So, as I was reading through the posts on numerous blogs I came across The Lead Blogs most recent post on sharing data. Well apparently he pulled a LeadCritic and had to pull the post down, because it is no longer there. lol I laugh because I am glad I am not the only who has revealed more information then what was allowed and had to take down the post. Anyway, it was a great opinion post on sharing data between LMS and lead providers and was actually going to reference in this post, but I have got something even better to reference.

Leads360 has posted a new Power Point presentation on DocStoc regarding a new offering for their partners and lead sources that will allow them to share data between one other. Here is the DocStoc description:

“Leads360 launches Partner Reporting, another module of our Lead Performance Intelligence platform. Partner Reporting provides Excel reports emailed weekly to participating lead providers like LowerMyBills, LendingTree, Quinstreet, Adchemy and hundreds of others. Reports include valuable performance metrics including contact, qualification and conversion rates.”

This is cool stuff. Its not that they are the first to give the ability for buyers and sellers to exchange data. LeadROI, Lead Mailbox and Kaleidico have opened the doors to for sellers to receive this type of data, however Leads360 gives the buyer the opportunity to easily turn on and off the weekly reports. Additionally, the reports are sent in an excel sheet that can easily be put into a pivot table or a database for analysis.

So is this revolutionary? Of course not, but it is a very nice step in the right direction. And coming from Leads360, who a few years ago when the topic gained popularity and even more recently, were quite sure how to handle the idea or even if they supported it, this is good progress. The one shortcoming is that its overall campaign performance metrics and not the actual leads, including their status, are not included, as far as I can tell. Its important to have the data and disposition statuses down to the lead level so that the sellers can track back successful leads to their specific campaigns. The only way to do that is to pass back either the leads email address or the assigned lead ID from the provider. The other LMS companies can provide that, however not as conveniently has a weekly report. Now one can argue that statement, because Kaleidico, Lead Mailbox and possibly LeadROI can set up a reverse post that will include the lead data and disposition.

Leads360 can provide this type of data as well and my guess they will get there soon enough, but this is a good baseline to begin the communication between the two providers.

What do you think?

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Buy quality mortgage leads in real-time from us. Exclusive available. ADCHEMY

That said, many of you have probably already seen the press release, if not you can download it here, MortgageBot Benchmark Study. First, I love the fact that MortgageBot puts the time and effort into putting a report like this together for their clients. They have the data, so why not share it?

The report takes a look at a number of key statistics like demographic profiles, average approval rates and loan abandonment rates. Here is some of their public findings:

--  The online channel continues to generate more loans. Approximately 40
    percent of lenders take more than 25 percent of their applications via the
    online channel -- up from only one percent at the start of the decade.

--  More and more borrowers prefer the online channel. During 2008, the
    number of people completing online mortgage applications increased in every
    demographic category from 30 to 69 years of age. The "Gen X" demographic
    continued to outperform other groups, with nearly one in three of all
    online mortgage applications coming from adults in the 30 to 39-year-old
    bracket.

--  Online borrowers' household income is increasing. Despite a
    challenging economy in 2008, the household income of online borrowers rose
    to $93,717 -- an increase of 10 percent compared to 2006.

--  Today's online borrowers have increasingly solid credit ratings. The
    average credit score of online borrowers continues to climb -- rising from
    an average of 709 in 2006 to 732 in 2008.

I highlighted some very interesting points. Let me get off track just a bit. Over the last month I had a number of conversations regarding the mortgage industry and the statement that was being repeated by the different industry players was that mortgage seemed to be making a little come back. What does that mean? It meant that mortgage lead sales seem to rebounding. And these numbers support those comments, to an extent. It also backs up the fact that no matter how leads are going to be generated online in the future they are going to be generated online. Additionally you are going to have to figure the model out and learn how to work leads properly.

As much as we like to discuss the fact that the consumer is sick of the current process of and receiving 100’s of calls from pushy loan officers the facts remain that more and more people are going online for their mortgage assistance. Sure, the look and process of collecting and distributing mortgage leads may change, but again people will still revert to the Internet for information. Are you ready? Can you efficiently work internet inquiries? If not, you might want to look into it.

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Get your leads faster, distribute easier, and convert more. Kaleidico lead management helps you close more loans. It is that simple!

Where Moore will officially land next is unknown at the moment, but he will be missed at Tree.com and will be a huge asset to the his next destination.
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Allow me to introduce myself…. I am an individual who has been in the lead generation industry going on 10 years.  I have seen the industry involve from the early days of the mortgage boom to the now recent collapse and repositioning to new verticals gaining increasing value such as loan modification and debt consolidation leads. I have seen the evolution of the search engines and SEO marketing and was there in the beginning of cost per click marketing.  I have witnessed how lead generation and lead quality was affected by the rise of the affiliate networks, display advertising, email marketing and incentivized leads.  I saw first hand how all these different types of marketing caused lead buyers to cancel and how some increased closing ratios.  Even back 4 years ago with all these types of lead generation I began to suspect that people are playing a game of buying and selling leads to each other and that everyone is becoming the enemy of the other.  Lead generation has now evolved into screwing people over and this has now become the de facto business model and state of the industry.

Price is Everything, Right?

Now lets say I’m a new lead gen company and I need to get lead buyers on board in order to get my company going.  The problem is I don’t have any trust or unique value propositions of the leads I will sell to the lead buyer.  Well what if I sell my leads less than the competition?  For a lead buyer getting leads for less than the competition must be attractive and a company just called me saying they can get “high quality” “exclusive” leads for less than what I am paying now.  Great so now I have the lead buyers on board and I need to generate leads fo them because they will want a considerable volume.  How can such company generate these leads for less than the competition and keep a profit margin of 80%?

Lets start with affiliate networks.  Hey popular network how bout you run my offer for $20 dollars a payout for a debt consolidation conversion.  Network agrees because most debt offers are at 15 or less and this sounds like a good offer.  But wait the company is selling the leads for $20 exclusive to the lead buyer so how is the company going to make any money.  Simple.  Only fire the pixel on the 4th or 5th time the lead capture form is filled out.  Also, lets double or triple sell the lead at the same time to maximize profit margins.  Then we will scrub 10 to 20% of the leads as well in order to squeeze a little more revenue out in the end.  Brilliant!

Conversion rates unfortunately probably won’t be really good though for the publishers because the same form will convert at only 5% compared to 20% of the offer paying out a $15.  To offset this lets create incentivized offers using ebooks and endorsed downloads by celebrities.  We can pull the offer once a cease and desist letter is given to the lawyers.  Problem solved and our mailers will love it as well because of the higher conversion rates.

Looks like a Debt Lead But Sure Doesn’t Smell Like One!

So I just bought 4000 debt leads and closed only 3 deals can I have my money back?  “Hi, I just received your inquiry that you are interested in consolidating your debt…  What!?  You aren’t interested and only wanted to talk with Oprah!?” I thought the lead company said these leads were generated organically? Unfortunately you paid by wire transfer so the best you can do is cancel and give to your legal department.  How do companies like this stay in business when they know you are going to cancel?  Because they know you are going to cancel and will slash and burn the next client the same way.  As long as new lead buyers fall for the cheaper leads they can count on new clients signing up for a month or two.

How To Protect Yourself

The real victim here is actually the lead aggregator.  These are the lead companies that have signed up lead buyers and instead of generating leads in house they buy posted leads from companies described above.  As most of the clients will cancel because of the quality of the leads the company is left with nothing or at best signing up new lead buyers and canceling the lead contract with said company.  At the end of the day though the damage has been done and for companies in the business for the long haul reputation of the quality of your leads can reverberate shock waves that can be hard to recover.  As for the company selling leads that will never close they don’t care because they will just change the name of the company once no one will buy leads from them anymore.  The following are steps to take to help protect yourself as a lead buyer.

1.  Ask to see landing pages.

This won’t always work as companies will frequently have multiple landing pages and domains in which they are generating leads.

2.  Show me the marketing.

If they say they generate leads from organic search ask to see what keywords the company ranks for in the search engines.  If they claim they generate leads by PPC ask to see some ads that show when certain keywords are typed.

3.  Start small.

Buy a small amount of leads at first and be responsible for checking on the quality from your sales team and if these leads are closing or simply hanging up when you call.

4.  Pay by credit card.

Though there are lead buyers out there that scam the system as well by chargeback every lead order they buy this can give you some reassurance that if a company sells you 100% bogus leads you can take immediate recourse.

5.  Ask for references.

Surely a company can give you the name and phone number of a company which has success in buying leads from them.

6.  Research the ceo and company name in Google. 

Does the company frequently come up in Google on the ripoff report or as a general quality lead business.  How many years has the company been doing business?

7.  Use a lead management system with reporting.

The more accurate the data you have on the source of what deals are closing and what ones do not only helps figure out the best place to spend your money OR more importantly where not to spend your money.

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Buying Internet leads sucks! Who is the best? Will they convert? Are they a good source? Get help from the experts at www.leadmarketwatch.com a service of Kaleidico.

Last Friday I had the pleasure of speaking with Paul McLenaghan, VP of Interactive Markets at TargusInfo, regarding their new product AdAdvisor. I covered AdAdvisor when it first was publicized earlier this year and was amazed, so I again wanted to learn more and figured a phone conversation would be best.

On the call we discussed what AdAdvisor was all about. How it works. How it outperforms traditional behavioral targeting. And how you can take advantage of the amazing product.

Take a listen and tell me what you think about AdAdvisor.

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Leads360 Express. The Powerful and FREE Lead Management Solution for Lead Buyers with 1-5 users. Visit Express.Leads360.com to apply for our exclusive BETA program.

That said though, the stronger companies are looking for ways to better service their clients and provide them with tools that will enable them to close more leads. Example would be LendingTree’s announcement of their new client retention product. Now, the press release is fairly vague as to what it really entails, but it reinforces what I have been thinking for a while now and that is that companies are needed to invest more time and services into the success of their clients. Simply providing a reverse mortgage lead may not be enough value for the client to stay with a lead gen company.

“LendingTree’s Customer Retention product offers a proven, easy-to-implement method for lenders to easily service and retain customers who are in-market, ready to transact and actively looking for new financing options. As consumers look to take advantage of lower mortgage rates by refinancing, many have turned to LendingTree to identify and compare offerings from competing lenders. The Customer Retention offering provides banks and lenders with the opportunity to get back in front of existing customers to provide competitive loan offers, and reinforce the borrower benefit of securing a simple, streamlined refinance mortgage with their current lender.”

Its my belief that companies will begin to take a more hands on approach with their clients and begin to offer a range of services to help close their leads. The challenge will be providing services that can be monetized and tracked to the bottom line. Simply hiring someone to consult with clients will not work, but adding tangible add-on services will become more and more popular over the next 12 months.

Just my thoughts, what do you think?

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I have recently excepted a position at Geary Interactive where I will be helping grow their performance marketing division with a focus on the education vertical . To say the least, I am very excited and feel that this is a big step forward in my own personal growth within the lead gen space. I was blessed to have a number of different opportunities present themselves to me that came from both the buyer and seller side of the lead generation equation, but I felt the opportunity to work for an exciting, growth oriented, full service interactive marketing company, located here in San Diego, was going to be the best home for me.

I want to thank all of you who have sent me notes of encouragement and support! The lead gen industry can sometimes get a bad rap, but from my point of view it has some of the most supportive and helpful people in any industry. Thank you!

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Buy quality mortgage leads in real-time from us. Exclusive available. ADCHEMY

4-5 years ago I came up with my own ways of scoring leads, but mine were macro focused rather then the micro techniques that are being advocated today.  I think we all know that some type, and some people may know more specifically what type, of lead scoring needs to be implemented into your lead buying/marketing controls, but most have not implemented any type of real time scoring. For a few years now we have been validating data and in some eyes scoring leads prior to entering our databases, however now more efficient and scientific scoring services are being offered by companies like TargusInfo and eBureau that take into count a number of different data points to predict the likelihood of a lead reaching the point of sale.

In the past we discussed the question of who should be responsible for scoring the lead. Should the orginal generator score the lead and then possibly provide the leads at varied costs, similar to what LeadPoint has implemented or should the end buyer score their own lead. I guess the optimal answer would be that both the buyer and the seller should have a scoring system in place. Why? Because it is more then likely that the end buyers of the leads will have  different results that will affect the future scores of the leads they receive. Not every buyer has the same results from a given lead.  Additionally, the lead generator typically has a very difficult time receiving statistically relevant amounts of data from its buyers and therefore cannot fully optimize their scoring algorithm.

There are two key, and probably more, groups of data that can be used for scoring. First is the validation data prior to the lead entering the database. This requires the least amount of historical processing data and scores the data based on the likelihood of the lead being able to be contacted. The second is set is primarily focused on process data. (i.e. contacts, applications and closing data) Because lead sources have little process data most rely on the validation data, however the combination of the two sets can equal a very powerful tool that can take your business to the next level.

It has taken some time for lead scoring to find itself properly implemented into the lead generation industry and I don’t think it is quite where it needs to be yet, but in my opinion every lead seller and lead buyer should be scoring their leads.

What do you think?

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Focused On Rapidly Building Customer Base

Mr. Gary Guseinov, CEO of CyberDefender, commented, “We believe that Steve will bring new strength and experience to the CyberDefender management team with his long track record of success in online and offline sales. As we pursue our growth strategy of investing into scale, we increasingly have been allocating budget to new marketing channels such as television, radio and retail in addition to online advertising. We believe that Steve’s proven success will further fuel our efforts to achieve key goals which include driving sales to $10 million to $12 million per month by mid next year while building a profitable base of 1 million+ customers.”

“Taking on this new position, I’m extremely impressed by the high percentage of customers CyberDefender has been able to retain as repeat customers, obviously reflecting a significant degree of customer satisfaction,” Mr. Okun stated. He added, “Going forward this clearly is something we intend to continue to build on while also focusing on greatly expanding the number of profitable new CyberDefender customers. I believe that CyberDefender’s growth and profitability goals are realistic and achievable.”

Successful Career

Mr. Okun, 45, joins CyberDefender from LeadPoint, Inc., where he was in charge of the company’s customer acquisition efforts as their Vice President of Sales and Business Development. As a founding member of their senior management team, he was instrumental in delivering record level year-over-year revenue growth during the last four years.

Mr. Okun also held the position of Vice President of Global Sales at Commission Junction, the largest pay-for-performance affiliate network, where he was responsible for leading the growth of the company’s U.S. and International sales and account management teams. He served as a member of the Executive Committee before the Company was sold to ValueClick.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Okun served in senior management roles at several Internet-related B2C software technology companies including Success Learning Systems, a Web-based training and educational products company that he founded and led as President.

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Leads360 Express. The Powerful and FREE Lead Management Solution for Lead Buyers with 1-5 users. Visit Express.Leads360.com to apply for our exclusive BETA program.