There is one question we have been getting from virtually every franchisor, vendor, and consultant in the industry. What are you seeing on lead flow? The answer? For the May-July 2009 period compared to the same period in 2008, lead flow is down approximately 34% for the brands included in the FranchiseBenchmark report. There are franchisors that have cut back on advertising in an effort to reduce costs sectors that have shown slightly higher or slightly lower changes but the bigger shift is in the focus on lower priced concepts.
While all franchisors are keeping a weary eye on the external forces impacting their businesses, many are also looking internally at what is in their control. This means increased focus on spending and resource allocation. Not only are budgets getting reviewed for excesses, internal processes are also getting evaluated and adjusted to reduce inefficiencies.
In previous issues, we have included both trailing 12 month and trailing 3 month reports. But considering market conditions and dramatic changes in lead flow, the most recent trends are the most applicable at this point so we have only included the trailing 3 months list.
Top 20 Franchise Portals1
Trailing 3 Months (May '09 - July '09)
(Listed Alphabetically By Tier)
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With many franchisors reevaluating their marketing spend, we have been asked for more detailed information about advertising portal performance. Specifically, we've been requested to report on differences by industry, investment range, and other similarly objective segmentation. We have included investment range comparisons in the past as they sometimes show differences when compared to the standard rankings. However, all analysis to date has not shown any reportable differences in performance by industry sector.
For this report, we took a closer look at the completion rates of franchise applications, also commonly referred to as Confidential Questionnaires (CQs). The standard Top 20 ranking above factors in CQ completion rate in addition to several other factors. However, when we focused specifically on CQ rates, the differences were significant enough to report on.
Top 5 Based on CQ Rates4
Trailing 3 Months (May '09 - July '09)
(Listed Alphabetically)
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As any experienced franchise professional knows, selling franchises is still a numbers game and advertising sources must be evaluated based on the combination of lead flow, prospect interest, and qualification.
About FranchiseBenchmark
The aggregate data compiled for the
FranchiseBenchmark Industry Insight reports comes from the eMaximation sales and marketing technology solution that supports the franchise development efforts of more than 250 franchise and business opportunity brands. The data includes total lead flow, client usage, financial qualifications, email click-through rates, online franchise application rates, unsubscribe rates, expansion, and retention.
For more information about these reports or to make requests for future issues, please
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Previous Issues
July 2008 - Top 20 Portals
February 2008 - Top 20 Portals
October 2007 - Top 20 Portals
February 2007 - Top 20 Portals
August 2006 - Top 20 Portals
June 2006 - Lead Flow Trends
May 2006 - Top Ten Portals
1 FranchiseBenchmark and eMaximation make no guarantee that the websites will perform in the future as they have performed historically. Note: not all franchise websites serve all our clients in the same category level or capacity.
2 FranchiseExpo was formally known as Be The Boss.
3 Franchise Advantage Network includes FranchiseAdvantage.com and BusinessBroker.net
4 CQ rates refers to the percentage of leads that complete a Confidential Questionnaire for the requested concept.