The following article was written by Justin Rees for myintroducer.com. To read the original, click here.

The market for remortgage leads is one of the biggest lead markets in the UK financial services industry.

Mortgage related searches are some of the most popular on Google and thousands of leads are generated each day across the market.

While an adviser firm could probably generate some of their own mortgage leads through their own online marketing, the problem is that there will be a very broad range of customers many of whom would never realistically be able to get a mortgage.

The good news for lead buyers it that most providers offer multiple filtering opportunities to advisers to target customers that are more likely to convert into business. The most common filters on offer are loan size, postal area, credit profile of consumer and maximum LTV.
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The following article was written by Justin Rees for Myintroducer.com. To read the original, click here. 

The New Year is a timely opportunity for consumers across the UK to start thinking about their financial situation, as well as securing their own and their family’s future.
Whether that’s by renewing their life insurance policy or by getting a loan to pay off their Christmas debts!

As a result lead volumes naturally peak in January as more consumers set about planning for the year ahead. Many buyers also report a boost in conversion rates, as consumers are more serious about sorting out their finances as quickly as possible.

With this in mind, January is a great time to pick up high quality leads at competitive prices.

But before you go ahead and fire up your campaigns, why not take a few moments to make sure that before you purchase your first lead you have everything in place to maximise conversions.

Remember, a lead is a consumer that has expressed a specific interest in your product.
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The following article was written by Justin Rees for MyIntroducer.com. To read the original, click here.

We are rapidly approaching the end of 2011 and the New Year is only around the corner.

2011 has been a busy year in the world of lead generation and 2012 is set to be no different with innovation set to be a key driver in the industry. So what do lead buyers have to look forward to in 2012?

Voice lead generation

In the financial services industry, voice leads have traditionally meant hot transfers where anonymous call centres dial old data to generate interest for various products and services and any consumer that wants to speak to an adviser is transferred across.

While many firms do well from this type of voice lead and you are at least guaranteed to speak to the consumer there are still issues which can mean conversions are no different or even lower than data leads.

Everything from the age of the data used to how the call centre agents are incentivised can affect lead quality.

The next evolution in voice lead generation is where the consumer initiates the call themselves. This immediately gets around all the issues with hot transfers as the consumer intent is strong.

This means lead buyers get 100% contact rate and a consumer who is ready to transact. This type of voice lead generation is already big business in the US and 2012 is set to be the year where it takes off in the UK.

Mobile lead generation

You can’t escape the rise of mobile and statistics show that more and more people are going online on their mobiles rather than on their desktop. This presents a huge opportunity for lead providers to capture all these consumers that are going on their mobile devices looking for financial services advice.

While many companies have experimented with generating leads through mobile, nobody has yet really cracked it apart from in certain sectors like loans where it is common practice for big loan brokerages to use SMS marketing to generate loan enquiries.

The real opportunity is using display advertising on mobile where consumers will see ads for various financial products and services and then click through to a specially designed mobile landing page where they can submit their information to be contacted.

This has huge potential reach and the ability to target certain types of customers is becoming increasingly sophisticated all the time. 2012 is set to be the year where mobile lead generation starts to gain more widespread adoption across verticals.

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The following article was written by Justin Rees for Econsultancy. To read the original, click here.

In the latest IAB/PwC adspend study, online lead generation registered an impressive 20% growth rate over the year which shows the continuing interest in lead generation.

However, while spend is certainly increasing, there is still a lack of understanding about the industry.

The title of this post could have been 100 lead generation tips, but with the help of a few other lead generation experts I have managed to narrow the list down to the top 20 most important.

At a recent online marketing event, I was lucky enough to be invited to speak on a panel about lead generation which covered everything from the state of the current market, the issues faced by lead buyers and sellers and a sneak peak into what the future holds for the fledgling UK industry.

As part of the panel we were tasked to come up with a series of lead generation tips for the audience and myself, Andy Purbrick from Dennis Publishing and Sean Sewell from Performance Horizon Group put our heads together to come up with a top 20.

1. Validate as many data fields as possible in real-time

The more accurate the lead data, the higher the contact and conversion rates. There are lots of available technologies that allow you to improve the accuracy of data such as checking consumer phone numbers in real-time, validating post codes and verifying email addresses are genuine.

2. Understand the consumer journey

If you know how the consumer “becomes a lead” you can refine your follow up processes to increase return on investment. This is especially relevant for call centre follow ups where agents are paid by the hour.

For example, if the consumer is expecting a free quote for an insurance product then this needs to be factored into the scripting of the call.

3. Test and optimise

Rome wasn’t built in a day and nor are lead generation campaigns. Just like any marketing spend, there is always room for improvement and it takes time to maximise the ROI potential of any campaign.

This means you need to do lots of testing and optimisation.

4. Understand the value of your leads
Every lead has value but depending on the marketing messaging and origination method there can be significant variation between leads for the same campaign. There is a place for leads at different ends of the value scale but you need to know which is which in order to optimise your spend.

5. Have a relevant conversion strategy

It might seem like an obvious point but I am always surprised by how many times companies get this wrong. If you tell the consumer you are going to call them then make sure you call them.

If you don’t, then not only will the campaign not perform well, it can give your brand a bad name.

6. Don’t over-incentivise

There is nothing inherently wrong with an incentive but you need to find the balance between the consumer just wanting the incentive versus wanting to engage with your brand.

For example, if you are running a lead generation campaign to get subscriptions to a magazine, then giving away a free subscription of the magazine is fine but if you offer a free iPad giveaway then you will probably just get people that want to win an iPad.

7. Clear opt-in and privacy policy

This is important not just for regulatory reasons but also for lead quality as well. Ultimately, if the consumer doesn’t know what they are signing up for (or signing up at all) then they won’t be responsive to any further communications which will impact on the performance of the campaign.

 8. Don’t make the consumer jump through too many hoops

Naturally you want to know as much information as possible about each consumer but you get to a point where every extra field of data you capture or information you present to the consumer before they reach the lead form reduces lead volumes and doesn’t improve quality.

The amount of data you want to capture is something to test and optimise over the life of the campaign.

9. Leave your preconceptions at the door

Quite simply, the best lead generation campaigns are the ones that work. If the campaign looks ugly then it doesn’t necessarily mean it will generate poor leads and if the creative execution looks amazing it might not generate any leads at all!

The point is that only once the campaign is live can you tell whether it performs or not, so leave your preconceptions at the door and let the data do the talking.

10. Dedupe your leads

Why would you pay for the same lead twice? It is a waste of time and money. Luckily there are a handful of lead platforms that enable you to dedupe your lead supply in real-time so you only ever pay for each lead once. When leads can cost as much as £50 per lead in some verticals, even with a small duplication rate the potential savings are substantial.

Keep a look out for tips 11 -20…

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This article was written by Justin Rees for Best Advice. To read the original, click here.

Thousands of advisers all over the UK will be buying leads in order to fuel their new business pipelines. At the same time, the level of success from buying leads will vary greatly between lead buyers. While it takes time to implement all the necessary processes to make lead generation profitable there are a few areas that every lead buyer should definitely focus on.

Separate contact and advice
The first tip comes from the US – the home of lead generation.  Now while we are often sceptical about a lot that makes it across the Atlantic, when it comes to selling nobody does it better than the Americans! To borrow a well worn phrase, “callers aren’t closers” which essentially means it is not necessarily the best use of resources to have the same people calling the leads as advising and selling to customers.

Even with the ever increasingly sophisticated validation and verification technology it still requires a human to really qualify a lead in terms of both criteria and genuine interest level. Also, there is only a limited amount of information that is captured for each product so there will always be an extra level of qualification necessary for each lead.

If it is at all possible to task somebody more junior within your organisation to make the initial contacts you will reap the benefits over time as contact rate increases and only the most suitable customers are pushed through to the most experienced advisers. This will result in higher conversion rates and increased return on investment.

Minutes makes the difference
Most lead providers in the UK offer leads generated and delivered in real-time which means that the lead buyer receives the lead in a matter of seconds once the consumer has submitted their details online. The power of immediate contact cannot be underestimated but where many lead buyers get this wrong is that they think this means after 15 minutes or half an hour. Unfortunately the facts show that consumer leads contacted within sixty seconds are four times more likely to convert into business than those contacted after 60 seconds.

Any lead buyer that really wants to speak to more consumers and convert more leads into business should have the processes in place to make this immediate contact. And you don’t need a call centre to ensure this happens. Many lead providers offer a free SMS alert with each lead so even if you are out of the office you can still make that quick contact. Even if you are just about to do something else it is still beneficial to call the consumer to make contact, introduce yourself and schedule a call back. Not only will you make a good impression it will also prevent the consumer from going back online to fill in a form for somebody else to deal with their enquiry.

Don’t ignore the unconverted
Even for the most experienced lead buyers in the highest performing categories, conversion rates from leads will rarely be greater than 25%. That means that 75% of leads purchased will not generate any revenue today but they might do next week or further into the future.

There are thousands of reasons why a lead might not convert from the consumer making an enquiry early in the purchase cycle and not ready to commit or finding a better deal elsewhere. There are simply too many to document. However, the fact is that if the consumer has responded to some form of marketing about the product and filled in up to thirty fields of information to be contacted they certainly have some interest in the product and this gives you the potential to nurture that lead over time to convert at a later date.

There are some very straight forward and low cost software systems available in the market that allow you to continue the dialogue with each consumer over time so that when they are ready to purchase they will come back to you. These systems can be automated so after the initial set up there is little work that needs to be done.

Using the above example, for many products a 25% conversion rate will yield a healthy return on investment and with the added incremental conversions that can be generated from nurturing leads over time, the extra revenue potential can be significant for minimal additional effort.

Multiply your ROI
Many businesses make the mistake of looking at each lead as just one revenue opportunity but the most successful lead buyers look at each lead as multiple opportunities. Whether it’s a cross-sell into a related product or the chance to earn a referral from the customer you can multiply the profitability from buying leads by looking at things in this way.

Like Oliver Twist, you should always be asking for “one more” and the impact this can have on your business can be huge. For example, even if you buy just 10 remortgage leads, one extra cross sale into a life insurance policy can turn an average campaign into a profitable one and it is certainly cheaper than buying life insurance leads!

Make sure you have the systems in place to track all of these opportunities that fall out of every lead and also track the results and any conversions. This will enable you to make better decisions about how much you can spend on leads and which lead providers you can use. It might be that a lead provider with a lower initial conversion rate but whose leads offer more cross-sell opportunities is ultimately the one you should invest your budget in.

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