The art of converting marketing traffic into actual sales, what we call in the lead generation space as lead management, as finally started to hit main stream conversations. Customer Relationship Management platforms have been fooling performance marketers for years now claiming they are the best way to convert sales, when in fact they fall way short. In the true lead generation and performance marketing era, lead management companies have started where CRM’s have left off and have provided huge benefits to companies that made the smart choice of focusing on the intricacies of converting leads into sales.

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We talk about EDU being a counter cyclical vertical whereby when the economy is down and jobs are scarce people look at furthering their education in hopes of a better future. And subsequently lead generation companies follow and capitalizes on peaking vertical.

Another vertical, one that I have less experience in, that looks to be counter cyclical to the health of the economy is the Payday loan vertical. Not only is it a growing vertical and demand for these leads have increased, the actual demand for payday loans increase based on seasonality trends.

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Lead Generation is a big business. Unfortunately, however, the lead generation industry has very low barriers of entry. And with the further development of technologies like ClickPoint ( LeadCritic advertiser) and other companies it has become even easier. A person could begin generating, brokering, or selling leads as quickly as they can find someone to buy them.

Where lead generation becomes difficult and barriers begin to expose themselves is when you insert the word “quality” into the equation. Quality lead generation can be challenging, especially in fully saturated verticals. As demand begins to reach the limits of supply the ability for new companies to enter the market and generate quality leads becomes difficult. These new companies have to be exceedingly more competent at how they generate leads. Simply entering into a new vertical and performing the same marketing strategies that companies more mature in the industry are performing will simply not be sufficient, unless you can do it significantly better. The other alternative for new companies is to change the process in which the leads are generated.

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A few weeks ago I referenced an analysis put together by InterEd at the end of this post. The link to the presentation is at the end of the post and is worth a second look. It helps argue the fact that the for-profit education industry will play a significant role in educating millions, and at a significant discount when compared to state run schools.

Today, Apollo released a paper that takes a similar approach in defending the for-profit EDU space. The paper titled “Higher Education at a Crossroads” argues that the education goals set by the current Administration are unattainable without for-profit schools.

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I think it is time to start recognizing lead generation companies, individuals, or groups that take initiative to make the industry a better place.

It is unfortunate, but the fact is there are companies in every vertical that use unethical tactics to make a quick buck. These companies typically go nameless, because frankly put, they know how to work the system so that they go unnoticed beyond simply having poor quality leads. If you are a lead buyer, you are probably working with one directly or indirectly. Most people do not have the way or means to out these companies publicly. Plus, unless you are an insider you have no real proof that they are intentionally trying to scam people, because it is so easy to chalk it up to a mistake. This means we are stuck leaving Karma to police our industry and trust me I believe in Karma, but in most cases Karma is not our most timely option. With that said,  what I think we can do is formulate a way to recognize people or companies that make an honest difference in our space. Companies/people that don’t simply drive quality leads or provide an excellent software, but they make strives to better our industry or better represent our industry to the public.

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Released today was another report revolving around the EDU lead generation space. This report, fortunately, will not send stocks plummeting or law firms scrambling like the GAO report, but instead gives a little insight into the demographics of people filling out lead gen forms.

The study, which was released today, was undertaken by EduDirectReponse and took a closer look into 1000 random generated edu leads. The study took general advertising campaigns (none degree specific messaging) and syndicated the campaigns across multiple channels including SEM, Email, and Display. The campaigns covered the entire United States and produced at least one lead in every State.

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There are only a few lead generation conferences, let alone ones that are worth attending. Sure there are a number of conferences that overlap into the lead gen space by focusing on certain eliminates of lead generation, but in reality there are only two specific lead generation conferences: LeadsCon and TARGUSinfo’s Interactive Insights Summit (formally the Lead Quality Summit).

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Today, QuinStreet announced their fiscal 4th quarter earnings as well as their fiscal year end earnings. The lead generation leader reported a 31% YOY growth in total revenue and a 76% YOY revenue growth in the financial services vertical.

QuinStreet CEO attributed much of the growth to the “flight to quality” in the EDU vertical due to all the regulatory crack down on the vertical.

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I received a nice little email today reminding me that the LG Technologies VS. Shin, Smith, Diana, LeadPoint and others has not been completely settled. The last update was that Shin switched his plea to guilty and has been ordered to pay back any monies due to LG Technologies.  This left the other defendants still in question.

As of the 5th of August 2010 and according to the Riverside County Court House the charges against Edward Shin, Karen Shin, LP Services, LLC, Chris Smith and Iris Sunwoo have been dismissed. According to the emailer LG Technologies and the defendants came to a settlement agreement. The details are unknown.

Left out from the dismissals, however, were LeadPoint, Marc Diana, Breakwater Ventures and Breakwater Ventures II. It is unknown whether or not these parties will come to terms with a settlement agreement as well or continue to be prosecuted by LG Technologies.

Additionally I am not sure if this settlement with Shin has anything to do with the courts order to repay LG Technologies. I will leave the speculations up to you. Regardless, it seems as though one of the largest lead generation scandals is coming to an end. We will have to wait and see what the outcome is for the remaining parties in the case.

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The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) sent out undercover applicants to 15 different schools across the country. These applicants uncovered numerous deceptive and fraudulent tactics used by the schools they applied with. The statistically irrelevant information sent stocks declining and lawyers spinning. No longer then two days after the document was leaked two separate Law Offices sent out press releases (here and here) stating that they will begin an Investigation on behalf of EDMC shareholders to find out if there were any possible breaches of fiduciary duty or other violations of the law.

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The title was made in jest, because almost 3 years ago I wrote a post with a very similar title. News out of the LeadPoint camp states that Scott Shanker, VP of Strategic Accounts, has chosen to move on. This comes shortly after other changes at the Los Angeles based company were announced.

Shanker was an integral part in keeping the LeadPoint exchange on the right path within the mortgage vertical by heading the growth of its largest accounts. Prior to joining LeadPoint Shanker spearheaded the sales efforts at LowerMyBills as one of their first hires. While working at both Southern California companies Scott called Northern California’s Bay Area home, which forced him to make the 55 minute flight back and forth on a regular basis. According to Shanker this was the driving factor for making the decision to leave LeadPoint.

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Recently we argued over what a valid lead is and the numerous reasons why a lead could be returned, but based on a conversation that took place with lead generations own Maestro, Sean Fenlon of DoublePositive, I have decided to further define what a lead is. In fact, based on Sean’s opinion we should define each action point throughout the process that can determine a payout. This means regardless if specific filters and return reasons, what are the specific actions that can determine a specific compensation.

This may seem rudimentary however as Sean can attest that the term “lead” is being used very loosely. The industry is growing at a rapid rate and if these are not clearly defined somewhere we will continue to be lost in translation. With that said, I am going to give it a whirl and appreciate any feedback or corrections you all can provide.

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It was mentioned on Domain Name Wire that the website and domain name Insurance.com was picked up by QuinStreet a few days ago. This comes a number of months after their recent acquisition of insure.com for $16m. The price of the insurance.com purchase as yet to be disclosed, but according to Yahoo Finance insurnace.com plans on letting go of all 144 employees. We are not sure if those employees will be rehired by QuinStreet.

According to Domain Name Wire the domain is speculated to be one of the most valuable in history, possibly more the sex.com.

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Over the last month there have been a number of  changes taking place at LeadPoint. Most notably their recent series F round of funding of $6.5 million. This is the latest in a long list of investments from the VC community, which means with every round the ownership of the private company continues to be whittled away.

This round of funding also came at the same time 10-12 LeadPoint employees received their pink slips. Most notable of the lay offs included COO Gina Anastasi.

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A very interesting study was released by Noel-Levitz that shed light on what high school students are looking for when shopping online for a college or university. It is definitely a must EDU marketers to take a look at.

One thing to note is that 89% these high school students were looking for information on a state college or university and only 4.5% were looking for an online school. I am not sure if the expectations are much different when searching for these two types of schools, but it is notable. Another notable fact prior to reading the results of their survey is that many of the online schools these days simply don’t market to this demographic and typically are focused on prospects older then 25 years old. With that said however, I think there are some very valuable pieces of information in the study that will result, regardless of the users age.

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A few weeks ago we discussed what I believed to be a valid lead. Take a reread of the rant at the link you just passed by to catch yourself up on the topic.

I want to revisit this topic because some lead sellers are taking advantage of very small loophole, the email address. Lets get something clear. Lead Buyers expect a valid lead to be one that can be contacted by phone. In most cases they expect a person to actually pick up the phone and not simply ring and ring and ring and ring, leading to no answer and no voicemail. I have been involved with working leads for about 6 years now and never once would expect to only rely on the email address to contact a prospect. Aside from how important email is to nurturing and following up with a lead it is hardly a sufficient means for an initial contact and in many cases a follow up. In fact, I would put money down that if a lead has an invalid phone number it has almost has no chance of being contacted, much less converted, through email.

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I am still alive!

I wanted to let you all know that I was blessed to take a little vacation last week, hence not making a single post, which is obviously not typical. I gotta say though it was an excellent break from the norm. I rented an RV from Cruise America (I am sure you have all seen them driving through your local towns) and “cruised” up the California coast to San Fransisco and back. All along the way stopping and camping out for the night. We stopped in San Simeon to check out Hurst Castle and also the great town of Monterey to take the kids to the famous aquarium.

Crazy Family Trip

I am native Californian and have made the trip up to San Fransisco more then a few times taking both the coast and the inland route and each time it reminds me of how amazingly beautiful the state of California is. From the amazing cities to the vast farm lands and vineyards the state has to offer, it was all amazing and relaxing to take in via an RV. Granted the occasional breakdown from the kids kept the blood flowing, it was a great trip.

I will be back in action this week with a few posts and of course will be covering the up and coming LeadsCon East. To those who have emailed me, I will be getting back to you soon!

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Former IAB CEO Greg Stuart and Industry Analyst Emily Riley Headline Popular Digital Marketing Event

Vienna, VA– July 6, 2010 – Today, TARGUSinfo, the trusted leader in On-Demand Insight® linking billions of consumer and business attributes in real time, announced that Greg Stuart, former CEO, IAB, and Emily Riley, principal analyst and research director, Forrester Research Inc., will be this year’s keynote speakers at the annual Interactive Insights Summit, October 13-14 at the Wynn Las Vegas, NV.

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It has been a busy July! And it is scheduled to continue to be busy throughout this month for LeadCritic.

A couple of notable items I need to mention though. LeadsCon is a few weeks away and if you have not signed up yet, you need too. The lead generation community needs to continue to come together to network, exchange ideas, and of course build new business opportunities. We have come a long way in the last 5 years, but the industry is still considered black magic to many and we need to erase that stigma. LeadsCon agenda can be viewed here. There are a number topics that are going to span all verticals, but what catches my attention most are the sessions that are going to cover video and interactive TV. Currently Lead Generation is being relegated to the online space, but is slowly moving to other mediums. TV seems to be the natural fit.

If you will be attending LeadsCon East I would love to meet up and introduce myself, so please reach out.

Hope to see you there!

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News hits the wire yesterday and is confirmed that BankRate has completed the purchase of both NetQuote and CreditCard.com.

With these purchases, BankRate continues its gain more market share in the lead generation industry.

DOW JONES LBO WIRE:

Personal-finance portal Bankrate Inc. is planning two big acquisitions, less than a year after being purchased by private equity firm Apax Partners.

Bankrate inked a $205 million deal to buy NetQuote Inc., which is backed by Spectrum Equity Investors LP and Stripes Group LLC. It agreed to pay $145 million for CreditCards.com, which Austin Ventures purchased in 2006 with financing from American Capital Ltd.

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