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Franchisors INDUSTRY MARKETING PLAYBOOK
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FranchisorsINDUSTRY MARKETING PLAYBOOK
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Contents
Why franchisors? 3
Why a playbook? 4
Why marketing? 4
Play 1: Know your target market 5What’s unique about their needs? 5
How can you add value? 5
Play 2: Match the product with their needs 7What are the benefits of Xero for franchises? 7
How can you help their transition to Xero? 7
Play 3: Perfect your elevator pitch 8
Play 4: Go to them; don’t wait for them to come to you 9
Play 5: Make yourself heard 10Mail 10
Social Media 10
Blog 12
Search engine marketing (SEM) 12
Search engine optimization (SEO) 12
Digital display ads 13
Website landing page 13
Sponsorship 13
Brochure 14
Play 6: Add value 15
Wrap up 16
Appendix – Xero Branding 17
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Why franchisors?Franchising is about replicating and selling a proven business model. Franchisors are successful business owners with an established business model that works for a particular product or service. They’d like to expand their business and have chosen to invest their money, time and other resources into doing it in a replicable, scalable franchise model.
Franchising is a significant and growing part of the economy worldwide. For example, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the franchise sector in the United States is predicted to grow by 5.6% to $522 billion in 2016. Employement and spend in this industry is also set to increase, as captured by the International Franchise Association Educational Association.
Numerous high-profile businesses and brand names are franchises – but smaller local and regional brands are often franchises too. All of these businesses need quality advice and insight.
Even with just one franchisor as a client, you have the opportunity to grow your practice by becoming an advisor to both the franchisor and the franchisees. The more experience you have working with franchises, the more valuable you become to other franchise networks because you understand their unique needs.
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Why this playbook?Xero wants to help you grow your practice, so we have developed a marketing tool that takes you through the steps to successfully market your practice to franchisors. You may want to follow each of the ‘plays’ outlined here to connect and engage with the franchise industry, selling your services along with the benefits of Xero.
In a crowded marketplace, your marketing efforts are critical. We hope our suggestions make the difference.
Why marketing?Marketing is all about communication – your success is dependent on your ability to communicate the benefits of your services to your clients. Industry marketing is effective because it’s so efficient. By marketing to a group of organizations with similar needs, you achieve economies of scale in your marketing efforts.
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Play 1 KNOW YOUR TARGET MARKET
Franchises can be any type of business from fast-food restaurants and convenience stores, to real estate and tax services. Well-known worldwide franchises include McDonalds, Subway, Hertz and Hilton Hotels. However most franchise networks are small, with perhaps 10 to 100 franchisees.
What’s unique about their needs?
Franchisors put the reputation of their brand on the line every time they license a franchise, so they put huge value into standardization, consistency and uniformity of their product and customer experience. This means being in control of business functions that are critical to the ongoing success of the franchise network as a whole – financial performance is a key factor.
Franchisees generally pay an initial fee to the franchisors; this gives them ownership of the business for a set period of time – typically three to five years. Franchisors may then receive monthly fees from the franchisees as payment for support and marketing.
It is in the best interests of franchisors to ensure their revenue stream isn’t compromised by franchisee trading performance, for example, if one of their franchises fails. More importantly, their franchise brand can be tarnished if solid financial management systems are not in place.
Just as with many other small businesses, franchisees tend to focus on operations, while the administration and finance side (the often painful parts of running a business) can be neglected.
Including accounting processes as part of the franchise package adds value to the franchise offer.
Although franchisees technically own their business, franchisors need to have visibility across all aspects of the business in order to support the franchisees. A supported accounting system and chart of accounts improves this visibility. Having a standard chart of accounts across the entire franchise network, the franchisor can accurately compare all the different franchises.
Having comprehensive reporting tools allows franchisors to proactively monitor their different franchises and provide support and advice where needed, before potential issues become large and unmanageable. The advice and support of an accountant can make all the difference.
How can you add value?
Franchisors tend to operate larger businesses (the ‘head office’) and would look to you to provide:
• Standard accounting system advice, training and support
• Strategic tools and guidance to help them improve and grow
• Systems advice around benchmarking, cashflow, and key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Business advice on how to maximize performance of their franchise network
• Clear and consistent reporting across their franchise network.
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Your relationship with franchisors is really important. They need to trust you with not only the books, but with advising them on how varying their business model or taking up new growth opportunities can affect their network, especially with emerging (newer) franchises. That trust comes from showing them that you truly understand not only their challenges in running a franchise network, but the different challenges their franchisees face.
Don’t be afraid to challenge franchisors. They may know their business inside and out, but being that close may cause them to lose some objectivity. You can provide that by helping them see ‘the forest through the trees’, e.g. an impending issue or a new opportunity, or take away key learnings from great successes and minor failures.
You want to help franchisors succeed and grow, and share in that growth by having them include your services in their franchise package. You can offer a ‘review’ or ‘start-up’ package for their new franchisees to discuss their particular needs and how your knowledge of the franchise network can help them grow a successful franchise.
Some franchisors will provide business coaching and work with their franchisees to set their own KPIs, such as turnover. These are benchmarked against successful franchises in their network. Having visibility across all franchises in real-time ensures the KPIs are being met. However, other franchisors may not have the experience or capacity to provide business coaching or to develop KPIs with their franchises, so this is where you can offer real added value to both the franchise owner and franchisee.
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Play 2MATCH THE PRODUCT WITH THEIR NEEDS
When developing Xero, we wanted to create accounting software that was easy to use and provided real-time financials for businesses so they would always have the most up-to-date information to make business decisions. Because of this, franchisors will love how they have financial visibility over their entire franchise network.
What are the benefits of Xero for franchisors?
Xero can be used anytime, anywhere - Franchisors can easily review their franchisees’ numbers in a standardized format and in real-time, without waiting for them to be sent through.
Xero connects to banks - Xero imports all live transaction data from franchisors’ banks, so they always have an up-to-date and accurate picture of their finances.
Xero has reporting templates - Franchisors love that they are comparing apples with apples across their entire franchise network using a standard chart of accounts, helping them identify real business problems, not ones caused by inconsistent reporting.
Xero adds value – Franchisors love that they can add value to franchisees with better tools and systems, which includes adding Xero as part of their franchise package.
Xero adds control – By adding Xero to their franchise package, franchisors have better control of financial performance across their network.
Xero connects with KPI and benchmarking apps - Franchisors love the deeper insight and increased visibility they get into their franchise network’s financials by using add-ons like Spotlight Multi or Fathom Reporting. This means making better-informed decisions to grow your business.
How can you help their transition to Xero?
Xero really ticks all the boxes for franchises, but change is not always easy and you can really help ease the transition. A project management approach and sufficient timing for a smooth ‘onboarding’ are key.
Some suggestions are:
• Decide the best timing to switch to Xero; a new financial year is generally best
• Work with the franchisor to set up their Xero accounts, including bank feeds
• Convert their financial data from their previous system
• Set up ‘head office’ consolidated reporting, KPIs and benchmarking with a Xero add-on like Spotlight Multi.
And don’t forget, although Xero is easy to use, they won’t know Xero the way you do, so make sure you provide all the training and support they need as they make the switch. And provide training for their current and new franchisees to ensure consistency.
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Play 3PERFECT YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH
You know your market and how Xero will meet their needs; now you need to wrap it up into a proposition that will speak to franchisors.
Here are the top 10 reasons a franchisor should move to Xero:
• Dashboard gives a clear financial overview - instant clarity
• Visibility across your whole network - anytime, anywhere for peace of mind
• Compare apples with apples across your network with standard chart of accounts
• Reporting add-ons consolidate data for a clearer picture and useful insights
• Adds value to your franchise offering
• Safe and secure - user permissions and encrypted data
• Automated daily bank feeds - automatic data import saves time and effort
• Fast, simple and customized invoicing - including online invoicing
• No installation and automatic free updates - no more disks or out-of-sync systems
• Available anytime, anywhere you’re online - great for businesses on the move.
Xero has done some of the work for you on our landing page – www.xero.com/franchises – so use this a reference to support your pitch.
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Play 4DON’T WAIT FOR THEM TO COME TO YOU
Look through your list of current clients. Do you have any franchises on your books? Have they already been converted to Xero? If not, why not? Do they know about Xero? Reach out to them. Also make contact with other franchises they know that are not current clients.
Reach out to franchises in your area. You will already know many of them, but doing research on Google will help you find others you may not know about. Franchise networks are moving into new markets regularly so keep an eye on new franchises opening in your area and beyond. Many franchise websites have information about areas where they are looking to open franchises.
Most countries have a franchise association or franchise council. Get in contact with them to see how you can reach their members. Some may require you to become a corporate member before having access to their members. Others may allow you to advertise on their website or in their newsletter. Others may have events you could sponsor. Even if you don’t want to sponsor an event, make sure you have a presence at your regional and even national association events. Franchisors use these events to meet, network and compare notes.
Finally, organize your own event such as an open house or a seminar, on how you can help franchisors in their business. Topics could include:
• Doing business in the cloud
• The benefits of moving to Xero
• Moving your franchise network to Xero
Reach out to Xero and the add-ons to help with events and collateral.
Regional franchise associations:
International Franchise Association (USA) www.franchise.org [email protected]
Franchise Council of Australia www.franchise.org.au [email protected]
Franchise Association of New Zealand www.franchiseassociation.org.nz [email protected]
British Franchise Association www.thebfa.org [email protected]
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Play 5MAKE YOURSELF HEARD
So, you’re ready to market your services to franchises. How are you going to make yourself heard? At Xero, we use a wide variety of marketing tools to reach potential customers. We don’t suggest every one is appropriate for you. Get familiar with the different tools and determine which one or combination would work best for your practice and provide you the greatest return on investment.
Contact details
Your database of current clients should have all the contact details for clients you want to contact via email or personalized letter. And any sponsorship of industry events or conferences should give you contact details for heaps of potential clients in the franchise industry. You will want to send a different email or letter to each of these groups, as some are already clients and others you’ve just met.
Easy to set up, low cost and immediately measurable email is one of the simplest means of online communication.
Group emails are best managed via specialized email software that enables you to manage your database, build templates for your emails, measure email campaigns and keep an accurate record of your email activity. This software does not replace your normal email programs (such as Outlook, Apple Mail etc.) used for individual email communication. We use Marketo, but there are free options as well, such as Mail Chimp.
Direct mail
A bit more old school than an email, there is something about receiving a personalized letter in the mail that people still like. And they are less likely to throw it out before reading. It is a more expensive option than email (printing, postage), but can be highly effective.
Content
So what do you say in your email or letter? If you’re writing to current clients, talk about the features and benefits of Xero, how you can work with them to make the switch and additional services you can offer once they make the switch.
For potential clients, introduce yourself and your practice, talk about how Xero can save them time and money and how they can benefit from working with you and Xero.
Sample email or letter:
Our firm, <Practice name>, helps franchise businesses like yours thrive. That’s because we understand the challenges you face and have solutions to help.
We use Xero online accounting software, which is collaborative and easy-to-use. With Xero, you have access to your data anytime, anywhere, on any device. And since we’re managing your books, we can also provide financial advice when you need it.
Give us a call if you want to talk about what we can do for your company.
Best regards <Practice name>
Social media
Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn let you create an online presence and publish your ideas, photos and videos. This is a great way to grab the attention of franchises who are already following you. They can then share your messages with their networks earning you fantastic (and free!) exposure.
The more compelling and interesting your content is, the more likely your followers will like, comment, and share. When they do this, they’re engaging with your brand, and their networks (friends, family, colleagues) are seeing that engagement and may be prompted to check you out for their own accounting needs.
The most challenging part of social media is resourcing. Each account that you create online needs to have a person on the other end to provide updates and respond to customer conversations. Don’t set up an account if you don’t think you’ll be able to keep it up-to-date.
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Twitter was originally marketed as a means to let people share what they are doing in real life, in real time “in between emails and blogs.” Twitter is now widely used by businesses to stay in touch with their customers and their competition. Use Twitter not just as a sales tool, but also as a way to communicate, share interesting news and information, provide customer service and just get to know your customers. Look at tweeting one to three times a day, but obviously only if you have something interesting to say or share (sharing can include retweeting relevant tweets from other sources). Don’t just tweet for the sake of it.
Sample tweets
• News impacting the franchise industry
• Link to articles on economic trends for franchisors
• Top opportunities for franchisees
Facebook pages are for businesses and brands to share their stories and connect with people. People like your page and you keep them engaged with interesting and compelling posts. Let your followers know what you’re up to, show the human side of your practice, share interesting articles, ask questions and take polls. Show an interest in your followers and what is important to them. And always try to include an image with your post – it helps grab attention. Post on Facebook at least a couple of times a week, but never more than once a day. Your followers are busy people and you don’t want to overwhelm them with posts.
Sample posts
• Weekly top tip for running your franchise more efficiently
• Link to a great article on how a successful franchise weathers the economic downturn, with your take on what it means for your clients
• International trends in the franchise industry.
LinkedIn is a social networking site designed specifically for the business community. The goal of the site is to allow registered members to establish and document networks of people they know and trust professionally. Both franchisors and franchisees are active users of LinkedIn and participate frequently in discussions on one or more of the hundreds of groups set up for this sector. Find groups in your region and make sure you join the discussions. Become a thought leader in franchise and cloud accounting.
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Blog
What is a blog? Simply put, it is a section of a website that is used for regular updates of information and articles regarding topics important to your practice and your clients.
A blog is a great forum to talk directly to your clients and potential clients and start conversations. They’re also easy to share across social media platforms. Most templates have the ability to add links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ allowing you to encourage readers to post a link to your blog from these platforms. It’s simple – just add “Like this? Share ...”
Most blog post are 200 - 400 words long and it is better to publish short, regular little paragraphs that are well written and relevant. Simply adding a photo, chart, illustration or any type of image can increase interest and readership. Just ensure you attribute any images that are not your own to the owner.
Blogs take care and attention. Set yourself a goal to write two or three blogs a month. If you don’t think you have the resource to do that, then blogging may not be for you.
Sample blog topics
• Top 10 tips to make your franchise stand out in the network
• What it takes to start a franchise
• How latest regulations/tax changes/industry developments affect your clients
• Events you are holding or attending
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing is the practice of advertising your website within the paid areas of search engine result pages (SERP). Advertising appears above the search results.
SEM has become very popular because of its cost-effectiveness – advertisers can get a lot of value from even tiny budgets. With SEM you have the ability to target your ads at precisely the market you’re hoping to reach with little wastage of spend on people outside the target market. For example, if you only want to reach franchises based in the UK, you can set your ad to only appear in front of people who are in the UK and searching specifically for franchise accounting.
SEM is also cost-effective because you’re charged on a ‘cost-per-click’ basis. This means you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. You also set your own price – you specify how much you are willing to pay for a click through to your website. You can also put a cap on your spend, so there is no need to worry about a huge bill at the end of the month if your ad is too successful.
Getting started is easy and because you can put a cap on your budget, the risks are small. Both Google and Bing provide simple self-service platforms that allow you to get up and running within five minutes.
Google AdWords: adwords.google.com Bing Ads: bingads.microsoft.com
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is the practice of improving your website and its content so that it ranks higher in “organic” (unpaid) SERPs. Organic search results are those that appear below the highlighted, paid advertising at the top of the results page.
A higher-ranking website is a vote of confidence from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. In other words, if your website is more prominent, it means the search engines consider your website relevant to your main category. The result is that potential customers using the search engine are more likely to click through to your site (think about it – how often do you go past the first or second results page?).
SEO is important because search engines need to be able to read all of the elements that make up your website in order to determine how relevant your site is to a search query. They will look at everything from text to images to site speed to HTML. Therefore, it is important that all of these are carefully planned, informative, and/or descriptively labelled so that search engines can read your site, understand it and rank it.
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Digital display ads
Display advertising is a type of advertising that typically contains text (i.e. copy), logos, photographs or other images and similar items. Digital display ads are the ads you’ll see on websites as opposed to the text-only ads used on search engines (SEM).
You can target very specific audiences with digital display ads depending on where you choose to place them. Franchisors and franchisees tend to gravitate towards certain websites, read specific blogs and follow other franchises in their network and outside through social media. You can advertise on all these platforms. Determine where you would like to advertise and the site will have information on cost, reach (how many people will see your ad), specs (the size and format of your ad) and how to book.
If you are going to spend money on digital display ads, then you should spend time on the design to ensure that they stand out, in a good way. As with your website, first impressions are lasting impressions. Look at getting a designer who specializes in digital advertising to develop your ads.
All digital ads should link directly to your website, and more specifically, your dedicated landing page (see below). This means that when someone clicks on the ad, it takes them directly to your site. It’s also a good idea to have an offer in the ad to entice the potential client to click to learn more.
There are two main (popular) ways websites charge for display ads. At a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) or CPC (cost per click) rate. With CPM, for every thousand people who see your ad, you pay a certain price. Websites will provide their average impressions per page over a specific period in their media kits. Based on those averages, you can determine how long your ad will be displayed. With CPC, you only pay when someone has clicked on the ad and comes to your website. The more popular your ad, the more people will click and the more you will pay; however, you know you are achieving your objectives because people are clicking through to your site. Different websites will have different prices for CPM and CPC, so determine which websites would be best to target franchises in your area and then look at how they charge and how much they charge.
Landing page
A landing page is a single web page that appears in response to clicking on a search result or an online advertisement. The landing page will usually display information that directly relates to the search result or ad. The general goal of a landing page is to convert site visitors to sales leads.
We encourage you to create a dedicated landing page to promote Xero and its benefits on your website, detailing just what Xero is and how it allows you to take the advisor-client relationship to the next level.
As with your website, you’ll want to make sure your landing page is well-designed in order to draw potential clients in as soon as they hit it. The designer who created your website would be a great choice to design your landing page as well.
Your landing page should have a very clear call to action (CTA). Your CTA is what you want people to do when they land on your page. If you want them to contact you for more information, make sure you have your contact details in a prominent position on your page and make it easy to link to your email/contact form.
At Xero, we have created a number of landing pages targeting specific industries or complimenting a promotion we are carrying out. We have created our own landing page to attract franchises – xero.com/franchises
Sponsorship
Sponsoring an industry event or conference is a great way to get in front of potential franchisors. There are a number of events tailored specifically to franchises, so it is worthwhile taking the time to do some research online. Begin with franchise associations. If they don’t have information on events or conferences on their website, ring them and have a chat about the best places to get in front of them.
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Sponsorship can seem costly, but if the event is targeted directly at franchises, in close proximity to your office and the expected participant numbers are high, then it can definitely prove value for money. You can’t beat face-to-face interaction with potential clients.
We sponsor a number of events for franchises including the franchise expos in both New Zealand and Australia. We also attend conferences for specific franchise networks, ie McDonald’s.
Brochure
If you’re sponsoring an event or exhibiting at an event, it’s a good idea to have something for potential clients to take away. Something that sells your services and explains how you can help their business to succeed and grow.
Your takeaway should be eye-catching, easy to read, clearly explain the benefits of your practice and using Xero, and have a call to action alongside your contact information.
Our takeaway is ‘Why people love Xero’ (http://www.xero.com/media/161347/why_people_love_xero.pdf) that lists 10 reasons people love Xero on the front side. If you’d prefer to use ours instead of creating your own we supply these to Bronze and above partners for free.
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Play 6ADD VALUE
As with any business, the financials are important for franchisors, but there are other elements that feed into their success. If they’re not already using them, advise clients on the value of using add-ons from the Xero ecosystem – add-ons that have been tailored to integrate with Xero to save time and money.
Talk to us about which add-ons may be best suited to the franchises you are looking to work with, as there are a range of industry-specific software tools as well, including Vend, GeoOp and Unleashed.
Spotlight Reporting is a cloud application that allows you to easily create useful standard or customised performance reports quickly. It also allows you to set and monitor KPIs or targets, drill into cashflow and forecast the future for better decision-making.
Receipt Bank makes the gathering, storage and processing of receipts and invoices as easy and as cost effective as possible and converts them directly into Xero data.
Spotlight Multi is a specialist franchise tool that consolidates up to 500 Xero orgs for one head office report. Its Google Analytics integration allows an outward-looking marketing focus for franchisors and franchisees.
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Wrap upThe franchises have unique needs from their accounting software and Xero helps fulfill those needs. By following the plays outlined in this playbook, you’ll attract franchisors and grow your accounting practice.
Play 1: Know your target market
What are franchises and what is unique about their needs?
Play 2: Match the product with their needs
How does Xero fulfill the needs of franchisors?
Play 3: Perfect your elevator pitch
Sum up in 10 bullet points what Xero can do for franchisors.
Play 4: Go to them, don’t wait for them to come to you
Where do franchisors hang-out? What they read? Who influences them?
Play 5: Make yourself heard
There are a large number of marketing tools you can use to reach out to franchisors. Pick and choose based on your budget and resources.
Play 6: Add value
What else can you offer alongside Xero that will attract franchisors?
If you’d like more information on marketing to industries in general, please contact your Xero Account Manager for tips, tricks, resources and best practices.
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AppendixXERO BRANDING
Xero is happy to support co-branding by partners. In any co-branding initiative it’s important to strike the right balance between the use of your brand and the Xero brand.
Please remember that Xero must always approve co-branding.
Rules
• Use of the name Xero in your company name, product name, service offering or URL is not permitted.
• Use of the Xero logo, tagline and web address must conform to the brand guidelines.
• Apart from the use of the Xero logo, use of the Xero brand blue is not permitted.
• Copying or obvious adaptation of the Xero design interface from either the marketing site www.xero.com or the Xero application is not permitted.
• Use of copy, images, screenshots, photos and any other content produced by Xero is permitted only with approval.
• When promoting or offering your products or services, your brand must be the dominant brand.
• When promoting or offering Xero products or services, you must use materials provided by Xero. You can only alter the materials and apply your own brand and content in ways pre-approved by Xero.
• Any implied endorsement by Xero or implied affiliation with Xero must be approved.
Xero is a fast-moving company that is dependent on close partnerships - we will ensure you get a speedy and flexible response to all co-branding requests.
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Beautiful accounting software
