• by John Hayes , September 3, 2009

So, now that you have gone out and spent your advertising dollars on buying leads, what do you do with them now? As a person in charge of getting the leads, I have become extremely frustrated with the fact that so many of my buyers are strategically impaired. They know that it is good to have these names, but they have no strategy on how to turn these names into actual buying customers.

I have an extremely targeted vertical that I focus on for lead generation. That focus is high-end finance, stocks, options, etc. All of my partners are in this demographic, so when I tell an advertiser this is the kind of leads they are going to get, I can guarantee they are going to be relatively good.

The problem that keeps arising is that buyers are claiming that the leads do not work. The first thing I ask when they come to me complaining is, "What you do with the leads after you get them?" When the client answers that question, I usually hear the most dreadful marketing schemes I could ever imagine.

"I get the e-mail address and then I eventually send the lead an e-mail" or "I call each one myself." This is unacceptable. In order for this business model to be effective, you have to have a well-defined plan in place. Simply sending one e-mail eventually is horrible. Your e-mail might have gone to a spam folder because you waited three weeks to send a bulk e-mail to all of your leads.

Having one business owner calling each one of the leads individually is a joke as well. One of my buyers gets 30 leads a day, and I think he is still on leads from 2008. This marketing must be done in a timely, efficient manner.

What I try to do now is educate, as well as help my buyers come up with a more realistic plan for turning their leads into business. The first thing to do is devise a multi-pronged attack for the leads. Most buyers want as much information as I can attain for them. Name, E-mail, Address, and Phone. With all of this information in their grasp there is no reason why they should not be able to create business. These names came to them because these folks were at one time interested in their product, so they are as warm as they can be.

Here is the plan I suggest to my buyers: Develop between four and six marketing pieces that can be sent out on a weekly basis, get two or three pieces of creative made for direct mail, as well as a telemarketing script. Then once you have all of these elements in place you can start to receive the leads and begin the cycle.

First you start with the e-mail campaign.  After three or four e-mails, since you have the physical address, you need to begin a direct mail campaign as well. Then since you bought the number also, two or three weeks after, and since the prospective customer knows a good deal about your company, you should begin your telemarketing. This should be done by a professional telemarketing firm capable of making the necessary number of calls in a timely fashion.

Then this cycle needs to be continued daily. Every day when the new leads come in the cycle must begin again. In most cases an individual company does not have the time or the capabilities to handle such a vigorous plan. That is when they should turn to the professionals. There are hundreds of companies whose sole business model is fulfilling these marketing plans for you; many will work on a revenue share, only charging you for when you have made new business.

Too often in this business companies think they can cut back on initiative and still be successful. I am sorry to say that they are incorrect. The necessary time for marketing must be taken and directives must be fulfilled to be successful. Lead generation can be a powerful tool in advertising, but if it is not done correctly, it can also just be a waste.