Less greed and more honesty will make lead generation work

[Guest blog from Matt Edwards MD of e-finity Leads]

Matt Edwards
27th November 2013
Matt Edwards - efinity

Like many, I was saddened to read about yet another lead generation firm getting into trouble yesterday. For an industry that concerns itself with spend against return on investment, we’ve had our fair share of disappointments in recent years.

I am proud of the lead generation industry, and those of us who do a good job for our clients need to do a better job of advertising that Lead Generation is an effective way for even the smallest advisor to access the power of online marketing.

Instead all we seem to hear is the negatives.

It doesn’t need to be this way.

I’ve made my career in the lead generation industry because I’m attracted by the simplicity and transparency of performance based marketing. An affiliate pays per click to generate an enquiry and makes their money by optimising landing page conversion. A buyer pays per lead and makes the leads profitable by working leads effectively and removing dead numbers.

This model falls down if any of the involved parties try and cheat each other. If an affiliate mixes in fraudulent traffic or the buyer purposefully tries to return legitimate leads, both sides lose trust in each other and the decline begins.

The lead generation platforms have had a bad time of it recently and I suggest its because they don’t control their own traffic and because they encourage a ponzi like false market.

Lead platforms rely solely on third party affiliates, which means they sit in the middle but control nothing. When buyers give feedback on leads, that feedback is largely useless unless the affiliate is compelled to act and many simply refuse to. Meanwhile in times of short supply, lead platforms encourage buyers to bid against each other and shrug their shoulders if there aren’t enough leads.

Lead generation works when both sides trust each other. If you buy leads, allow your sellers to see your reporting and conversions stats, they’ll be amazed at the level of no contact you get. Incentivise them with lead prices that increase if you’re sales do and you’ll get the best from performance marketing experts.

If you sell leads, concentrate on contact rate. If you’re using the right messaging and are serious about your clients, the key to long term success if producing leads that will speak to brokers.

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