need to do to fuel the pipeline for the future so I can raise brand Equity I can raise brand awareness and I can drive that connection all throughout making human connections throughout the entire way ultimately you got to establish what that Roi is for a holistic marketing strategy and then you have to attribute what each marketing tax how each marketing tactic is going to contribute to the overall so I expect this Roi from Paid digital within that I expect a bazillion times to one on SEO uh you know and I expect maybe five to one on on you know on traditional pay-per-click um and then what do you expect from that future Revenue because you can't always be chasing the Lee from a direct response standpoint you have to layer in the the brand awareness and and uh brand Equity factor of it 100 you have the short term returns and then what are you building long term and for us especially we really try to help owners from the home office really work on their SEO their pay-per-click advertising and we're really looking at a lot of those digital Integrations because we can't be on the ground locally but it's just never going to happen and so um during training as well for brand growth and Roi for their offices we do a lot of relationship building and a lot of our businesses referral Partners so we're going to police officers we're going to victim Advocates we're going to social workers and we're making them aware that we exist but then slowly we're trying to figure out what do they care about and how do we show up for things that they care about how do we support things that they care about to stand out so we're not just asking for business or asking for referrals but we're also trying to figure out how can we develop and build those long-term relationships that will then fuel the business God forbid Google goes down you know I mean there's you always have to continue to plan as well for what you can control in your business and what you can't and you can certainly control those relationships I can't control Facebook I can't control Instagram I can't control Google I have to play by their rules in their game but also long term those relationships for us and for our business is just Monumental that that is the bread and butter for for us yeah 100 I was gonna I was gonna you know sit here thinking about this before the call or the before the meeting and I was like most affordable well I mean really it's boots on the ground I mean the boots on the ground a basic networking right um being in things like this together even though we are maybe looked at as Co you know competitors but we're collaborating and that's a beautiful thing and and that's in our local communities also so it's even if you have very few franchisees local community networking is an absolute very cost effective way if not free I mean some of your being eyes and Chambers and certain things do have a lower uh minimal you know membership fee if you will but again kind of goes back to that strategic plan if you got it wrote down like who am I asking for what are my ass this month and getting in your local Community where Puro queen or bio one or whomever is everywhere that is that is brain growth that is uh that is the best kind of uh brand campaign you could have right because that's all word of mouth that's all based on relationships and the the continuation relationships which take you 10 times further and shorten your sales cycle by what what do you say five ten touches on the average right so who doesn't want that I want that um so really cost effective when I thought about this I was like well it just kind of Grassroots shaken hand business to business back in the day right it's a hundred percent you don't know what Facebook's gonna do but there again that I go free too so free use your social media you know don't don't spend too much time because then your Roi is going to go out of the roof because time is your biggest commodity because you know we've got to protect our time but again start with a free very basic things in the beginning and as you grow you'll be able to have those uh those financials in that Revenue freed up a little bit more because that brain awareness will take care of itself I I think all of those are a fantastic points and before we kind of go to the question that's in the chat I think that one thing that everybody kind of touched on was the different channels and and the tactics but we also have to research and figure out where our audience lives and all of our audiences live in very different places so that's really going to help Drive the tactics which then will drive the investment and kind of that backwards working like you all had mentioned um the question in the chat is kind of related to that how do you think about allocating investment in brand versus lead generation hmm that depends upon the life cycle of your business and I'll I'll mirror what Krista said before you always start with the end in mind what's the goals and objectives of the business because marketing is here only to serve and to help meet the goals and objectives of the business so if you are in growth mode you're you know you may be investing more in one tactic than the other um uh but what are the objectives of the business and then marketing has to sit back and determine okay these tactics are going to best serve meeting the goals and objectives of the business but I would say even with marketing uh serving the goals in the business marketing should always strive for profitable Revenue really whenever humanly possible because at the end of the day you know if you're not if you're it becomes almost a liability to the business then versus a an asset and there are ways to drive profitable Revenue even in high growth organizations I love that hopefully that answered your question um does anyone else have anything that that you would like to kind of add as far as affordable marketing tactics um finding the audience where it lives or even the return on investment tracking and measuring for the brand growth so I kind of took uh I'm sorry oh I was just going to say aside from just where an audience lives I would also think about who your audiences are and then what are their biggest objections and how do you overcome them try to put yourself in their shoes and think what what could they ask me what are they interested in are they price conscious are they value conscious are they customer service conscious and then really start tailoring a lot of your tactics and strategy towards that um understanding who you're reaching out to is so important because there's we're asked so much throughout the day digitally in person wherever we go we're constantly being sold we're cons as just human beings in general and we're constantly being asked by this learn about this and see here and if you can add value and meet someone where they're already at and understand where they're already at I think you have a leg up on on your competition and um really growing your brand yeah um so I actually took this question as franchise development over consumer so um when I was thinking this through about the best Roi for brand growth I was thinking um an affordable marketing tactic to go after your current customers um they're already there they're already brand loyalists um so if you're looking for brand growth in that way and about bringing new franchisees on um which is the way I read the question but I would I think an affordable way to go would be to go after your current current customers and and really really kind of get them into buy into the concept yeah and to piggyback on that that's where I was thinking too and I would say what what do you have in place for your existing franchisees to refer people to you customer-wise franchisee-wise yep so that can be a a formal program or incentive for them to do that but just thinking about their they should be a raving fans and I'm happy so tap into that a very affordable way uh to do that development side versus um Ops side for sure and and I think whether it's franchise facing or even client-facing the referral network is probably one of the strongest tactics and that goes back to that human connection and whether that is built digitally or physically kind of boots on the ground it all kind of goes back to that Network and that level of trust that's being built as well so many great um points um there's a lot to unpack here we could probably spend another hour just kind of going through a lot of this information um if there are any more questions please feel free to drop those in the chat um we'll get to those right now are there any kind of lasting kind of summaries or anything that you'd like to add as far as lasting thoughts that you'd like to send our viewers home with today I could think of if you'd like to buy buy one office I'm just kidding well done Krista yeah sure you know just to chat meet somebody else in the network meet somebody else in a franchising space I'm always um available to chat and get to know people on a greater level I I love me some people so so well yeah I would think go ahead go ahead I'm sorry I was going to Michelle's Point like one one final point to to really hit home is what Michelle said earlier about fldc and about how many people don't know their cost to acquire a prospect or candidate and so it's really hard to make a marketing plan a customer yeah or a customer and it's really hard for um you know establish a marketing strategy or budget affordable or not affordable you don't know if it's affordable or not if you don't know what your cost to acquire a customer or a candidate is and so that's like one of the most important things that you should do is that to get to a point you can get to a point of predictable revenue from a Dev standpoint you really can you you can determine if you look at your historical data you can determine your um by by broker and by you know and and direct right you can determine um your conversion from inquiry to close right you can determine the time to close and there are certain tactics that I've used to reduce that time to close so not only increase conversion from inquiry to close but also and the milestones in between there but reduce your time to close because that brings in cash Factor faster on network growth faster but then also the time to get the cash so and how much it costs to get them there so as marketers we should be leading the way and and doing whatever we can to drive predictable Revenue with a predictable Roi and and you can get there if you're if you're Mindful and use a an appropriate if you're mad if you're looking at the correct kpi and the if you're brand new in frame if you're a brand new franchisor you're just starting up I I can't stress this enough it's so important to invest in systems and tools to be able to capture that data um for so long I know a lot of organizations they just they're trying to grow and then they forget to collect the data that if you get to get a system-wide CRM tool and processes in place where they can actually gather consistent data and useful data so they can start helping educate and see what customer Trends are what national Revenue Trends are and how things are progressing and where to adjust they can get expensive but it's so worth it getting a proper tool and that's where my head was going too just the CRM just keeps like scripting right you gotta have I mean there are free ones yes you can start somewhere you know there are and they can be you know a little pricey depending on your stage of business growth but um it is so worth it because I mean I can answer so many questions now um because I have all of those very segregated out of my CRM and I know exactly where they came from I know how many clicks it took to get them there and you know and you can get there there's hope for you if you're newer but even just the basic um data is good data if you're not focusing on it if that's not a priority right now and he's you know you do need to have some kind of grip right goes back to that strategic plan but you can start free but it is highly important to have some kind of system that's helping you and your brain and your team and your brand penny where you are um at least give you some kind of a head nod uh that that you're testing uh your field testing is working and where is it coming from well and I think to add on to that also we are in such a unique position in this day and age that we have so many tools available to us um at low cost as well as um free and there's no reason not to just start like when you launch your business go ahead and have it in place and then just scale it as you need to because that's going to feed into everything else that you all talked about as far as finding out where your audience is creating those audience profiles and then understanding your culture that you are building and how to communicate that it all works together so just take advantage of all of the amazing tools that we have available can you imagine starting back way back when when there were were no computers and everything was handwritten and this is what like my kids would say well nowadays my back then days like my kids get so annoyed and instantly eye rolled me and want to walk out of a room when I start that conversation um but no I do not want to go back to those days in this instance in this topic because it was on Ops and development side it was the the way it looks now is so much more beneficial and helpful for efficiency for Brands and it's a good thing to be infranchising on this side of the technical advancements of the world I can tell you that right now well just to be respectful of everyone's time I want to thank you all so much for joining us today for the visibility game changers for emerging franchise Brands and thank you very much to our esteemed panel and CMO peer talks for allowing this to to be put out into the world to actually help people that's why we're here is to mentor and to be mentees and to help spread the word and help help raise each other up

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