Yodle Franchisor Pulse Survey: Three Things Franchisor Marketing Leaders Want from Franchisees

Yodle releases findings from the study in advance of the International Franchise Association’s 2015 Convention

New York, NY - February 13, 2015 - Yodle, a leader in local online marketing and a provider of marketing automation solutions for franchise networks, today released findings from its “Franchisor Pulse Survey”. Yodle recently polled senior marketing leaders from service-based franchisors to learn more about their current and desired influence over franchisees, how much insight they have across their network, and goals and barriers to success, among other things.

“The Franchisor Pulse Survey has identified three important insights about what franchisors want that will help us further optimize the products and services that we deliver to our franchise clients,” said Corey O’Donnell, VP of Marketing, Yodle for Brand Networks. “This type of research helps us stay on top of issues that are impacting franchise networks, and we thank the CMOs and other marketing executives that participated in our study.”

Key findings from Yodle’s Franchisor Pulse Survey include:

1. Franchisors want a greater say over what their franchisees are doing. Franchisor marketing leaders believe they should have more influence over franchisee decisions and behavior related to operations and marketing. Twenty-one percent of respondents stated that they don’t have any influence over the operational and marketing behaviors of franchisees. Another 70% indicated they have some influence, but would prefer more. Franchisors identified advertising spend (76%), brand/messaging (70%) as well as reputation management, business practices, and customer relationship management (all 67%) as the five areas where they would most like to increase their influence.


2. Franchisors want more insight across their network. Ninety-three percent of marketing leaders desire more visibility into where individual locations are investing their discretionary marketing dollars, and 84% want more visibility into where corporate advertising funds are being spent. Further compounding this problem, only 6% of respondents currently have an automated way to gain location compliance or adoption of recommended marketing investments.


3. Franchisors want more franchisees to follow best practices. Marketing leaders identified three primary goals for the year: 1) increasing franchise network revenue (94%), 2) improving franchisee satisfaction (77%) and 3) expanding the number of franchise locations (71%). However, 48% of respondents shared concerns that a lack of franchisee participation in following proven approaches could result in them failing to meet these objectives.

For more information on the Franchisor Pulse Survey, please visit Yodle at booth #317 at the International Franchise Association’s 2015 Convention. The event is running from February 15th- 18th at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.

About Yodle
Yodle helps local businesses to find and keep their customers simply and profitably. Yodle delivers a comprehensive platform that makes online marketing easy, affordable, and transparent for its 45,000+ local business clients. Yodle’s flagship product, Marketing Essentials™, includes a comprehensive desktop, mobile, web and social presence, reviews and offer management, and email campaign automation. Marketing Essentials can be supplemented with Yodle Ads, Yodle’s proprietary and optimized paid search technology. Also offered by Yodle is Lighthouse 360®, which automates many of our clients’ daily consumer interactions or office routines such as appointment reminders, leading to improved operational efficiency and business results. Additionally, Yodle offers Centermark®, intended to meet the unique marketing challenges of networked businesses helping them to unify, scale, and optimize their local and national strategies. Yodle currently has 200+ networked business clients including Merry Maids, Miracle-Ear, TWO MEN AND A TRUCK®, and Cottman Transmission and Total Auto Care.

Yodle has been included on the Forbes list of America’s most promising companies for the last four years and has also won multiple awards for its business growth, job creation, technology innovation, and workplace and culture. For more information, visit www.yodle.com, www.lh360.com, www.yodlebrandnetworks.com or company career website.