Good or bad, we’re in a timeframe when franchisors need to be prepared to face both immediate and extended crises. Each have the potential to disrupt franchise companies on several levels and leave a damaging path of destruction behind. The first is the immediate crises: sudden, unpredictable events that often gain traction on social media and demand quick response. The second is slower-moving but equally impactful—cultural, societal, and regulatory shifts that are reshaping how consumers interact with your brand.

In either scenario, it’s essential to remain calm and respond with an intentional strategy that builds trust. A well-prepared crisis communications plan allows you to navigate the situation thoughtfully, rather than react emotionally. Clear, confident communication goes a long way in showing stakeholders – employees, franchisees, industry peers, customers, and more – that you’re in control and committed to maintaining your brand values in any scenario.

Preparing a Crisis Communications Plan

No matter the threat your brand is facing, the key to responsibly responding to any crisis is an actionable, well-thought-out plan. Every franchisor should have a crisis communications plan in place to protect their brand’s reputation and maintain trust with key stakeholders when things go awry. A key component of that plan is your Crisis Response Team, which should include key decision-makers familiar with your brand’s values, target audiences, and communication channels. It’s essential to include a representative or two from operations, finance, legal, the franchisee advisory council and PR on this team to ensure that messaging is not only aligned with your brand but also legally sound. Having this task force in place will be your key to implementing the plan when a crisis takes shape.

The plan should also outline steps for handling different types of crises, from low-level threats to more complex situations. Use the plan as a guiding document to establish key brand principles in crisis response efforts and media response protocols. With a clear structure in place, your team will be ready to act swiftly and decisively when a crisis arises.

Addressing Immediate Crises

On a small scale, immediate crises might look like a customer leaving a negative review for your business. On a larger scale, it could be an outbreak of food poisoning, or an employee getting called out on social media for poor behavior. Regardless of the size of the threat, the most important thing to do in an immediate crisis is to eliminate the escalation of the matter to the press, viral social media or other public channels.

In responding to an immediate crisis, it’s important to determine whether a proactive or reactive approach is most appropriate. Proactive messaging is necessary when the situation involves health, safety, or other issues that could significantly impact your team, customers or vendor partners. In these cases, it’s crucial to get ahead of the narrative and determining how best to communicate, and what channel to use to communicate to mitigate damage. For instance, direct calling may be more effective than sending an email or issuing a press statement. It all depends on the scale and severity. However, by addressing the crisis upfront, you can demonstrate control and transparency, which helps maintain trust.

On the other hand, there are times when a reactive approach is the better option, such as when you’re dealing with a disgruntled guest whose claims are likely unfounded, and it’s unclear whether they will take the matter public. In these instances, a thoughtful, reactive statement may be more effective, allowing you to respond to the situation as it unfolds without prematurely escalating it. This is where your crisis communications plan can come in handy—it will allow you to define the extent to which you should respond to a complaint.

Handling Broad Societal Shifts

In addition to immediate crises, franchise brands are currently swamped with external threats—regulatory shifts, extreme weather, supply chain shortages, and geopolitical conflicts are disrupting businesses today. While these factors are beyond your control and cannot be resolved immediately, having a clear plan for how your brand responds is essential to maintaining trust with key audiences.

Take the recent tariffs, for example. This is a regulatory change that will likely impact many franchisors. In situations like these, it’s important to acknowledge the problem rather than ignore it. Your franchisees, industry peers, vendors, customers, and employees are informed and will hear about the issue on their own. The best approach is to address it proactively, getting ahead of the conversation and establishing yourself as a trustworthy source during uncertain times.

When crafting your statement about how your brand will respond to a societal shift, it’s crucial to choose the right communication channels. Tailor your message to each audience—what works on Facebook or Instagram, might not be suitable for your email subscribers. As the situation evolves, be ready to adjust your messaging and strategy, particularly if negative sentiment increases after your initial statement. Staying flexible and responsive will help you navigate the changing landscape more effectively. Your Crisis Response Team can be a help here, too; since they have been briefed on your core messaging, they will be able to monitor a societal shift as it evolves and provide recommendations.

PR crises don’t have to cause panic for franchisors. When you’re able to quickly identify the type of crisis you’re dealing with and follow the plan you have set in place, you can retain the trust of your loyal customers, franchisees, and the public. Whether you have direct control over the situation or it’s out of your hands, a thorough crisis communications plan can help you shape the narrative and potentially turn it into your advantage in the end.

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Jamie Izaks is the President of All Points Public Relations, a franchise-focused integrated PR agency based in Chicago, www.allpointspr.com.

Other factors to consider as you build your franchise development website could include the key selling points of your brand for the type of franchisee you want to attract, or how much research you want a potential lead to be able to do before getting in touch. When you put thought and effort into the right elements, you can create a franchise development website that is both effective and high-performing.

Landing Pages

The goal of a franchise development website is to have qualified leads fill out your inquiry form. In addition to a handful of pages that provide general information, supplemental landing pages that are geared to your target franchisee are instrumental in the conversions of qualified leads. For instance, if you are seeking multi-unit operators looking to expand their portfolios, you should have a landing page that specifically highlights the opportunity for multi-unit ownership in your franchise.

Personalization is key to any successful marketing campaign, and franchise development is no exception. Having tailored website content in the form of landing pages, allows you to have strategic advertising campaigns that will further drive qualified lead generation. By pairing this approach with data-driven tracking, you can gain deeper insights into what’s working from a marketing standpoint, helping you refine your strategy even further.

Thoughtful Visuals

In today’s media landscape, it’s true that audiences— including your franchise development audience— are more likely to watch a video than read a full webpage. Include space on your franchise development website for video franchisee testimonials so new leads can envision themselves as a part of your network. Thoughtful photos and graphics on your website will also have this same impact. Be sure to include imagery of what you are selling your franchisees: the inside of their future location, for instance, or their supporting network of fellow franchisees.

Effective Copy

Though images and videos are important, considering the copy on your website is also essential. For leads to find your franchise development website in the first place, your site must rank high on Google. This means you need SEO-friendly copy living on your website, with language that aligns with how qualified leads are searching for information and opportunities. Marketing strategies like blogs make an impact here — posting subject-specific blog topics on your franchise development website will boost your SEO, making your website more visible to qualified, interested leads. You should also be including SEO keywords as alt text to the images on your website, so Google can crawl your images. Without investing in optimized copy that can drive clicks, you’re missing out on potential leads who could be looking for an opportunity just like yours.

Your Franchise Development Website Checklist

So, what must be included on your franchise development website? Four key elements will do more to attract qualified leads than any flashy design or eye-catching features. By checking these boxes, you’ll ensure that your franchise development website is optimized for lead generation.

1. An Easily Accessible Interest Form

Your franchisee interest form is the part of your franchise development website that will allow you to get in contact with qualified leads. For this reason, making your form easily accessible and prominent on your site is important. No matter the qualifying details you request on the interest form—from cash available to contact information—ensuring that the form is easy to fill out and pops up right away on your franchise development website will ultimately increase the number of leads you receive.

2. Financial Investment Details

Many potential franchisees who visit your website are more curious about the financial investment than any other information. Some franchisors choose to copy their entire Item 7 from their Franchise Disclosure Document onto their franchise development website to provide as much transparency as possible.

When you include major investment details about your franchise on your website— including the marketing fees, royalties, and the initial investment cost— you are more likely to attract leads who are financially equipped to become a franchisee. Depending on if you have an Item 19 and the figures you share, it could be helpful to include revenue details to share some insight on what sales can look like. Furthermore, you will attract more qualified leads if you include areas open for development on your website in the form of a territory map.

3. Support and Process Information

One of the biggest advantages of franchising for entrepreneurs is the ability to follow a proven business model. That’s why, no matter who you’re targeting, your franchise development website should showcase the support and resources available to franchisees.

Eager new business owners will be looking for information about how franchisors guide them through the lead qualification process and what initial and ongoing support will include for marketing and operations. By contrast, experienced multi-unit owners will be curious about your franchise’s time to market. Including these details on your franchise development website will bring in leads who are well-informed about your brand’s support plan and ready to move forward.

4. Key Selling Points

While the goal of your franchise development website is to receive prospective franchisees’ contact information, don’t shy away from sharing the key differentiators that set your brand apart from competitors. Emphasizing your key selling points, from a recession-resistant product to family-oriented values, will bring in passionate franchisees who believe in your brand’s mission.

As you collaborate with your web developer and marketing team to create your franchise development website, keep these key tenets in mind. Every element on your site should be designed to attract qualified leads, drive inquiries, and fill your pipeline with serious prospects. With a strategic, well-optimized website, you can turn interest into action and maximize your franchise growth potential.

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Bailey Golden is the Vice President of Sales and Strategy of All Points Public Relations, a franchise-focused integrated PR agency based in the Chicago area, www.allpointspr.com.