3b will become your business’s source of leads by integrating outbound calling with email and postal campaigns to create a multi-touch lead. Related to the idea of multi-touch leads is the “Seven Contact to Sale Theory,” which delivers leads that start with an outbound call, followed by an email and sometimes postal piece. By the time the lead purchaser gets the lead, the customer is familiar with their brand and has an opportunity to request additional information.
When buying Internet leads from a marketing company there are a wide range of different products depending on how the leads are sold and the lead companies polices. Exclusive Internet leads are sold to one company, but depending on the company may be sold again the next day as a shared lead or put into a cherry picking system. Shared leads are sold to multiple companies, each lead company has a different policy on the number of times sold as the more a lead is sold the less value/quality it becomes. Many leads are sold as aged, this means the lead is anywhere from 1day to over a year old although they are usually sold based on different such as 1-7, 30-60, 60–90 days old.
Once a qualified lead exists, additional operations may be performed such as background research on the lead’s employer, general market of the lead, contact information beyond that provided initially or other information useful for contacting and evaluating a lead for elevation to prospect, the next sales step.
3b will generate leads for our clients by many different marketing campaigns, which may have many different sources. Leads can be generated through mailings (fax, paper and email), fairs and trade markets, phone (call centres), database marketing and websites.
Leads from websites are often called internet leads and are set apart from the other mentioned generating methods as internet applications can be submitted and sent to the sales agent within minutes over the internet providing a chance to have a conversation with the lead while the sale is still fresh in their head. This is called “real time” although each lead provider has a different definition of how long the time period is.
Another way 3b could help generate leads will be referring to business intelligence/information portals (i.e. Database101, GoLeads, Kompass or Protel Associates Ltd). The advantage of using such services is that they allow us a single point of reference to search through industries for relevant companies and find out relevant key contacts. This is offered as a paid service but they do offer instant results with minimum amount of effort. Other channels of sales leads are Google adwords, ads in trade publications/portals which increase website traffic. Membership in associations like Direct Marketing Association is also a viable option that advises and helps its members in generating leads.
Another type of strongly sought after leads are called “organic lead”. These are often confused with Internet leads because the generating source is Internet. While they could be considered a form of Internet lead, these leads are potential customers who surf to a website through an organic channel such as search engine or inbound link and later become a lead. These are very similar to walk-in clients in retail world. Because they are not generated, they are referred to as organic. High demand for these leads is primarily because they have higher conversion rate.