Leads Generating

June 9th, 2009

Leads Generating

Lead generation (commonly abbreviated as lead-gen) is a marketing term that refers to the creation or generation of prospective consumer interest or inquiry into a business’ products or services. Leads can be generated for a variety of purposes - list building, e-newsletter list acquisition or for winning customers.

A lead is a sign-up for an advertiser offer that includes contact information and in some cases, demographic information. There are two types of leads in the lead generation market: sales leads and marketing leads.

Sales leads are generated on the basis of demographic criteria such as FICO score, income, age, HHI, etc. These leads are resold to multiple advertisers. Sales leads are typically followed up through phone calls by the sales force. Sales leads are commonly found in the mortgage, insurance and finance markets.

Marketing leads are brand-specific leads generated for a unique advertiser offer. In direct contrast to sales leads, marketing leads are sold only once. Because transparency is a necessary requisite for generating marketing leads, marketing lead campaigns can be optimized by mapping leads to their sources.

The question then arises is the process of buying leads effective for online marketing?  It would be apparent that this should be left up to the individual entrepreneur.  The leads purchased can be thought of as only a foot in the door.  Leads, though advertised as being fresh, have all been sold numerous times.  Further insights into leads purchasing can be found here…

Leads Generating

Leads Generating

June 9th, 2009

Leads

Leads are essential elements needed in building a successful online business on Google.  The question that will be answered within this website will be useful to the Google reader from this aspect.  Should you buy leads from a leads broker?  Many presentations across the Internet claim that buying leads is not only a good way to obtain private information from interested entrepreneurs, but also it is a cost effective way to run said business?

Much of that mystery will be revealed within the AboutLeads.net site for logical people to reach their own conclusions about buying leads, or actually learning how to build a business using the power of the search engines.

According to Wikipedia

“A sales lead is the identity of a person or entity potentially interested in purchasing a product or service, and represents the first stage of a sales process. The lead may have a corporation or business associated (a B2B lead) with the person(s). Sales leads come from either marketing lead generation processes such as trade shows, direct marketing, advertising, Internet marketing or from sales person prospecting activities such as cold calling. For a sales lead to qualify as a sales prospect, or equivalently to move a lead from the process step sales lead to the process sales prospect, qualification must be performed and evaluated. Typically this involves identifying by direct interrogation the lead’s product applicability, availability of funding, and time frame for purchase. This is also the entry point of a sales tunnel, sales funnel or sales pipeline.

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.

If a sales lead eventually makes a purchase, this is called conversion and a closed sale. The ratio of sales leads that convert is often referred to as the conversion rate, a way to measure the effectiveness of a sales process, sales team, or sales person.”

This broad overview of sales leads, leads one to know more about the subject of what this site is all about, but it  does not answer the vital question that all online marketers need to have answered.  Is the process of buying leads productive, or simply just another way for hucksters of the Internet to earn more money?

After being involved in MLM and Network Marketing for years, I realize that leads that have been bought, have often been purchased thousands of times before falling into the hands of the eager entrepreneur.  This leads into frustration when cold phone calls are made to these supposed fresh lead contacts.

How Much Do Leads Cost?

Obviously, leads can cost anywhere from zero dollars, upwards to $150 per, or more.  Its all about how much worth, time and effort the leads brokers will pour into their presentations on the net, about how special their leads are, as opposed to the other leads analyst.  The online marketer should spend much due diligence in researching leads and the entire leads industry, before plopping down big money in hopes of getting rich online with no effort.  Leads generating systems can play an integral part in the overall success, lack thereof.

To be sure, the information that you receive on the search engines should be viewed closely from a mindset of trepidation and caution.  Many leads companies will spend untold millions of dollars into promoting their sites to top positons either through qualified search engine optimization techniques, or Google Pay-Per-Click advertising.  Does this make their service any better, or any more productive in the overall sense of producing income from a home business?  This author would claim absolutely not.  Millions of  dollars are on the table with these leads organizations, so their goal is to make more money any way that they can.  Do they really care if those leads purchased earn revenue for the marketer?  Another big NO should be entered into this equation.  Read More About Leads Here…