• by Bill Todd , May 30, 2008

As lead generation marketers have become savvier and have pushed for even more performance at scale, it has put more pressure on incorporating both increased lead quality and lead monetization strategies.

Lead generation performance depends as much on what an advertiser does with leads as where they originate. How advertisers process and manage leads, and the relationships they build with their lead providers, are equally important and becoming increasingly more sophisticated.

Here are four strategies advertisers can incorporate to maximize lead performance in the current lead generation landscape:

1) Know and communicate your objectives. The process of achieving high performing lead generation programs is unique to each advertiser's goals, whether that means generating call center leads or driving consumers to print coupons, enter sweepstakes, sign up for free trials, subscribe to a newsletter or join a political cause.

Communicating campaign objectives at the outset of a campaign, along with exactly how leads will be contacted, will help vendors determine the best solution to recommend. For instance, a program that relies heavily on follow-up by telephone might include additional screening measures to verify the accuracy of phone numbers provided by consumers.

2) Follow up quickly. A vendor can provide the greatest, most eager leads in the world, but if they aren't responded to quickly and persuasively, they soon begin to diminish in value. To avoid confusion, the content of any follow-up correspondence should also be relevant to what a consumer signed up for initially.

In addition, advertisers need adequate infrastructure in place to handle the leads in a timely manner. This can include any combination of sales staff, e-mail systems, call centers or direct mail capabilities, which some lead generation providers offer.

The combination of timeliness and an efficient process for responding will add up to greater overall performance for any lead generation program.

3) Establish a process for managing ROI. At the heart of every great lead generation program is a solid process for managing the metrics against which an advertiser's objectives are measured. This begins by filtering out bogus leads and validating data such as address, phone and e-mail, which can be done by either the lead provider or the advertiser.

Knowing data hygiene is being addressed on the front-end allows advertisers to work with their providers to focus on maximizing performance on the back end. The ability to calculate ROI by traffic source provides insight into what sources can be scaled, those that may need additional validation to achieve an advertiser's metrics, and those that should be removed entirely.

Advertisers should also track the reasons for invalid leads, such as e-mail bounce backs, invalid/incorrect phone numbers or mailing addresses, credit card information, etc. Doing so gives advertisers the ability to work with their lead-gen providers to determine if additional validations can improve the quality from underperforming traffic sources, or if repricing is necessary for these traffic sources to achieve their ROI goals.

ROI management processes are critical for advertisers that must measure performance over an extended period of time, i.e. "lifetime value." Advertisers should be able to track the lifetime value of their customers by traffic source and to identify negative factors that may be contributing to a traffic source's reduced ROI compared to other sources. For example, if an advertiser collects credit card information to bill for a monthly membership program, it is important to track credit card declines, charge-backs, and refunds by traffic source.

4) Communicate performance with your provider. Communicate the specific performance of leads to each provider and work closely with them to improve upon the results. Doing so will enable the program to scale according to each advertiser's specific goals. Some advertisers even score performance by source ID, giving their lead provider granular insight on the performance of their traffic sources. Most importantly, provide feedback in a timely manner while action can be taken to optimize performance during the current campaign.

Advertisers have diverse needs, many of which can be addressed by the highly effective and rapidly evolving lead generation channel. To better capitalize on lead generation, vendors and advertisers alike need to think of it as more than just an initial transaction for buying and selling leads, but rather a partnership and an extension of an organization's long-term marketing strategy. That means forming close working relationships with trusted partners, communicating program goals, providing actionable data, following up vigorously and getting smarter about it as the process is repeated over time.