Franchise Marketing Q&A With 1851 Franchise and Brent Dowling

Here at Raintree, we know that an effective franchise marketing strategy is comprised of a number of factors, including a strong social media presence. After all, we’re living in a world where digital consumers spend almost 2.5 hours per day on social networks and messaging sites. Not only that, but 69% of adults in America use at least one social media site. There’s no doubt that when it comes to B2C marketing, businesses need to get and stay current with social media trends in order to keep up with the competition. According to Hootsuite, 90% of brands currently use social media to increase brand awareness and build brand identity among their target consumers. 

However, simply being part of this 90% and using social media channels to promote and build your brand is not enough. The Hootsuite blog post goes on to share that of the brands who use social media for advertising, only 34% of them measure their ROI from social. This means that brands who are spending hundreds, or possibly even thousands of dollars on social media advertising may not be tracking their metrics to assess the effectiveness of their campaigns. Franchise marketing is no exception- franchisors who are not fine-tuning their social sales strategy may be missing out on numerous lead generation opportunities.

As a leader in digital marketing for the franchise development space, Raintree has emerged as an expert in franchise marketing in the age of social media. Our CEO and Founder, Brent Dowling, was recently featured in 1851 Franchise magazine to discuss which metrics brands should be constantly and consistently reviewing in order to ensure an effective social media strategy. Here’s the transcript of 1851’s Industry Spotlight Q&A with Brent: 

1851: What metrics should brands be looking at on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to understand the effectiveness of their efforts?

Dowling: If you’re actively buying ads, the No. 1 metric is Cost-Per-Deal. On those three channels [Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn], this could range from anywhere between $3,000 to $15,000, with the main variable being the initial investment of the franchise. But along the way, we believe it is critical to track awareness metrics, cost-per-lead, cost-per-qualified application, cost per Discovery Day, to name just a few of the more important metrics. 

You will also want to make sure you have an aggressive A/B testing program in place for all social ads. For some of our brands at Raintree, for example, we have up to 25 ads running concurrently that test the impact of certain photos or different verbiage against each other. Facebook’s analytics are as powerful as they are wonderful, so it usually only takes 30 days to figure out exactly what image and verbiage best sell your franchise.

1851: How soon should brands pivot on a strategy if it’s not generating returns?

Dowling: As a general rule of thumb, 90 days for all digital channels. But brands with a higher monthly spend can generate enough data in as little as 30 days to understand the true effectiveness of a given strategy or campaign. 

1851: What are some of the most successful strategy blends you’ve seen work for brands?

Dowling: I could give you a days-long response to this question, which it deserves, but in short form, with Jamba Juice, we spent a great deal of time creating video to highlight franchise owners’ stories. Careful injection of these into Facebook and Instagram resulted in an increase from three deals awarded the year before beginning to work with Raintree to 100 awarded in Year 1 with us.

1851: If you were keynoting a conference, what is the most important lesson you’d teach franchisors on social sales strategy?

Dowling: The lead conversion requires more focus than the lead generation. Most brands focus almost entirely on generating leads, with little to no effort on conversion strategies. This means, what do you do once you get a lead. Call once or twice and let 5 drip emails go out from your CRM [customer relationship management software]? In this instance, you are almost certainly underperforming. From an infrastructure standpoint, Raintree spends 150% more on conversion staff (lead qualifiers, development managers) than we do on lead generation staff (marketing managers, copywriters). In our opinion, lead conversion is where digital deals are truly won.

Raintree has established a comprehensive franchise development program that ensures all our partner brands generate leads from a wide variety of channels and platforms, including social media. Our dedicated Content & Design team works in tandem with our Marketing department to create engaging, results-driven social media content designed to build brand awareness and generate quality leads. Contact Raintree to learn more about how we can help your brand achieve its franchise development goals.  

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