Emotional Marketing And Franchise Recruitment Breakthroughs
Understanding Emotional Marketing is the Key to Boosting your Franchise Recruitment Results
Written by: Thomas Scott
Franchise recruitment is a complex process that requires a targeted and personalized approach to attract the right franchisees to a system. In recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on emotional marketing and storytelling as powerful tools for franchise recruitment, and a move towards much more personal and specific advertising targeting specific buyers.
Emotional marketing is the art of creating a specific, emotional connection with your audience, tapping into their feelings, values, and beliefs to create a sense of engagement and loyalty, and deeper connection to a business idea. When it comes to franchise recruitment, emotional marketing can help franchisors connect with potential franchisees on a deeper level, showcasing the unique personality, culture, and values of the franchise brand.
One of the key benefits of emotional marketing in franchise recruitment is that it helps franchisors build a loyal and dedicated franchise network of potentially top-performing owners who are a good culture fit. By creating an emotional connection with franchisees, franchisors can help ensure that franchisees remain committed and engaged with the brand over the long term. This can lead to higher levels of franchisee satisfaction, better performance, and ultimately, more franchise locations.
Well-thought-out emotional marketing helps you attract candidates that are simply a better cultural fit, and candidates that are more likely to become top performers in your system.
How is Emotional Marketing Different from Traditional Franchise Lead Generation?
Emotional marketing for franchise recruitment differs from traditional digital marketing in several ways. Traditional digital marketing focuses on promoting the features and benefits of a product or service, emphasizing price, quality, and value. It can focus on unique selling points or what a brand does. While this can be effective in some industries, it is often less effective for franchise recruitment, where potential franchisees are looking for more than just a product or service. They are looking for a business opportunity that aligns with their values, goals, and aspirations.
Emotional marketing for franchise recruitment is focused on building an emotional connection with potential franchisees, tapping into their feelings, values, and beliefs. It is about showcasing the unique personality, culture, and values of the franchise brand and connecting with potential franchisees on a deeper level. By creating an emotional connection with potential franchisees, franchisors can build a loyal and dedicated franchise network invested in the future of the brand.
Emotional Marketing Strategies for Franchise Recruitment
One of the key differences between emotional marketing and traditional digital marketing is the focus on storytelling. Emotional marketing is all about telling compelling stories that resonate with potential franchisees, showcasing the success stories of entrepreneurs who have grown with a particular franchise brand. By telling engaging and informative stories, franchisors can build an emotional connection with potential franchisees and help them see themselves as pillar franchisees in the system.
As humans, we use stories to make sense of the world around us, relate to one another, and to help us make decisions. Good emotional storytelling hinges on your ability to leverage stories your candidates can relate to. For instance, you might use a day in the life video, a 4 minute mini movie, on your website to help someone who is coming from a teaching background understand why they want to become a Kid2Kid franchisee, and help parents make their dollars go further for their children. The emotional story of a teacher changing careers and the ability to see that teacher succeed and thrive resonates on a deeper level than any general marketing.
Create a Cohesive Story
Enlarging the scope of your franchise recruitment site and creating a cohesive story that unpacks the entire explanation of the brand – essentially duplicating what a talented recruiter would explain in a 45 minute conversation with a candidate – is the best way to leverage emotional marketing. Instead of using overused terms like ‘about us’ and ‘meet our team’, create stories about the brand that answer the ‘Why’ someone should buy it, and help them visually see themselves in the culture. This is the area where franchise systems fail the most and fall prey to features and benefits marketing.
Another key difference is the focus on identifying passionate customers as the best prospects for franchise ownership. Passionate customers are those who already have a strong connection to the brand and are invested in its future. They are often the easiest to train and ramp up, and do not have any preconceptions or bad habits that need to be unlearned. By identifying passionate customers and creating visibility for the franchise among them, franchisors can attract new franchisees who are already invested in the success of the brand.
Brands often overlook their existing customer base as a serious source of franchisees, and are reluctant to market to them using recruitment messages. The truth is, your passionate customers have a subset of buyers who are entrepreneurial, and are thinking about opening a business. Leveraging your brand equity to reach these people and using emotional storytelling makes it more likely you can recruit customers into franchisees.
Use Trending Media
Short-form videos, podcasts, and articles are important tools in emotional marketing for franchise recruitment. These tools allow franchisors to showcase the unique personality and culture of the franchise brand in a way that is engaging and informative. Short-form videos can be used to showcase the success stories of entrepreneurs who have grown with a particular franchise brand, while podcasts and articles can provide an opportunity to tell more in-depth stories and engage with potential franchisees on a deeper level.
Emotional marketing and storytelling are crucial components of fruitful franchise recruitment in today’s market. By creating an emotional connection with potential franchisees, franchisors can build a loyal and dedicated franchise network, attract new franchisees to their system, and improve overall franchisee satisfaction and performance. Short-form videos, podcasts, and articles can be effective tools for building emotional relevance, while identifying passionate customers and top-performing franchisees can help franchisors attract the right franchisees to their system. By focusing on emotional marketing and building an emotional connection with potential franchisees, franchisors can create a powerful and effective franchise recruitment strategy that sets them apart from their competitors.
Learn More with Brand Journalists
Looking to get your franchise brand to the next level? Brand Journalists is the premiere franchise development agency specializing in franchise lead generation. We take pride in researching and implementing the newest trends in marketing to best support our clients. To start a conversation about what Brand Journalists can do for your brand, start a conversation with us today!