We asked Luis Font, Co-Founder of The Camp Transformation Center, how he has used innovation to enhance his brand’s lead generation and recruiting efforts.
The fitness industry continues to expand and is becoming increasingly more and more competitive. It seems like every day there is a new fitness concept launching, bombarding aspiring entrepreneurs constantly with the next “big thing.” Brands must work harder and harder to differentiate themselves from their competitors and find new and innovative ways to connect with potential franchise owners.
The Camp Transformation Center has developed a unique approach to lead generation that starts with spotlighting consumers’ success stories. We begin by creating brand awareness and loyalty campaigns, educating prospective owners on the concept of franchising, and ultimately explaining the benefits of owning their own Camp.
Facebook marketing has been a driving force behind engagement with current and potential members. These compelling stories of body transformation, client success, and owner happiness have translated into brand awareness and loyalty. Entrepreneurial members, their families, and co-workers see our ads, social media posts, and begin to fall in love with the idea that they will be part of this growing community. We create roughly 60 to 80 professional images every month, highlighting key components of our brand, our business model, and more. Each of these images announces that franchise opportunities are available and are viewed thousands of times a month.
We’ve also created a blog series to capitalize on the rich backstory of our brand. The weekly blogs deliver education on The Camp, the fitness industry as a whole, the franchise industry as a whole, and specifically the benefits of franchising with our brand. We’ve found that by educating consumers who have previously expressed an affinity for our brand on the successes and strengths of both the fitness industry and our franchise business models, they are more likely to inquire about franchising with us.
We market this information directly to an internal database of more than 100,000 subscribers, generating inquiries on a weekly basis, sometimes as many as 30 to 40 a month. We are able to capitalize on these opportunities by incorporating auto-scheduling software such as Calendly. This means that as someone completes the request to learn more about our franchise model, they are instantly emailed a thank-you message with a link to book a time to speak with our team at their convenience. We also text this information to our franchise candidates within 24 hours, often scheduling calls within a few hours of the inquiry coming in.
We further educate prospective franchise owners and generate additional inquiries through an ongoing series of free franchise webinars hosted by our development team. These webinars are offered monthly and recorded for those that can’t attend. We use GoToWebinar to create a link that can be shared systemwide through email blasts, social media posts, and more. Sometimes as many as 80 people will register for a single webinar.
We also recently partnered with Locate, which allows us to geofence our current gym locations and collect crucial member data such as demographics, psychographics, and competitive and complementary businesses. By delving deeper into our member data we can better understand what drives location success, which, in turn, helps us identify “hot” markets for development. We can then leverage lead generation services like BizBuySell to drive lead generation in specific markets with the highest chance for success.
The industry will continue to evolve and companies, including ours, will have to constantly find new and innovative ways to engage the consumer, drive unit success, and attract new franchise owners.