Aug 14, 2019 | Blogs, News
This year’s Franchise Fest is being held at Coombe Abbey, Warwickshire on 20th– 21st November and we are on the lookout for talented franchisees, suppliers, performers, acts and brands.
Promoting everything that is special about franchising is the backbone of Franchise Fest 2019. Our aim for this year’s event is to get as many franchised businesses providing services, classes, and experiences, throughout the event. From art classes and yoga sessions, to caterers and trampolinists. We want everyone to immerse themselves in a total franchise experience and we want you to be at the heart of it.
We have some brands already planning to hold workshops, but we are still on the lookout for various other parts of the event, to be supplied by franchised businesses. Does your franchise do something fun/creative/interesting that you or your franchisees could share with the group? Do you have an interesting way of presenting/workshopping that could be of benefit to your peers? We want to hear from you!
We want to make this year’s Franchise Fest as an authentic as possible and showcase the best the industry has to offer.
We are also looking for performers for the evening of Franchise Fest Day One. Do you sing, play an instrument, dance or perform in anyway? This is your chance to showcase your skills to members of the industry you love! Our headline act has already been confirmed as The Superhero’s, fronted by the franchise worlds very own Matt O’Neil from ERA.
Are you involved in franchising and think you or someone in your network could contribute to a celebration or franchising and showcase what they do? Get in touch with us today! Email info@coconutcreatives.co.ukand let us what you can bring to Franchise Fest 2019.
For more information on Franchise Fest, please visit https://www.franchisefest.co.uk
Jul 26, 2016 | Blogs, News
Coconut Creatives is the leading, award-winning, bfa-accredited franchise marketing company. This year marks the 6th anniversary of the popular Coconut Franchise Recruitment Marketing Workshops (sponsored by RBS). These workshops have been adopted by almost 200 brands since 2010 and many are now QFP accredited by the bfa.
Coconut Creatives have partnered with Venture Marketing to offer exclusive at-cost places at their ‘How to Exhibit Effectively for Franchisee Recruitment’ workshop on 10th August for any franchise brands exhibiting at the 2016 National Franchise Exhibition (NEC, Birmingham).
Many franchisors attend the same shows each year but don’t make the most of them. As a franchisor you are in a room full of franchise brands competition for the attention and contact details of the same visitors. So it is important that you are noticed as a high-quality franchise opportunity.
Helen Wood from Venture Marketing Group will also be joining the Coconut Team and will be hosting a Q&A session on how to make the most of your exhibition package and taking questions from the floor.
Want to maximise your exposure during the shows you attend? Looking to make YOUR franchise stand out from the crowd? Want to find out more about effective follow-up tools that will turn your leads into franchisees?
If you answered yes to any of the above questions then the Coconut ‘How to Exhibit Effectively Workshop’ is for you. This workshop is open to everyone, whether you are exhibiting int he Autumn, or just looking to sharpen up on how to speak about your brand effectively.
To find out more click here email Helen Mansfield at helen@coconutcreatives.co.uk , alternatively you can contact us on 01725 511673.
Jul 7, 2016 | Blogs, News
At Coconut Creatives, we’re always looking to continue developing our services and team so that our clients continue to receive the very best service and to help us stay up-to-date within our industry. This month, our Coconuts will be embarking on a spot of Public Speaking training with Celia Delaney. Celia is an expert in delivering inspirational presentations and how to conduct yourself when speaking in public so we know that we’ll be receiving the very best advice from someone with a wealth of experience in effective public speaking.
We always tell our franchisors how important public speaking is for their business and for recruitment and we even offer some seminars on this very topic so we’re making sure that we practice what we preach! Our team speak at so many events and at our own workshops so we want to make sure that our technique is perfect and gain knowledge that we can pass on to our clients.
Not only will we be attending our own training, we will also be visiting the Head Offices of various franchisors to provide them with our expert training and advice. We will be spending time with their recruitment teams to help them learn more about ‘How to Market Your Franchise and Recruit for Network Growth’. Many franchisors are unsure about marketing techniques and how to get the most from their marketing strategy in order to recruit more franchisees. We provide them with up to the minute marketing strategy and techniques to ensure that they’re getting the most from their budgets.
“We have been asked by so many franchisors if we can visit their Head Offices to train their teams that throughout July, we will be travelling around the country, sharing our expert advice and knowledge. With over a decade of experience in the franchise sector, we know what it takes to stay ahead and continue effectively growing a franchise network. Many franchisors can hit a rut when it comes to their franchise recruitment marketing, so we’re here to ease some of the pain and share practical knowledge that has been tried and tested,” explains Paul Clegg. Managing Director.
To find out more about working with Coconut Creatives or attending one of our workshops in 2016, please contact us on 01725 511 673 or info@coconutcreatives.co.uk
Jul 5, 2016 | Blogs, News
When used and written correctly, e-shots can be an extremely effective marketing tool for your franchise recruitment. Prospects spend a huge amount of time trying to find the right franchise for them so they may have been to a franchise exhibition, trawled countless franchise listing websites and picked up various magazines but still haven’t found what they’re looking for. That is, until your expertly written e-shot lands in their inbox!
E-shots are a great way to communicate with prospective franchisees and let them know who you are and what you do. By creating an informative and inspiring e-shot, you want to spark their interest and lead them to find out more information about you either by clicking through to your website or picking up the phone to call you.
Who are you targeting?
Before embarking on any e-shot or marketing campaign, it is important to begin by profiling your target franchisees. Who are your top performing or perfect franchisees? What kind of backgrounds do they have? Is your franchise a lifestyle choice or a serious business suitable for a serial entrepreneur? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you to set the tone of the e-shot and decide on what kind of information you want to send.
Capture prospect’s interest
Once you have established your target audience and tone of voice, you will need a short, catchy subject line to capture prospect’s interest so that they will open your e-shot to read it. Without this, your e-shot is likely to get lost in your prospect’s inbox and will not be read. Is there something unique about your franchise that you can use to draw people in? A recent e-shot for one of our clients with the subject line ‘Take Your Slice of £500m’ got 76 enquiries over just a few days and a franchisee sign up within just 3 weeks. Take time to really think about the subject line because it will determine whether or not your e-shot is read or deleted straight away.
What are the benefits of your franchise?
What is unique about your franchise? You can mention the training that you offer but we don’t recommend you have this as the sole topic of your e-shot as many franchisors do this and yours needs to stand out from the competition. Is your business model thriving? Let your prospects know how joining your network could benefit them and how it fits with their goals and lifestyle wants and needs.
Follow up
The follow up you do after sending out an e-shot is the most important part of the process. We often find that far too many good leads are wasted due to poor follow up techniques. Make sure you have a dedicated team member who has the time and training to qualify and follow up on every lead that comes through. By sending further information through promptly you ensure that prospects keep your brand in mind and you don’t lose them to your competitors.
Although e-shots are a great way to target prospective franchisees, don’t rely on just one form of marketing communication for your franchise recruitment. Research has shown that the most successful marketing campaigns use a mix of communication channels. E-shots should form part of a researched and balanced franchise marketing recruitment campaign.
To find out more about how we could help you write e-shots or provide advice for your franchise recruitment marketing, please contact us!
Jun 15, 2016 | Blogs, News
We recommend that every franchisor we work with develops a perfect pitch (or your elevator pitch) to let prospects know who they are and what they do. A perfect pitch will help you to quickly and efficiently tell prospects what’s involved with your franchise opportunity and how it could benefit them. The idea being that if you were stuck in a lift with someone for 30 seconds, how do you convey your most important messages in that time? It should act as the foundation for any copy that you write about your business. It includes your key messages that should be contained within all communications, whether it be in sales, through your website, networking, video, phone calls and any other introductory communications.
By developing a perfect pitch, you ensure that your whole team has a base to start from when trying to communicate about your franchise opportunity. It also means that they’re all on the same page and providing your prospects with exactly the same message.
The work we undertake in creating a perfect pitch for our clients is based on our own extensive work, NLP techniques, and the psychology of the UK franchisee decision making process. The vital factors are the four stages of engagement:
- Clarity
- Credibility
- Relevance
- Believability
The creation of a perfect pitch will allow you to ensure that all of the communications used throughout your recruitment process and marketing are consistent. ‘Create once use many times!’; your perfect pitch can be used in all of the communications you have with prospects, from press releases, newsletters and editorial to emails and phone calls. It helps to give you, your team and your prospects clarity around what you do.
As you liaise more and more with you prospects, you will identify which key messages are important to them and you should use this first-hand information to tweak your current messaging or incorporate new messages. We also highly recommend that you research your existing network and find out more about what motivated them to join your franchise and try to incorporate these messages into your perfect pitch in order to attract more of the same people to your network.
Contact us to find out more about how to create a perfect pitch for your business.
Jun 13, 2016 | Coconut News, News
This month, Coconut Creatives is the Silver Sponsor of the bfa Annual Conference. As one of the biggest events in the franchise recruitment calendar, we’re so pleased to be involved and sponsoring for the second year in a row. We’re looking forward to seeing our clients, affiliates and new faces in the industry.
Not only are we sponsoring the event, our very own Adam Lovelock, Head of Online Marketing, will be joining the likes of Baroness Karren Brady and Iwan Thomas MBE by sharing his expertise and knowledge with attendees of the conference. As one of our technology geeks, Adam will be sharing his knowledge on ‘How to Transform your Business Through Technology’ at 3pm on the first day of the conference.
The conference is the centrepiece networking and knowledge sharing event on the bfa calendar and offers unrivalled opportunities for franchisors and professionals from the sector to make new connections, share invaluable advice and insight and be inspired.
“As our second year as Silver sponsors of the Conference, we’re looking forward to seeing new and old faces. The Conference is a great opportunity for everyone in the franchise industry to network and share their knowledge and advice with fellow franchisors and service providers. We always learn something new that we can take home and implement in our business to help us grow and develop. Coconut will also be sharing our own knowledge at the event to help others take away more information to continue building their businesses,” explains Paul Clegg, Managing Director at Coconut Creatives.
We will also be there to support our clients at the Franchisor of the Year awards. We’ve got a few in the running so we’re looking forward to hearing all about the winners and congratulating them on the evening!
To find out more about working with Coconut Creatives or attending one of our workshops in 2016, please contact us on 01725 511 673 or info@coconutcreatives.co.uk
