Warm Zee prospects are the Holy Grail for franchisors. But how do you find them, court them and onboard them?
Many lead generation sources have disappointed and underperformed. From online franchise portals to overly optimistic franchise brokers to informational seminars, lead generation often seems like a fleeting target.
But what if you were seen as “the authority”?
What if you were “editor” approved and receiving third-party credibility from achieve press coverage?
“Public relations gets new prospects to raise their hands for more details. They are already enthusiastic about our story and business model,” noted Kevin Dubois of Lapels Dry Cleaning.
Between Rounds Bagel Café’s Jerry Puiia asserted, “Publicity has not only generated warm leads but supports Zee relations as well.”
How do you create news?
In a nutshell, news and coverage is about –
- Taking a bow for community outreach
- Rolling out a new product, service or way of doing business
- Touting a new key staffer
- Celebrating a new location (and coaxing interest from prospects from concentric regions)
- Announcing capital raised
- Alerting of milestones (Examples – #s served, # lifestyles transformed, # Dreams attained)
- Industry tips (Seasonal and more)
The challenge is to identify and develop newsworthy opportunities that can be merchandised to the press in the form of news releases, preferably on a twice-monthly or more frequent basis to keep your name in front of your various audiences.
News releases are often the catalyst to more expansive feature coverage.
In addition to sharing your news releases with both the traditional press and online media, this original content should be repurposed to social media, your website’s newsroom and/or blog.
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