Congratulations to Wiltshire Farm Foods for winning the Best Website Award at this year's Franchise Marketing Awards.
The importance of the franchisors Internet site cannot be underestimated. Initially it was built to promote the company's products or services to prospective clients. However, once the company becomes a franchisor, the Internet site needs to serve a second purpose: promote the franchise to franchisee candidates.
Thus the site needs to be tweaked. By becoming a franchisor, the main task at hand is to position the brand and to bring on board franchisees who will be selling/marketing the products and services. This change needs to be reflected on the Internet site. Failure to do so means that the franchisor may not realise its full potential.
Case in point, one of the franchise brands that MatchPoint represents -- which I'm completely passionate about -- having spent a considerable amount of time to get to know the owners and franchisees, for the longest had a terrible Internet site. Thus, when franchisee candidates looked at the site, they often came back confused about what the company really did. Their value proposition wasn't clear and candidates did not feel inspired. However, after a £25K investment in a new site, things radically changed. Franchisee candidates I referred to the brand were more enthused and focused on getting through the process. The new site better reflected the brand and its offering.
However, the promotion of the franchise didn't overpower the site. There was the right balance in promoting the brand to franchisee candidates and providing information about the products/services to prospective clients. Overall, the site was just better designed, well written and presented in a more professional manner. Furthermore, from my franchisee candidates perspective, it peaked their curiosity enough to want to engage further. So from that standpoint, mission accomplished with the relaunch.
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