The trust crisis is killing franchise sales

⏳ Read time: ~4 minutes

Welcome back to the Franchise Marketer Newsletter!

I've just finished analysing some recent YouTube data, and the numbers are absolutely staggering. Most executives are criminally underestimating this platform while their competitors build unassailable trust moats (like I do at Jim’s).

Stop spending any more money on franchise recruitment before considering what I share in this edition.

Here's what you'll learn today:

✅ Why YouTube is your most significant missed opportunity

✅ The trust crisis is crushing traditional marketing

✅ The demographic shift that changes everything

✅ The new AI image trend

✅ Google’s new image release!

Brands aren't taking YouTube seriously enough, and I want to give you a whole bunch of stats in today's edition.

It's important to make YouTube a part of not only your recruitment strategy but also your business strategy, as well as regularly uploading videos to a YouTube channel.

It doesn't matter if you're recruiting franchisees or customers - it can help your business.

If your executives are putting money into other channels like directory ads, brokers, or lead generation services, you really do need to consider content on YouTube regularly.

This will underpin your recruitment and growth strategy for years to come.

The numbers that should scare you:

Compare this to your current lead gen strategy:

Meanwhile, YouTube gives you 79% of users staying longer than intended, averaging an extra 69 minutes weekly beyond planned viewing time.

That's not lead generation, that's relationship building at scale.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer just dropped, and it's devastating for traditional marketing.

Trust in Australian institutions fell from 51% to 49% in early 2025.

Trust in advertising? Even worse.

But here's the paradox: While trust in everything else craters, trust in authentic content and peer recommendations is skyrocketing.

A FACT YOU SHOULD KNOW:

YouTube has become the trust-building engine of the internet.

When someone watches your 15-minute explanation of franchise support systems, they've invested more mental energy than most people give their financial advisor.

Why this matters for franchise recruitment:

If there's one other thing I can suggest: if you're a founder, you should have your own YouTube channel if you've got the means to do it.

It's a whole other marketing channel you can utilise.

There's a reason why Sabri Suby, Dave Fogarty, and other big names are creating YouTube content: because it really works. It's the biggest thing to build trust in today's market, which is becoming a lot less trustworthy.

Here's the shift nobody saw coming:

Baby Boomers and Gen X creators grew from 27% to 35% of YouTube's creator base between 2022 and 2023.

Think about this: Your ideal franchisee prospect - someone with capital, business experience, and time to invest - is already creating content on YouTube.

Meanwhile, 15% of all YouTube users are Baby Boomers.

That's roughly 375 million people globally with:

What this means: While you're paying brokers $15K per sale and buying directory listings that get ignored, your competitors are building relationships with thousands of prospects during their 17+ hours monthly on YouTube.

Here's why YouTube works when lead gen services fail: 70% of YouTube views come from algorithmic recommendations, not paid placement.

This means quality content gets distributed regardless of your marketing budget. The platform rewards depth over interruption:

Videos over 15 minutes show 50% higher engagement rates.

Channels posting substantial content see 70% faster subscriber growth.

Educational content consistently outperforms promotional content.

My observation: The most successful franchise brands create content like "5 Reasons Our Franchise Might Not Be Right for You" and outperform generic broker-generated leads by massive margins.

Why?

Because transparency beats interruption in a low-trust world.

Check out what we do on the Jim’s Group channel, whilst not getting 100k views on videos, the retention rate is super high from people interested in the franchise system.

Every view is a potential franchise buyer.

Let's get specific about what you're missing:

Peak engagement times: Friday 3-4 PM and weekday evenings 6-9 PM

User behaviour: 62% visit YouTube weekly with predictable habits.

Device usage: 63% mobile viewing, but longer desktop sessions for research

For franchise recruitment, this means you can reach virtually every potential franchisee in Australia through predictable time windows, building trust across multiple touchpoints.

All my videos go live between 7 PM and 9 PM to catch people logging into YouTube.

The reality check: While you're paying lead gen services for cold prospects who've never heard of you, your competitor is getting 17+ hours of attention monthly from warm prospects who already trust them.

Monday: Search "[Your Industry] franchise opportunity" on YouTube.

See who owns that conversation (hint: it's probably not you).

Wednesday: Interview your best franchisee about their decision-making process.

Film everything. Publish it with a brutally honest title.

Like “I failed my first time with Jim’s Mowing”

Friday: Start answering the top 5 questions prospects ask during discovery calls. One video per question.

The only metric that matters: How many qualified prospects discover you through YouTube versus how much you're spending on brokers and lead gen services.

YouTube isn't just another marketing channel - it's become the primary research tool for every significant business decision.

Your prospects are already there, spending 17+ hours monthly learning from someone.

The question isn't whether you should be on YouTube.

The question is whether you want to be the teacher or let your competitors educate your prospects while you pay brokers for cold leads.

Your choice: Build authentic relationships now while attention is still relatively affordable, or keep paying premium prices for prospects who don't know you exist.

The window won't stay open forever.

Trust me, all of our franchise prospects watch anywhere from 1 to sometimes 500 YouTube videos during the research process.

What's your move?

I will do more of these in the coming weeks; however, Google Nano Banana is absolutely nuts in terms of what it can do with image generation.

To create the below, just do the following:

Access Google Gemini or Google AI Studio.

Upload any photo you like and use the prompt below:

𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘢 1/7 𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦, 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦, 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘬 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘺𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘣𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘹𝘵.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘡𝘉𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘩 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘦.

𝘕𝘦𝘹𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘉𝘈𝘕𝘋𝘈𝘐-𝘴𝘵𝘺𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘹 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘸𝘰-𝘥𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.

𝘌𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦.

Google’s new image project dropped, and it’s awesome!

Trust me, it’s well worth watching the video below to see what it can do.

Each week, I interview marketing experts or share insights from the strategies I have used to help grow Jim’s by 2,000+ franchisees.

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