How to Make the Most of Your Video Investment
“Lights, camera…franchise development action!”
You secured the investment. You scheduled the film crew. They swooped in to work their magic. And presto! Your beautiful franchise development video is handed over on a silver platter.
You know the kind: A day in the life of your successful franchisee. The big kahuna in the C-suite touting the brand he founded. Or the zee of the year holding a trophy at a convention.
You load it onto your [hopefully separate] franchise development website, and your job is done.
Or is it?
Storytelling at its Finest
It’s no surprise that the most compelling pitch for investing in a franchise opportunity comes straight from the source: “Meet our happy franchisee living the dream!”
It’s like lightning in a bottle to hear about that journey up close. That’s storytelling at its finest. Best of all, your next prospective franchisee might imagine himself or herself in those same shoes too.
Viewers remember 95% of a message when it’s conveyed using video. And 72% of consumers would rather learn about a product or service by watching a video instead of reading text.
Do it well with the right speaker and the magic happens. Why? Because videos can showcase the emotional side of business. Excitement. Freedom. Success. Security. Happiness. Fulfillment. These words aren’t fluff. They result from a compelling, unscripted delivery from a living and breathing representative of your brand that can be watched, heard, and digested to the fullest extent.
According to HubSpot, a video on a landing page can increase conversion rates up to 80%. That often translates into form fills in development lingo to learn more about the business opportunity.
Easy-peasy, right? Well, no.
Seeing is Believing
Search Engine Journal defines video marketing as “leveraging videos to educate, entertain and engage an audience to achieve your business or personal goals.” Unfortunately, it’s the leveraging part that franchisors get so wrong.
It’s like an Oscar-worthy movie starving for an audience. Do you want a summer blockbuster or a hidden indie film? If you said blockbuster, then it needs to be on screens everywhere.
That’s code for don’t just put this on your website and call it a day. Because everyone loves a good story. They just need to see it.
I liken this fairly common mistake to focusing too much on the finished product instead of giving it an audience. The viewers, after all, are the important ingredient in fueling your franchise development pipeline.
Leverage Multiple Channels
According to Forbes, you don’t have to restrict your video to your website. You should share it with prospects in multiple ways, including emails, LinkedIn posts, TikTok, YouTube, webinars, and more.
Better yet, don’t just have the brand post these. Your leadership team should share too. People follow people more than they follow brands.
And don’t only promote the full-length video that lives on your website. You’ve got plenty of carrots to dangle.
Your video investment should include all the owned raw footage that can and should be edited in a ton of different ways for a variety of uses across a mix of channels.
Yes, by all means, tease the main feature. This is the low-hanging fruit that so many people overlook. Do that much, and you’re already improving on growing your audience.
But also remember you can chop it up for various soundbites to drive franchise development interest many times over. Semantix reports that videos lasting two minutes or less generate the most user engagement.
What if the poster child for your franchise opportunity could be edited into soundbites for a variety of calendar tie-ins, too? National Small Business Week, anyone? A VetFran example on Veterans Day? A successful female leader for Women in Business Month? Take your pick for the countless days, weeks and months-of-the-year where a calendar tie-in fits your business and your spokesperson.
Your marketing toolbox just exploded with rich content. All of a sudden, that singular video investment has a multitude of stories to tell and a long list of channels on which to share it.
Now that’s worth watching in full effect. Sound on.
