Why Lead Generation Fails

Why Lead Generation Fails
The Six Mistakes Advanced Marketers Make
That Kill Customer Acquisition Marketing
January 2010
Response Mine Interactive: White PaperResponse Mine Interactive, LLC. © Copyright 2010 All rights reserved.OverviewLead Gen. CPA. CPL. Per Inquiry. Performance What's Insidemarketing. Affiliate marketing. Co-Reg. These are all terms that describe pay-for-performance marketing Mistake #1relationships, where you pay third party companies Falling into the 'cost per lead' trapfor each lead they send you. They often drive signifi-cant volume for call centers and other direct market- Mistake #2ers, but more often, you end up paying for leads that Wasting traffic with poor conversiondon't convert very well. Mistake #3Failing to use content to pre-qualify the personYou don't need "leads," you need customers. The reason your business is not as successful as it could Mistake #4be is often because you are engaging partners - Forcing the form kills interestyou're buying names from a vendor. Why Lead Generation Fails reveals the common six mistakes Mistake #5that cause problems in lead generation marketing, Stopping after you become Number 1and how to turn efforts into powerful customer acquisition channels - where the partner's interest Mistake #6Failing to invest in testingis perfectly aligned with your business and together, you set each other up for success!
Minimize Your MistakesCreating and managing an effective online lead will prevail over companies that can't manage the generation program is not a job for the timid. Inter- myriad of opportunities, risks and details involved net marketing is a two-steps-forward, one-step-back in Internet marketing.process. From keywords to conversion, the path to success is replete with wrong turns and What does it take to succeed? For starters: patience, dead-end streets. intense focus, a passion for continual improvement, and a keen sense of risk management. No one can change the fact that Internet marketing is largely built on trial and error. However, we can These Six Mistakes sum up some of the best Inter-all learn from the mistakes of others and apply those net marketing practices Response Mine Interactive lessons going forward. employs with its clients.
For those who can stay the course, the rewards of the Internet channel can be substantial. They
Response Mine Interactive: White Paper: January 2010 2Response Mine Interactive, LLC. © Copyright 2010 All rights reserved.Mistake #1:
Falling Into The 'Cost Per Lead' Trap
Whether you're planning your lead generation strat- Use your customer's LTV as a gauge for what a truly egy or analyzing campaign results, strike "cost per qualified lead is really worth in your customer lead" from your vocabulary. In online marketing, acquisition program. Then, for each marketing buy, just as in life, you get what you pay for. be willing to pay more for the programs that have effective conversion rates. In the end, you could care Seeking a low cost-per-lead sets you up for the less about the cost of a raw lead--you want a profit-wrong goal. Your real goal should be to win a profit- able cost per acquired customer! able customer at the lowest possible cost. Clearly define what a lead is and set the price you're The metric you want to focus on is cost per willing to pay for it according to how deep in the acquired customer. conversion funnel it is. A name from Hoovers is not worth nearly as much as a contact that completed a But first, make sure you understand the lifetime form and requested more information. And that lead value of a customer-a key, yet often overlooked, is not worth as much as a prospect who has agreed concept. Looking at revenue from a one-time trans- to an in-person demonstration.action viewpoint is a flawed assumption and The metric you want Keep in mind that leads from leads to selecting poor- different sources convert at quality leads. different rates. A higher cost "to focus on is cost per
acquired customer. lead may convert at twice The lifetime value (LTV) the rate of a lower cost lead, of a customer, according making it more valuable. to the Database Institute's "website, is "the expected profit that you will realize Setting up a program to generate profitable leads from sales to a particular customer in the future. begins with a close look at your business model. Although it builds on past customer... [download for more]