Written by Kaleigh Wells

Creating franchise buyer personas can be an extremely valuable exercise for Franchise Development Teams tasked with aggressive growth goals. Defining these personas allows you to better understand the motivations and needs of your ideal customer, and ultimately create sales and marketing content that resonates with them. 2022 is calling for franchisors to think smarter when it comes to how they engage prospective franchisees. In addition to creating or refining your persona definitions, selecting tech tools that support growth and make processes simpler are essential for business owners this year. Our Executive’s Guide to Franchising Tech in 2022 – CDO Edition is a great place to start if you are looking for inspiration on what you should be focused on in terms of tech options. But for the sake of this blog post, let’s hone in on why franchise buyer personas are so important and review some of the best things you can do to get them right.

What is a Buyer Persona?

A buyer persona is a rich profile of your ideal customer that brings that customer to life for sales and marketing teams. They are based on real data, but they are also fictional in that they represent the best-case scenario for your business. When you create them, you will include a variety of elements, including personal demographics, career backgrounds, motivational factors, income and wealth status, lifestyle, and more.

Why Create Franchise Buyer Personas?

There are a few key reasons why creating franchise buyer personas is important. First, it allows you to better understand your ideal customer. This understanding will help you create marketing content that resonates with them and drives them towards conversion. Additionally, developing buyer personas helps you define your target market more narrowly, which can result in increased ROI for your marketing efforts. Creating buyer personas is also relevant for SEO because it allows you to better attract your ideal customer and get them to your website.

Not only will having tight buyer personas help your ROI and SEO efforts, but it can also aid in making your broker network work for you. Brokers can’t sell your brand and tell your story without the right messaging and content to engage prospects. By providing them with ideal personas, they can more easily target potential franchisees and zero their efforts in on making the deal.

How to Create Franchise Buyer Personas

There is no cookie-cutter approach to creating franchise buyer personas, but there are a few tips that can help you get started. First, start by gathering data from your current customers. This data can come in the form of surveys, interviews, or focus groups. Once you have this data, you can begin to create profiles for your ideal customer. Be sure to think about things like age, gender, education, income level, occupation, and lifestyle.

Each factor like gender, age, income level, etc., can play a role in how a customer approaches buying a franchise. For example, a young woman with a high monthly income stream may be more likely to invest in a luxury franchise than an older man with a solid net worth but lower monthly income. Understanding the demographics of your target market is essential for creating marketing content that resonates with them and drives them towards conversion.

Also, consider what other types of franchisees have had success with your brand. Think carefully about their demographics as an initial investor but be cautious not to get too specific. Keep them broad enough that each persona is clearly differentiated. You can always add – or remove – personas over time.

Demographics are important but don’t forget to also consider psychographics. Psychographics are the attitudes, values, and interests of your ideal customer. This information can be gathered via in-depth interviews with current franchisees, as well as from sources like social media or even competitor websites. The very best personas usually include a picture of a person and their name, which theoretically embodies the “person” in the persona. While creating these personas can feel daunting, it is necessary to work through them to set yourself up for success. For help on going through the motions of setting up your personas, use the FranConnect Franchisee Buyer Persona Worksheet to make sure you don’t miss any details.

How Do You Put Your Personas to Work For You?

Once the persona is defined, you can begin to monetize them in several ways, both internally and public facing. The franchise website should be a comprehensive resource for buyers and potential members. Your franchise website should help prospective franchisees see themselves as a franchisee for your business and all that they could gain by becoming one. Using the data you collect while working through the Franchisee Buyer Persona Worksheet should steer what kind of messaging, content topics, and even the design your website should have in order to effectively engage with your prospects. The best way to avoid losing quality prospects is through crafting an appealing online profile tailored specifically towards enticing these individuals into taking action.

Sharing these newly defined personas with your team members is critical to ensuring everyone is on the page. Make sure everyone in your business reviews, understands, and knows how to use them when prioritizing conversations and tailoring their messages. Helpful tips shared by experienced franchisors are creating posters for their corporate offices that include these personas, or printing them out for every sales employee to have handy before calls.

Once you have nailed down your buyer personas, it is important to keep them updated as your business changes. As your brand evolves, so too may the needs and wants of your ideal customer. Regularly revisiting your buyer personas will help you ensure that your marketing content is always relevant and effective.