Leads: Can’t Live With Them, Can’t Live Without Them
As we turn toward tighter economic times, we increasingly see the squeeze on marketing dollars. What started out as a MarCom Mangers’ dream of a media mix is leading toward strict media buys with “guaranteed results.”
CPL/CPA media jargon oozes out of our mouths with the equivocal promise of, “The streets are paved with gold.” Expectations are locked in a vicious circle between sales teams to marketing departments, to media agencies, onto publishers and back to sales teams. The term lead is highly subjective and becomes a convenient foundation of a love-hate relationship. Leads: Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
Lead gen is purchased in hopes that the majority of the output is not only perfect (just short of receiving the respondents social security number and blood type), but will sign on the dotted line upon the first call or email. I know others in the lead gen provider space can agree with me that CPL is just another branch in a media mix. Advertising, by Wikipedia’s and my Marketing 101 professor’s definition, is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers. Name generation is a form of communication in attempt to persuade potential customers with collateral in return for their name (real or pseudo name).
Like other forms of advertising that preceded CPL, this is not an exact science. As we near the halfway point of 2008, it is safe to say that all those using the internet are very well versed. The jig is up and registration pages have lost their shine. Super savvy internet users know the catch behind providing their very sacred information in return for a “free whitepaper.”
This conundrum is plaguing CPL providers everywhere and I say the expectation needs to change from the source. “Hey there sales and marketing teams, lead gen works.” You need leads and we can provide that. We can guarantee that all leads generated were interested, we can assure you that most were just researching, we can speculate that some will give false information to avoid contact, and we know that there are a select few that with the proper sales follow up, will be a valuable customer. We, the lead gen provider, can get you several steps closer than that connectionless banner ad or that Interstate 495 billboard.
Leads: Can’t live with them — Not all leads are going to be perfect.
Leads: Can’t live without them — CPL programs take the prospecting work out. Just like “No PR is bad PR”, I am putting my foot down and saying, “No lead gen programs are bad lead gen programs.” With lead gen, your company name is out there, your offers are out there, and you are getting qualified respondents to follow up with.
Posted on 6/3/2008 by Sharon Joseph in Lead Generation
1 Comment to “Leads: Can’t Live With Them, Can’t Live Without Them”
Leave a Reply
As we turn toward tighter economic times, we increasingly see the squeeze on marketing dollars. What started out as a MarCom Mangers’ dream of a media mix is leading toward strict media buys with “guaranteed results.”
CPL/CPA media jargon oozes out of our mouths with the equivocal promise of, “The streets are paved with gold.” Expectations are locked in a vicious circle between sales teams to marketing departments, to media agencies, onto publishers and back to sales teams. The term lead is highly subjective and becomes a convenient foundation of a love-hate relationship. Leads: Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
Lead gen is purchased in hopes that the majority of the output is not only perfect (just short of receiving the respondents social security number and blood type), but will sign on the dotted line upon the first call or email. I know others in the lead gen provider space can agree with me that CPL is just another branch in a media mix. Advertising, by Wikipedia’s and my Marketing 101 professor’s definition, is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers. Name generation is a form of communication in attempt to persuade potential customers with collateral in return for their name (real or pseudo name).
Like other forms of advertising that preceded CPL, this is not an exact science. As we near the halfway point of 2008, it is safe to say that all those using the internet are very well versed. The jig is up and registration pages have lost their shine. Super savvy internet users know the catch behind providing their very sacred information in return for a “free whitepaper.”
This conundrum is plaguing CPL providers everywhere and I say the expectation needs to change from the source. “Hey there sales and marketing teams, lead gen works.” You need leads and we can provide that. We can guarantee that all leads generated were interested, we can assure you that most were just researching, we can speculate that some will give false information to avoid contact, and we know that there are a select few that with the proper sales follow up, will be a valuable customer. We, the lead gen provider, can get you several steps closer than that connectionless banner ad or that Interstate 495 billboard.
Leads: Can’t live with them — Not all leads are going to be perfect.
Leads: Can’t live without them — CPL programs take the prospecting work out. Just like “No PR is bad PR”, I am putting my foot down and saying, “No lead gen programs are bad lead gen programs.” With lead gen, your company name is out there, your offers are out there, and you are getting qualified respondents to follow up with.
Posting your comment
Eric Schwartz | June 4, 2008 @ 3:28 pm
I disagree with: I am putting my foot down and saying, “No lead gen programs are bad lead gen programs.” … there are definitely some programs out there that I would stay away from. There are in fact bad lead gen programs with incentivized traffic and poor quality leads.