With the recession in the economy and squeeze on student loan availability coupled with increase in tuition fees has led to significant growth in the online education industry. The lead volume requirement has gone up significantly because of focus in this segment by several universities.

In the education leadgen practice, content is the king. Unlike in other verticals, where lead companies focus on small websites and per per click (PPC) strategies, education lead generation businesses build significant amount of web content in order to attract the potential student community. While this is certainly a barrier to the easy entry into the education marketplace, the same fact serves as an attractive niche if you can build and generate useful content to attract student traffic.

Generally, the education leads are distributed to the schools in real time. Hence using a robust lead distribution and delivery system is a basic requirement. Also, most of the leads are delivered as dedicated, exclusive leads, though there is some market for shared leads.

Of late, there is a lot of buzz in the education lead generation industry. Quite a few M&A activities are also rumored and / or reported. It is reported last month that All Star Directories is in the market. All Star Directories is a Seattle based company which helps educational institutions attract students in a dozen disciplines, from engineering and business to culinary arts and psychology. Founded in 2001 by former Microsoft manager Mike Mathieu, All Star Directories met with early success through its lead generation model first designed to pass on qualified candidates to nursing schools. By 2005, the company was profitable and had annual sales of $15 million. Later on it was sold to Austin Ventures. The company says more than 5,000 schools use its lead generation service, including Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, University of Phoenix and DeVry.

In another development recently, EducationDynamics, higher education’s leading marketing services company, announced the acquisition of Education Connection, a valuable resource that helps prospective students find colleges that are ideally suited for their academic and career interests. EducationDynamics acquired Education Connection from Kaplan which is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company. The acquisition of Education Connection marks an expanded student prospecting portfolio held by EducationDynamics, which also includes several high-visibility websites such as eLearners.com, EarnMyDegree.com, GradSchools.com, StudyAbroad.com, and more than 50 special interest microsites. The company also offers a full suite of web-based solutions for higher education institutions proven to drive enrollment growth and increase student retention.

Western Governors University marketing director announced that she is noticing a surge in online education and they are ramping up online lead generation and conversion efforts.

When speaking about Lead Conversion, a recent survey pointed out that over 30% of the prospects do not receive a call from the school! If the prospects are not contacted within a few minutes, the chances of further follow-up and conversion is very remote.

This is another area of opportunity for small businesses entering into education leadgen vertical. If you can provide additional support to the schools by way of immediate telephone follow-up, that will serve as a value addition. However, engaging generic call center or agents will not help in lead conversion; in fact, you might lose prospects if the agents are not professionally trained. The team has to be a dedicated, fully trained team with a long term perspective.

Here is the summary of the survey results:

• 81% of businesses surveyed gained positive exposure
• 61% increased their online traffic or subscribers
• 56% created new business partnerships
• 52% boosted search rankings

This is a comprehensive report with over 240 pages containing detailed charts and statistics. Note that this is a paid report, but may be worth the money for those who are into social media as a marketing platform. If you are a lead generation /distribution agency or demand generation consulting service provider, the report contents would be a great addition to your knowledge base.

Many lead generation firms and vendors focus their energies on affiliate management, web traffic generation, lead acquisition, lead quality and lead distribution processes, but often times forget to develop their own client base. Acquiring leads for their customers and signing up their own buyers are equally important tasks for one to be successful in the lead generation business.

Lead Back Office Systems

If you are using a lead capture and distribution system such as LeadPro247, you can easily leverage the lead back office solution offered as part of the software for client acquisition and retention. The back office systems can serve the following functions, depending on your software version and subscription plan:

• Lead Retrieval
• Credit Request
• Sales Tracking
• Lead Nurturing

Lead Retrieval

While you may be delivering leads to the lead buyer by email or SMS text messaging, it is preferable to provide a back-office access so that the client can login and retrieve the leads. Many savvy and experienced lead buyers insist on a back office access as part of the contract. Lead retrieval system access also allows them to download the leads at their convenience and they won’t miss any leads due to email issues.

Credit Request for Invalid Leads

It is natural that a small percentage of leads delivered to your client will be invalid. Using a lead back office system automates the entire process of credit request and approval. The clients can make requests online and you would be able to review the requests and process at your convenience. There is no need to use email.

Sales Tracking

If your customers are end users of the leads purchased from you, you can provide a value addition by providing the sales lead tracking and management feature as part of the lead retrieval system. Your customers need not go for lead tracking and management software from another service provider. You may provide this service as free or charge a small monthly fee. Your customers can capture their own leads in the system along with leads provided by you.

Lead Nurturing

The lead buyers can leverage the drip email messaging feature available with lead retrieval and management systems to nurture their leads until conversion to sales. Drip email marketing is a lead nurturing process where the system sends marketing and informational emails automatically to the prospects based on certain triggers and events. This will be a great value addition to your lead buyers and if they are the end users of the leads.

Lead Distribution Systems

Lead distribution software systems such as LeadPro247 include these value added functions. You may have to select the required version based on your customer requirements. By leveraging such services, you can step out of the basic “lead generation” business and become a full fledged “lead service provider”.

You may also refer to this earlier post on Back Office System features and comparison of functions.

]]> http://www.lead-distribution-software.com/how-to-use-back-office-lead-systems-to-acquire-and-retain-lead-buyers/feed 0 http://www.lead-distribution-software.com/how-to-succeed-in-internet-lead-generation-business-10-insider-tips http://www.lead-distribution-software.com/how-to-succeed-in-internet-lead-generation-business-10-insider-tips#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:52:36 +0000 Paddu http://www.lead-distribution-software.com/?p=90 Have you heard stories about becoming overnight millionaires by launching an internet lead generation business? Sure, tons of stories. Succeeding in an internet lead generation business takes time, consistent practices and continuous improvement. While it is easy to scale up and grow, it is easy to lose money  quickly and bite the dust too! Here are 10 tips gathered from the industry experience and insiders that will lead you in the path of success.

1. Do the ground work: If you are in the planning / launch stage, this is the time to take a re-look and assess the plan. Even if you are already in the business and trying to ramp up, revisit the basics and make sure that the plan will work. Some of the key factors to be taken into account are: Lead verticals, Customer segments,  Competition in your vertical(s), Lead acquisition strategies, Lead pricing, and Quality Issues. Every lead vertical has its own unique advantages and issues.
2. Deploy suitable lead generation methods: Leads can be generated in a variety of ways. What would be the right method for your vertical and customer segment? Research and select from: Media buying, own lead generation sites, PPC / SEO mix, affiliates, etc. Thorough market research will help you decide the right combination. For instance, there are lead companies who use thousands of their own websites. Some others use exlcusively media partners and digital marketing agencies.
3. Plan multiple Lead Delivery modes: Each lead customer will demand their own formats, interfaces and data conversion. Do not under estimate the customer requirements. Unless the lead buyers are able to reach the prospects within minutes, there is no value in the lead! You may have to deploy multiple delivery modes such as email, SMS text messaging, fax, SOAP based API, form POST, etc.
4. Choose a right Lead Distribution Software system: Many lead providers make costly mistakes in this sphere. If you are generating thousands or even a few hundred leads a day, imagine the complexity involved in capturing the leads, distributing leads to buyers, delivering leads in real time, processing payments and applying credits for bad / invalid leads! Even if you are a business person, educate yourself and see what you can and cannot do with your lead collection, distribution and management software system.
5. Right Source to Right Partners: Whether in lead generation, distribution or lead delivery, choose the right tools and partners. The operations and maintenance are time consuming and costs money. Again, do not under estimate the improtance and costs in this area.
6. Manage Customers Proactively: The lead buyers can easily switch from one provider to another lead vendor. Unless you manage their expectations, requirements and operations, the lead buyers will learn from you and move on. Retaining customers is the most important aspect, as you do not have any hold on them unlike other traditional businesses.
7. Focus on Lead Quality, not Quantity: Unless you are passionate about lead quality, it is very difficult to survive. Because, in the internet lead generation segment there are so many variables on which you don’t have any control! For example, you might depend on the media partners and affiliates to generate leads; unless you have carefully selected them and established relationship, there is no gurantee that they will provide consistent quality leads. You can also provide valued added service such as third party Lead Verification services integrated with your lead delivery system.
8. Educate yourself: You need to keep abreast of the technology development and industry issues such as legal compliance. Research and update your knowledge in the lead generation business and the verticals you are operating. Attend relevant webinars and conferences in the Leadgen domain. Even if you don’t do programming or build software, become technology savvy. Knowledge is power in this internet era!
9. Be prepared for the long haul: Invest for the long term and be prepared for the pot holes on the way. Probably you need to invest more of your personal time than the traditional businesses. The internet does not sleep; you cannot start at 9 AM and close at 5 PM. Your customers will be in all time zones and need to be ready to support them.
10. Measure, evaluate and improve: All internet centric businessese share one common thread: it is continually changing at rapid pace. Using the right tools, measure your operational effectiveness and end results. Improve the processes in an on going basis.

And finally, here is the good news. As mentioned earlier, the lead generation business can be quickly ramped up and scaled. Some leading internet lead companies have grown from zero to 50 million business in 3 or 4 years.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. Validate physical address, if collected in the sign-up form. Again, online validation is preferred.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. Employ right lead generation methods. Avoiding methods such as forced pop-ups, providing incentives to the user, etc. can greatly improve the lead quality.
10. 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.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.)
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 a GSA (General Sales Agency), the lead distribution is essentially a function of assigning the leads to your agents based on certain rules and policies.

Lead generation firms and lead sellers distribute the leads based on their sales lead distribution rules to meet the requirements of the lead buyers (independent or captive agents and / or insurance agency firms).

Distribution for Insurance Agency

Since over 75% of US population is using the internet and the internet is increasingly used to buy and research  products and services such as insurance policies by the consumers, internet based insurance leads have become a source of business for insurance agencies.

Whether you are generating your own leads on the internet or purchasing leads from internet lead vendors, quick and efficient distribution of leads to your agent is of prime importance.

Using an automated lead distribution and management system, the leads can be captured from your web sites as well as the lead vendors’ systems. Entire process of manual entry of prospect information into the lead management system can be avoided by picking a suitable lead distribution software system. Of course, the leads collected by traditional means such as networking meetings, seminars, personal visits and phone calls can also be entered into the system, so that the leads can be managed and tracked in a central database.

Once the prospects are in the system, these can be distributed to your agents in real time using preset rules. Some of the options for distribution are:

• Geography (such as County, Zip Code)
• Seniority of the Agent
• Type / Profile of Lead
• Round Robin method

Distribution Options for Lead vendors

Lead Vendors can use an effective Insurance Lead Distribution System to collect the leads in the database from their own lead generation sources and third party sources, distribute the leads to their clients in real time based on extensive filter criteria, process payments based on order conditions, track and process lead credit requests / returns, and obtain sales reports.

The following criteria could be used for real time insurance lead distribution:

• Geography (State, County, Zip codes)
• Lead Types
• Lead Profile parameters (such as preexisting conditions, current insurance situation, past incidents, etc.)
• Client Priority
• Exclusivity (ex. Exclusive, Non-exclusive, Semi-exclusive)
• Number of Times Lead Distributed
• Carrier Restriction
• Volume Pricing
• Price of a Lead
• Payment Status

The leads can be delivered in real time using instant email alert notifications to the agents or agencies. The lead information can also be provided as an attachment in CSV or XML form depending on the lead buyer requirement.

The lead buyers can also be provided access to the lead tracking system, so that the leads can be tracked online for increasing lead conversion rates. This could be a great value addition for the customers.

The insurance lead distribution and management systems such as LeadPro247 will generally support unlimited leads clients and online payment processing based on the payment terms agreed on. The clients can also make credit requests for invalid leads using the online system, which will lead to increased customer satisfaction.

Insurance Lead Types

Many insurance lead vendors and agencies deal with multiple insurance verticals. The insurance lead distribution and management software systems generally support the following lead types, unless it is a specific industry oriented system.

• Health Insurance Leads
• Life Insurance Leads
• Home Owner Insurance Leads
• Mortgage Protection Insurance Leads
• Auto Insurance Leads
• Renters Insurance Leads
• RV / Motorcycle / Boat Insurance Leads
• Annuities

However, the system must be capable of handling the specific lead profiles for each insurance type.

The system must also be configurable and flexible to suit your specific requirements. LeadPro247 Insurance Lead Distribution System is one such system tuned to the requirements of the insurance marketing vertical. Whether you are a muti-agent, national marketing insurance agency or a lead provider catering to the insurance lead buyers, the system will help you distribute, track and manage the leads. If you are an independent or captive agent, the system can be beneficialy used to track, nurture with drip email marketing (with built-in autoresponder service) and track the leads for better conversion.

Lead Assignment Vs Distribution

Distributing leads is a relatively small but critical process of the marketing cycle. Once the prospect information is obtained (in whatever fashion), it needs to be passed on to some individual within the organization to carry forward the sales process further. The person could be an inside sales rep, lead administrator, a field sales executive or even a channel team member (such as a dealer or distributor). As discussed in earlier posts, when the prospect information is distributed within the organization, it is generally referred as Lead Assignment.

However, this takes a different connotation if you are a lead generation company or lead provider. The acquired leads need to be sold to one or more external parties (or organization) using certain rules. This process is known as Lead Distribution as the leads are distributed to one or more external entities.

Lead Generation

We receive a quite a few inquiries through our product website on a daily basis inquiring about lead generation software and if our LeadPro tool can be used as a lead generation software. In fact, there is no such thing as a Lead Generation Software. A plethora of tools and web 2.0 strategies can be used for online Sales Lead Generation. For example, this blog is a tool for online lead generation. The following are the most commonly used tools for lead generation. Note that the traditional demand generation sources are fast losing relevance and online lead generation methods are gaining ground.

• Websites (with landing pages or sign-up forms)
• Blogs
• Forums
• Pay Per Click Advertising
• Cost Per Action (CPA) Advertising
• Email Marketing
• Social Marketing Media (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Call Centers (traditional)
• Direct Mail (traditional)
• Print / TV / Radio Advertising

Lead Distribution Software

There are several software tools in the market place for distributing leads. Some include both internal lead assignment and external lead distribution and some include one or the other function.

Internal Lead Assignment (or routing) software will generally include the following features:

• Sales Organization Maintenance
• Sales Territory Definition
• Manual review / qualification
• Lead entry / import / interface
• Assignment Engine with criteria such as:
  • Geography (State, County, Zip / Postal code, Telephone Area Code, etc.)
  • Lead Source
  • Lead Profile parameters (such as Product / Service, Budget, Authority, Time frame, etc.)
  • Lead Score / Lead Rank / Class (based on Qualification process)
• Manual Assignment of Leads (individually or in batch)
• Reassignment of Leads (individually or in batch)
• Definition of Sales Followup Stages
• Lead Tracking Activities Logging
• Analysis Reports

External Lead Distribution software will have an entirely different set of features, though the above feature might also be included for internal management.

Typical features included in an online lead distribution sofware will be:

• Lead Capture from multiple sources
• Lead Capture forms (can be used with Landing Pages)
• Integration with leading Lead Vendors
• Custom Interfaces to various lead generation systems
• Lead Aggregation in a central database
• Lead Buyers / Clients setup and maintenance
• Support for multiple verticals and industry segments such as:
  • Insurance leads (health, life, LTC, auto, home, mortgage protection, annuities, etc.)
  • Mortgage leads (New purchase, refinance, home equity loan, line of credit)
  • Real Estate leads (home buyers, sellers)
  • Loan Modification leads
  • Debt Consolidation leads
  • Credit Card leads
  • Auto leads
  • Warranty leads
  • Higher Education leads
  • Student Loan leads
  • Satellite TV leads
  • Identity Protection leads
  • Other Consumer product leads
• Comprehensive Lead Distribution Engine
• Real Time Distribution of leads
• Aged Leads distribution in bulk / batches
• Lead management tool for buyers (as a value addition)
• Credit Request and Approval process (for invalid leads)
• Order processing (for real time and bulk leads)
• Online Credit Card Payment processing with multiple gateways
• Lead sales statistics
• Profitability Analysis and metrics

Thus lead marketers can look for and use a suitable lead distribution software solution to manage their distribution and delivery processes. However, there is no single piece of software or solution to generate leads. A combination of strategies including web sites, blogs, email marketing, PPC, and SEO can be used to generate internet leads. And there are several tools and solutions to execute these strategies.

If you are in business or a marketing professionals, then you know how various terms and definitions are used. There is no one ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ usage. Hence understanding the variations will help you doing research on the Internet, discussing with your peers in networking events or talking to your lead management software supplier.

Also, the experts use “Sales Lead” instead of using just “Lead” in order to minimize the confusion and increase the clarity. Some marketers also use terms such as “inquiry” and “opportunity”. Again, these terms might be interpreted differently. However, internet marketers generally use the term “lead”. Another term used is “prospect”.

Hence the following phrases may represent the same; or differ slightly depending on who you talk to! I will be using these terms without any major differentiation.

• Lead Management
• Prospect Management
• Inquiry Management
• Opportunity Management

However Contact Management is different from the above. You may use software applications such as Outlook, ACT or Goldmine for Contact Management.

Lead Management is also much wider in scope when compared with Lead Distribution. Since businesses and marketers use these two terms in a similar fashion, we will also expand the scope of the Lead Distribution i.e. the scope of this web site.

Again, several terms such as Lead Routing and Lead Assignment are widely used to refer to Lead Distribution. Let us explore the subtle differences in the terminology in future posts.

Lead Distribution can be defined as the process of assigning responsibility to a specific sales entity for the purpose of following up with the prospect and convert the lead to a customer by completing the sale of a product or service. The process may involve the application of simple or complex business rules based on the nature and complexity of the business.

The sales lead distribution can be carried out manually (as was done traditionally by small business professionals) or automated using a lead distribution software solution. If you are using internet for generating and capturing leads (directly or indirectly), it may not be feasible to carry out the process manually. In other words, you may not be really leveraging the advantages of the internet leads.

As mentioned earlier, depending on the nature of your business operations, you will be looking at the functions and requirements of the lead distribution software differently. Let us look at the various permutations and combinations of lead distribution on these pages in future.