Tag: Lead Generation

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Y’all Come Back Now: Lead Generation as Concierge

Lead generation is an obvious fit for companies that have email marketing capabilities.  No lead produced on the Internet these days is stronger in my experience than those that originate from email publishers.  And of course email marketers know how to make a list of opt-in email addresses produce again and again which makes their publishing model a great one in terms of ROI.  I believe as lead generators we could all do well following in some of the footsteps of email marketing.  The one that stands out to me is applying targeting to your marketing efforts.  One of the strengths of marketing to a database is that you can accumulate information about the habits of a consumer and predict what purchases might be on the horizon in some cases.

With this kind of knowledge in hand lead generators can act as a sort of concierge to the consumers in their databases.  You are in a unique position when you have data.  If you use it effectively you can reach consumers at the right moment with the right offer, something that offline marketers struggled with for decades.

Traffic is so expensive and leads so valuable a commodity that it makes more sense to create a relationship with a consumer than it does to rely solely on constant, fresh generation of traffic by publishers.  Any lead generation expert who wants to control costs can benefit from applying a few principles of a good concierge when marketing to a database whether it be through email, SMS, ad serving technology, or other channels.

1.  Be sympathetic.  Face to face interaction allows for a lot of questions to be asked but automated interaction with consumers online or offline has more limitations.  Try to put yourself in the consumer’s place and imagine what message would mean the most to you.

2.  Be proactive.  Overdoing follow ups or ad serving is certainly not going to win long-term consumer relationships for you but neither will being silent for too long.  Just as you would face to face with customers you need to make sure to ask questions now and then to find out what’s going on in their lives.  Once they respond be sure you are ready to react with some good recommendations or suggestions.

3.  Ask how things worked out.  First chance you get follow up with the consumer to gauge how helpful you were to them.  In terms of automated media this could happen instantly or a day after the consumer completes some type of online action, be it a lead or a purchase.  If you have a call center your follow up might be much more personal of course but the end goal is the same.  You want to establish in the consumer’s mind that your company is there to help when making purchasing decisions becomes time sensitive.

Ultimately what you want is for the consumer to have a way to get to you whenever a need for help exists.  This type of two-way communication allows you to change the dynamic of lead generation.  Publishers have long known the value of good content and good services but I am not sure I or others as lead generators are always as good at building long-term relationships with consumers.  If you perfect it then you can expect your lifetime value on any record in your database to increase but more than that you can take control of revenue opportunities that previously were slipping by you undetected.

 

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Charlie Sheen Gave Me His Gmail Address – A Lead Validation Story

In my experience lead generation on the Internet can be summed up in one word, that word being garbage.  Now before my meaning is mistaken let me be clear.  Without validation in place on either the producer or the recipient’s side online leads tend to include way too much fake or incorrect information.  Though it might seem unfair to apply such a label as “garbage” consider the amount of fraud activity these days and the sheer number of bogus responses an online lead form generates even without the bad guys trying to scam a lead generation advertiser.

I worked in sales for other lead generation companies before trying my hand at running my company so I’ve seen more than one side of the bad lead problem.  The lead buyers’ concerns are pretty obvious.  They just don’t want to pay for bogus leads or waste their sales team’s time with chasing after leads that seem real but have obvious shortcomings.  The conversion on leads statistics rarely lie.  Meanwhile though the publishers have legitimate concerns of their own and without them a small lead generation company is unlikely to grow its business.  If publishers feel that they will not be treated fairly then there’s no chance of ever getting them to commit their valuable traffic to a lead generation site.

I’ve seen some pretty great examples of what a lead generation site untethered from lead validation can do.  I’m proud to say that without lead validation and its stuffy air of corporate America many famous people visited my sites and took the time to express interest in a variety of services and products.  Why even Charlie Sheen took the time to give me his home number (I’m guessing Maryland is where he has his hideaway home) and Gmail address.  Obvious sarcasm aside, I learned the hard way two years ago that without real-time validation my leads were time bombs just waiting to destroy my fragile and valuable lead buyer relationships.

If you work in lead generation and are considering ways to validate your leads in real-time I would strongly recommend you talk with Service Objects.  Though I now use in-house validation my early validation needs were more than satisfied by Service Objects and the company took very good care of me without regard to how small a client I was at that time.  Depending on the volume of leads you process each month your cost to validate each time someone submits one of your lead forms might be a bit steep but it still could prove to be much, much cheaper than losing your clients.

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Lead Generation Can Drive Job Growth

My company is focused on generating consumer leads on the Internet. My typical client is a company selling their services or products through a call center. If my explanation seems elementary it’s just a consequence of trying to explain to family members, friends, and perfect strangers what I do for a living.

I often consider how my company is part of an online and offline marketing ecosystem. As out of fashion as it may be these days I’m just wired to be concerned with other people, particularly the ones I work with. Lately this concern has led me to think quite a bit about how I can help be a part of the economic recovery that everyone in the U.S. seems to be waiting, hoping, and working for.

How can one small business in a rather niche marketing business help? What impact can realistically be expected? To me these questions are just seeds of procrastination and defeatism. So perhaps the real question is, what am I going to do and will it work? The first part I have a good answer for but the second one I’ll just have to get back to you about later.

Here’s my very humble idea. In the next year I plan to do everything in my power to see to it that the leads that I generate wind up in the hands of sales representatives working inside the U.S. Sound trivial? Perhaps it’s not going to create that many jobs but consider the jobs it can create under the right circumstances. Many of my clients are holding fast on any ideas to hire new sales people and some may at some point consider farming out the call center work to other countries. But if I offer incentives to those clients to increase their U.S. call center staffing or at least maintain it then in a small way I’ve contributed to helping U.S. workers gain or at least hold their ground. What sorts of incentives am I talking about? In many ways the incentive is as simple as addressing the lead price concerns of the client. If I can keep the clients’ lead prices at a comfortable level or attempt to exceed their desired value per lead then the incentive has already been given. Another question is how do I police the clients to ensure they keep their side of the agreement to use U.S. call centers? Many lead generation companies are already accustomed to the need to keep tabs on the behaviors of their lead buyers. So keeping up with the clients is not a big problem in my estimation.

I’m sure that some very accomplished and respected business people would see price incentives as a rather foolish move when the company offering them doesn’t directly reap the benefits. I respectfully disagree. I’m believe that selfishness and self-serving attitudes got us where we are and they will keep us here longer than need be. This is not to say that business must be philanthropic in order to be ethical or effective. But helping each other dig out of the hole we’ve stepped into can’t hurt.

I’m sure that there are many direct and not-so-direct ways that my company and others like it can help to stimulate job creation in the U.S. In my humble opinion it has to be a focus for everyone who is in a position to be a part of it. Hopefully goodwill and American ingenuity will see us all through.