Okay, now you are all set to go. You have chosen a business segment or vertical, set up a lead generation and distribution business, signed with a few affiliates and even negotiated with a CPA network (such as Azoogle, Copeac, Hydra, etc.) to generate leads. Heck, you have even paid a handful of money in advance for implementation and training and signed up for a lead distribution software system. Obviously your focus would now turn to clients who buy leads from your lead company. It may not be too difficult to get a few clients, if you are in the industry for some time. Every business is looking for leads and trying to leverage the internet as a lead generation medium.
Satisfying the Clients with Lead Quality
First and foremost objective is to satisfy the client. There are several factor which influence the customer satisfaction in this scenario; prime among them are:
- delivering leads on time, as promised
- making sure that the leads are genuine (and not bogus)
- ensuring that the lead information is correct and complete
- pricing it optimally
As you would have noticed, the prime criteria for customer satisfaction turns out to be the Lead Quality (and not necessarily quantity). Using right affiliates / networks, genuine lead generation methods avoiding deception and incentives, scrubbing the leads (for incomplete information, duplicate leads, etc.) and adding lead verification techniques where necessary will lead to high quality leads and hence increased lead client satisfaction.
Lead Delivery via Emails
Another important factor that lead companies and sellers often overlook is the lead delivery process and back office systems. If you are selling leads to end users who are mostly small businesses without strong technical capabilities (which will be the case 70% of the time), you will be in for a big surprise. Even if your lead distribution software system supports multiple lead delivery methods, there is no guarantee that they would have evaluated all methods and finalized a suitable method to fit their specific scenario.
Most of the clients will go with email alert notifications in real time. While this is a required and essential process, at least 30% of the emails will not get into your client’s attention. Either the email will not land in their email inbox or fall into the junk mail / bulk mail folder. Or even the client may delete some lead alerts when trying to sort out all the spammy looking stuff in their inbox.
Even if they receive your lead via email alert, it might slip through the crack and they will never follow up with the prospect for hours or even days. Ultimately, as the new emails keep piling up in the box, older emails will lose their relevance and visibility. Unfortunately, the client will conveniently put the blame on the quality of leads (in other word, you, the lead seller) and will stop placing repeat lead orders with you! In worst case scenario, you may not get your money for the leads already delivered, if you have provided a post payment caption. Keep in mind that none of this is in your control or your fault!
Leveraging Back Office Systems
You can leverage the back office system feature of lead distribution systems to increase customer satisfaction and contribute to increase your client’s business. Yes, there is an important role to be played by you as a lead generation company and lead seller in educating and encouraging your clients to adopt the to the usage and benefits of back office systems for thier own good.
Every major lead generation and distribution management software system comes with some sort of back office system access feature for the lead buyers. Using these system not only guarantee the delivery of the lead, but also will help the clients increase the lead conversion rates by using the lead retrieval, tracking and management functions.
Flavors of Lead Back Office Systems
Advanced lead distribution systems such as LeadPro247 will have mutiple flavors of back office systems in order to meet the requirements of various lead buyers. Either you may absorb the cost (which is generally low and affordable) of these systems or pass it on to your customers. Considering their total value, it may be useful if offer the back office system as an added benefit!
The following three versions / types /flavors are most commonly found in the lead company software systems such a LeadPro247:
- Basic version: Lead Retrieval System
- Medium level: Lead Tracking and Management System
- Premium level: Lead Tracking and Marketing Automation System
Lead Retrieval System
When the leads are distributed, the clients can immediately access the leads in the lead retrieval system. They can also see the purchase orders placed by them and the status of the orders. This will provide a real time view of the leads delivered and pending quantity. Access to the lead retrieval system provides peace of mind to the buyers and helps you reduce your customer support and hand holding efforts. You can focus on your business – generating and delivering quality leads!
Lead Tracking and Management System
This version of customer access goes one step further and help your clients manage and track their leads as they follow up with their end customers. In other words, your lead distribution system back office turns into a mini CRM (customer relationship management) system for your clients. The leads delivered by you can be assigned to one or more sales reps within their organization for follow up. The clients can also track customer conversions, follow-up and call back reminders, etc. A wealth of lead tracking reports will be available for your customers.
Lead Tracking and Marketing Automation System
This is the premier level of back office access that can be provided to your lead buyers. In addition to lead retrieval and tracking management, the system can be used a full fledged marketing automation system. Drip Email Marketing is used to follow-up and nurture the leads. Depending on your buyers’ requirements, they can opt for self-payment depending on their drip email campaign volume, survey response volume, etc. This back office system would be useful for your sophisticated and deserving customers who would like to use an online marketing automation system.
Conclusion
Finally, a word of caution. Many of your lead buyers may not be ready to go the full extent of leveraging the functions and features of your lead distribution back office systems. However, you should encourage the clients to use the Lead Retrieval system at the minimum, which will pay back in no time for both of your organizations.
If you are in Leadgen business, then you know the criticality and central nature of lead distribution rules and strategies for the success of the business. Crafting suitable strategies, pricing options and prioritizing customers are important facets of everyday life for a lead seller.
Determination of Priority Criteria
Lead Distribution can be carried out based on several priority criteria, such as:
- Pricing
- Volume
- Loyalty of the Customer
- Lead Availability (Demand and Supply)
- Lead Profile Filters (as such Geography, Demography, Services, Source, etc.)
When you are dealing with a number of customers and large volume of leads, it will not be easy to apply rules manually and determine the priority.
Lead Distribution Software
Employing a suitable Lead Distribution Software will help automating the lead distribution process to a great extent. However, note that it is not a panacea for all ills. Still considerable thoughts and efforts are to be invested in crafting the distribution rules and strategies.
For example, as a lead seller, you can assign a higher priority for a customer based on their loyalty and past business.
If you are in real time lead distribution business, it becomes all the more difficult. When a new lead comes in from a lead generation source, a decision has to be made in seconds. Obviously, price offered by a lead buyer alone may not be a suitable criterion. For example, a buyer who intends to purchase a small volume of leads might offer a high price; however your long term buyer may be offering a slightly lower price, but the volume may be much higher.
Lead Distribution Rules
Depending on your business and nature of operations, following rules can be used to distribute the leads:
- Based on Exclusivity:
- Exclusive Leads (Lead will be sold to ONE exclusive buyer)
- Semi-Exclusive Leads (Lead will be sold to TWO semi-exclusive buyers)
- Non-Exclusive Leads (Lead will be sold to multiple non-exclusive buyers, subject to Maximum Number of Times a Lead can be sold)
- None (Exclusivity not specified – Can be sold to one or more buyers based on the demand)
- Based on Round Robin Method
- Based on Price Offered (Highest Bidder)
- Based on Buyer Priority
The lead filters will be applied before determining the price, as the filters might impact the final price of the lead. If every other parameter remains equal for more than one lead buyer, then a round robin rule can be applied – in addition to other rules. Depending on your vertical and industry practice, combined with your specific scenario, you have to decide on the strategies to be employed such as round-robin, ping tree / auction /bidding, or buyer loyalty. Usage of a flexible lead distribution and sales tracking software solution helps you to apply these rules with ease.
If you are in lead generation business, then you must be spending significant amount of money on online advertisements through Google, Yahoo, Bing and other search media. Ad Tracking is critical in such situations. It helps you to weed out non-performing campaigns, improve campaigns with average performance, and extend great campaigns in order to maximize the return on investment (ROI) in marketing and leadgen activities.
Ad Tracking Software
There are several ad tracking software tools available in the market. Tracking202 is one of the leading software tools used by several online advertisers. It is available as an open source, self-installable software as well as a free, hosted software. Obviously, if you are a Pro, you should consider using the Tracking 202 Pro version, which is based on monthly subscription pricing model. The following picture shows some of the other tracking software products available in the marketplace. I would suggest using a hosted solution, so that you can get going immediately without the hassles of installation, hosting setup and maintenance.
Ad Tracking helps you to easily monitor your PPC campaigns through Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Some of the tools provide Click Fraud tracking protection too.
Lead Distribution Software
Please do not assume that if you are using a Lead Distribution Solution (such as LeadPro247), you can do the ad tracking using that software. Generally, lead capture, distribution and sale tracking software does not include ad tracking function, as online ad tracking is a totally different domain.
If you are using Ad Networks referred to as CPA / CPM networks (other than Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) and bulk media buying strategies, then your ad tracking requirements may be significantly different. You may be needing ad tracking at Ad Publisher level. And note that each network may be different in serving your ads through their publishers and how they code and track the URLs. Let us reserve the discussion on handling and tracking the ads served through the networks for a future post. You may also start with basic tracking and then grow as your advertisement reach increases.
Assuming that you are able to generate quality leads and sign-up buyers to purchase leads, the next critical issue that you will be confronting is the prompt delivery of leads and prospect information to the designated lead buyer contacts. If you are selling leads in real time, as the practice in industry verticals such as insurance, mortgage, debt services, etc. the prompt delivery of lead information to the buyer assumes great significance. Lead Delivery via time tested Fax and Text Messaging (SMS) is a viable alternative for lead distribution companies.
Lead Delivery Methods
The most widely used method for delivering lead information is the internet EMAIL. If your buyers are business savvy and more sophisticated, the web services based API or web form posting based interface and direct application access to your Lead Capture, Distribution and Management system are the fool-proof methods.
Real Time Lead Alerts
Even if you use direct interface with your buyers systems using the interface or provide login access to your lead database, the customer may still need real time alerts to get notified about the arrival of the new lead. This is where the real time email alerts get their star status. If the buyer contacts persons (such as insurance agents) are not fully office based but constantly on the move, email alerts are unavoidable. With the proliferation of Blackberrys and smartphones such as iPhones, email alerts have become very useful to reach the prospects within minutes of sign-up.
Email Delivery Issues
With the increasing spamming issues, delivery of internet email is becoming more problematic. In fact, none can gurantee the delivery of emails via internet, whatever their claim may be. Especially, many of the small lead buyers use the email addresses provided by the their ISPs. Encouraging them to use their corporate (private domain) emails will help improve the delivery rates.
Fax and SMS as additional Delivery Options
If your buyers have access to fax with an office based employee (even if the recipient is traveling), sending lead information via fax is a good add-on option. Many of the good lead distribution software solutions available in the market place will have fax delivery as an option. Please note that delivering lead information via fax involves per page cost. However the cost, around 15 cents per page, is not prohibitive considering the value addition.
Another option to deliver leads to your customer is using the Text Messaging option. Text messaging is also known as Short Messaging Service (SMS). However, you may not be able to transmit the entire lead information, as the text message has to be less than 160 characters. Important information such prospect’s name, telephone and email address can be easily transmitted via SMS. Keep in mind that delivering lead details via SMS also involves additional cost to the buyer. And the buyer’s cell phone must be subscribed to and enabled to receive text messages. Generally, the lead management systems send the SMS messages as emails to the wireless carriers (ex. phonenumber@sprintpcs.com).
While these additional lead delivery options many not be for everyone, these may be certainly great tools for some of your deserving customers. As a lead seller, consult with your lead buyers, educate them the pros and cons of using Fax or SMS as lead delivery options, and let them decide if they want to leverage these tools.
We have touched upon the importance of lead quality in lead generation (or internet demand generation) in earlier posts. This post summarizes 10 ways to improve the lead quality in your lead generation campaigns. These principles can be used for both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) lead generation and distribution strategies.
- Gather only the minimum information required on the landing page forms. Adding more (optional) fields will result in junk data and reduce the lead quality.
- Validate required fields as well as optional fields for format and content. Email address and numeric data should be 100% validated. Even text fields should be validated for length and patterns.
- Validate phone number and Area code (using a reference database). There is no meaning in validating these fields after getting the leads. The validation should be performed in the front end.
- Validate geographic information such as country, state, county, and zip codes. Make sure that the validations are appropriate. If you are collecting Mortgage leads or Insurance leads, there is no meaning in providing a country drop down with 150 countries of the world! Provide a drop down with State names for US only. If you are collecting Business Opportunity (Biz Op) leads in US and Canada, let the state drop down display both US and Canadian states.
- Validate the city against IP address of the user. Please note that this not a foolproof method and hence this could be used to score the quality of the lead.
- Validate physical address, if collected in the sign-up form. Again, online validation is preferred.
- Distribute leads based on suitable filters. If you are distributing leads to multiple lead buyers, multiple filter sets can be used to deliver required leads depending on the customer requirements.
- Choose one or more suitable lead delivery methods. While email is the most widely used delivery method, there are other reliable methods for lead delivery and distribution. Email, API, Direct Application Access and Fax methods can be used in combination based on the client’s business.
- Employ right lead generation methods. Avoiding methods such as forced pop-ups, providing incentives to the user, etc. can greatly improve the lead quality.
- De-dupe leads after capture in the lead distribution system. Since users may be submitting the registration forms from more than one site on the internet, de-duping the leads will help improve the client satisfaction. If you are using affiliates and multiple sources, this is an important step prior to lead distribution.
Even if you are outsourcing lead generation and landing page design to third party service providers, make sure that these principles are adhered to. Employing simple, template based landing pages may not address these requirements.
Landing Page design, development and deployment is the most critical activity for internet Lead Generation companies. Five most common mistakes made while designing landing pages by designers are discussed in this post.
The success or failure of lead generation strategies rests on the success or failure of landing pages,which in turn is dependent on the following factors:
- Conversion ratio, and
- Quality of lead information
Whether you are generating leads for your own use or for further sales to lead buyers / clients, the fundamentals of landing page design and development are the same. Here are the most common mistakes committed by even by experienced lead companies while implementing landing pages and signup / registration forms.
- Asking for too much information on the sign-up form in landing pages. Decide upfront what information is critical and collect only critical information, without which the prospect info is meaningless. Providing more fields for input forces visitors to enter garbage.
- Avoiding Field Validations. This is the most important mistake committed by designers and programmers. Current programming technology provides for extensive validations in the front end without irritating the user. In fact, good prospects will love error traps and exception handling. For example, it is common to make spelling mistakes while entering domain names in the email address (ex. typing .con instead of .com). Top level domain names can be validated easily. Similarly email address format can be verified. The following type of entry fields should be validated:
- Amount or Numeric input fields
- Email Address fields
- Geography fields (such as Country, State, County, etc.)
- Mandatory fields (for presence of data)
- Phone entry fields (do not ask the visitor to enter in a specific format, let the system format it.)
- Improper use of Drop Downs. This is yet another frequent mistake committed by the designers. Particularly, if you are a generating leads for resale, the numeric fields should be captured as numbers rather than tiers. Your customers may be needing totally different tiers and hence the accuracy of the data will be lost. Applying filters will be difficult, if tier based drop downs are used.
- Avoiding or missing Source Tracking. If you are driving traffic to the your common landing page, capturing the traffic source and passing it to the Lead Distribution System is a critical requirement. This helps to analyze the quality of leads by traffic source and tweak the lead generation campaign accordingly.
- Designing landing pages without analyzing the end use requirements. Unless you know and fully understand the requirements of the lead data usage, it will be difficult to plan the sign-up form. This problem is more aggravated in the case of lead companies selling leads to more than one customer, since each customer might have different requirement.
Note that implementing some of these suggestions might even reduce the conversion ratio; however it will be compensated by the quality of the leads generated and customer satisfaction. The real prospects also will appreciate your professional approach and work, there by resulting in more quality leads.
If you are involved in selling or buying leads, utilizing lead filters functionality available in lead distribution management software solution is a key requirement. While it is up to the lead buyer to determine the filters applicable for them, as a lead provider organization you need to understand how filters could be used to optimally distribute the leads and maximize sales and profit potential.
The lead pricing can be a function of application of lead filters for certain lead types and industries. Various types of filter groups are displayed in the following filter selection step of lead order processing.
Applying Lead Distribution Order Filters
Depending on the nature of leads and the industry you are working in, application and usage of filters (also known as order criteria) vary. For example, if you are providing aged / old leads, then age of the lead will be critial filter. For real time lead orders, age of the lead is not applicable.
Similarly, in the Lead Profile group, geography is not the only filter. Any of the lead profile parameters could be used. For example, in the case of Life and Health Insurance leads segments, preexisting medical conditions and current policy information might be used as filters in order to maximize lead value.
Lead Volume is not a filter perse, but it is an important order criteria used for determining the lead price and discount applicability.
Let us revisit the lead order filter sets and criteria for order processing by lead generation and distribution firms in future posts.
A key component of lead sales process which helps lead generation and distribution companies sell more leads is providing multiple, flexible payment options. Each lead buyer will have a specific requirements depending on their lead sales practices in that specific business segment. Using a Lead Distribution Software solution with multiple payment support options will help you cherry pick a suitable method based on the client requirements.
Providing flexibility does not mean that all payment related activities should be carried out manually. On the other hand, you should automate the payment processes as much as possible, so that you can focus on lead generation and sales.
The above screenshot shows an example of payment options that could provided for a lead order from a lead client. The options include:
- Payments not processed via the lead distribution and management system. This is the least preferred option. However, you have a different arrangement with the client and payments could be entirely handled outside of the system.
- Capture Payment in Full for the entire Order volume. This option could be used if the order volumes are small (in the case of real time leads) or aged leads are delivered immediately.
- Deduct Full Payment for the entire order from the client’s account balance. Again this could be used in the above order scenario. This case is applicable when the client has money in his account, either through a prepay method (ex. auto capture of certain amount of payments at preset conditions) or through manual methods.
- Accumulate Payment and process at certain intervals. This would be useful if you are extending a credit plan for the buyer. The accumulated payments could be captured at the end of the day, end of the week or when the outstanding hits a threshold.
- Deduct payment from buyer’s account balance in real time. This option is applicable when balance is available in the account and the payment can be taken in real time.
- Capture payment from buyer’s credit card in real time. When the individual leads are delivered in real time, this option can be used to capture the payment from the client’s payment card.
In every case, the system should be able to handle the exceptions and trigger payment capture as necessary or put the order holder with an alert to the administrator.
If you are receiving payments outside of the system via wire transfer, physical checks, etc. from lead clients, the same should be entered into the system. Even if you are processing credit card payments externally, the same should be recorded in the system. Similarly any adjustments should be posted into the system. This would help to have a unified view of the situation and automate the rest of the processes as much as possible. The above picture shows a typical manual payment / refund entry screen on the lead distribution and payment processing software tool.
