We recently attended Springboard Conference, for Emerging and (Re)Emerging Franchisors. Let's spill the tea—the takeaways were incredible! 🔥💯
Industry experts came in from all over the country, bringing their A-game to share best practices, pro tips, and even some epic fails from past franchise ventures. It was basically a Netflix binge of insights, with a million "ah-ha" moments, notebooks filled to the brim with juicy tidbits, laughs with colleagues, and oh so many handshakes.
As your number one resource for everything franchise marketing, the Momentum Brands team is giving you a front-row seat to all the deets from this value-packed conference, especially for our clients and franchise friends who couldn't make it in person. 🚀📈
Our Favorite Tips, Tricks & Lessons from all the Springboard Experts
🍔🍟 CLIFFORD HUDSON, FORMER CEO OF SONIC
Listen to your franchisee’s ideas, hone-in on the good ones, test them, and understand how they can be scaled
Some of the most successful, iconic, and financially impactful initiatives in franchising have come from franchisee ideas
Think: they launched their entire ice cream business and revenue stream off a franchisee’s intel of who was doing it better than anyone else
Get creative with budget
When rolling out a mandated company policy, technology, etc., think outside the box when it comes to funding the new initiative
Is there opportunity to have it sponsored in exchange for advertising space in your location or on other company forums?
Sonic had a vendor partner sponsor the digital menu initiative and offered sponsorship marketing in return
Brilliant way to save franchisees money and gain 100% system-wide adoption
People spend incrementally when they’re offered convenience
Sonic heard a speaker from a major credit card company talk about how the female consumer needed convenience most
So, they rolled out credit card machines at every stall and experienced system-wide sales increases. The same was true when they rolled out pre-ordering on their app
🏠 🛠️ MARY THOMPSON, COO OF NEIGHBORLY
Your culture needs to be infused into every process
Focusing on the culture of your business will sustain you long-term
Building a trusting relationship with your franchisees is imperative: “The minute you pull out the contract, you’re in trouble”
Consider starting tough franchisee conversations with “I seek your greatest good and I mean you no harm”
Make sure your brand values are clear and fall back on them in tough conversations
🧸 🎈ABBY FOGEL, VP, MARKETING & BRAND RELATIONS OF UNLEASHED BRANDS
Take the time to create your ideal franchisee profile to serve as a guiding light when interviewing prospects. Consider their strengths, weaknesses, passions, and key motivators
When creating your ideal franchisee profiles, think about where you aspire to have your brand go in the future
🌯 🌮 PAUL ALTERO, CO-FOUNDER & CEO OF BUBBAKOO’S BURRITOS
Invest in your existing franchisees
Be available for their phone calls, visit their locations, and spend ample time building relationships with them
This is the greatest way to attract more franchisees organically
🧹🏠 MARCI KLEINSASSER, VP, MARKETING & FRANCHISE DEVELOPMENT OF HOME FRANCHISE CONCEPTS
Create an enticing referral program that will encourage and excite your existing franchisees to bring you qualified prospects for franchise development
🍜 🥡 DOK KWON, PRESIDENT & COO CUPBOP
Content creation for your brand doesn’t have to be expensive
Hire someone savvy, creative, and resourceful to pump out as much branded content as possible
Don’t spend too much time obsessing over the content topics and trying to understand which ones will “go viral”
The frequency at which you post will impact engagement more than one extremely thought-out and super produced piece of content
If you’re looking for content inspiration, start by looking into what is already trending, may that be certain sounds, concepts, filters, etc. and find ways incorporate your brand into one of the trends
🐶 📱 SHANIA DENNY, CEO & CO-FOUNDER OF DOGDROP
Set your franchisees up for success when it comes to collecting content for the brand Invest in a new iPhone for each location so team members are encouraged to capture photos and videos
Be sure to have a laminated list of brand standards and content “No’s” hung up in every location, so the front-line staff members clearly know what types of imagery to avoid and what showcases the brand best
🥊 👊 SHANNON HUDSON, CEO AND FOUNDER 9ROUND KICKBOXING
Take the time to engage with the non-responding franchisees
Culture starts at the top, with the leader
If you want positivity, excitement, and energy, you need to bring it yourself
When it comes to writing your mission statement, every word has a price
Choose the words carefully and keep it clear and concise
Think big, start small. Keep the grand vision in mind throughout the scaling process but don’t try to do everything at once
When in doubt, simplify
📉📢 OUR VERY OWN BROOKE BUDKE WILTSE, FOUNDER AND CEO OF MOMENTUM BRANDS
Brooke moderated a panel of four truly exceptional CEOs of emerging brands
Watch for a blog to drop on all the insight from the highly-informative Brand Fund discussion
Overall, the lasting impact these brand leaders and more had on our team was worth sharing, repeating, and infusing into our Momentum Brand Partners.
It was a huge reminder that good old fashioned, in-person networking is still the ultimate flex. Bringing your team to a franchise conference and exposing them to emerging brands with fresh concepts, wisdom from seasoned executives, and groundbreaking approaches to problem solving in business is an absolute must-do.
Springboarders, did you scoop up some major conference gems that didn't make it to this blog post? Anything super cool, mega helpful, or totally trailblazing? Let us know – we're all ears! Shoot us a message and let's trade those knowledge nuggets! 💬🚀
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