So far most
of the articles I’ve read give positive projections for our
industry in 2005. When asked to write this article, and give
my projections for online lead generation in the New Year, I
was conflicted. Although I feel this will be a great year, I
am fearful that if some online lead-generation business
practices continue the way they were in 2004, we may
experience an unwanted downturn in our business. My fear was
compacted by a DMA teleconference I listened to on Tuesday
that detailed FTC regulations and DMA guidelines on
lead-generation and direct marketing. The FTC and DMA have
started cracking down on these “un-lawful” behaviors, but
they have just started to scratch the surface.
https://www.lynxtrack.com/signup.php
Hopefully,
by expressing my fears, lead-generation companies will be
encouraged to uphold the best business practices that will
earn them more business from their clients and contribute to
our industry’s growth. In addition, I hope that this
encourages advertisers and media buyers to do their part in
researching lead-generation companies thoroughly, allowing
them to work with the companies that uphold these business
practices.
The FTC law
that is most relevant to what is happening in online
lead-generation today is Section 5 of the FTC Act which
prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the
marketplace:
http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/privacyinitiatives/promises.html.
Before I
came to work for Permission Data (a reputable online
lead-generation company), I spent several years working as a
media buyer/marketing manager for online agencies. Due to
the nature of agency buying I worked with as many
lead-generation companies as possible. This experience
taught me how to buy leads from multiple sources for
multiple clients. While working for Permission Data I have
had the opportunity to learn the inner workings of lead
generation, data cleansing and data delivery. All of this
experience enforces my belief that ethical and reliable
companies should set the standard for best business
practices, not those who are just out to make a quick buck.
To demonstrate the business practices I am referencing here
is a quick Do’s and Don’ts list that lead-generation
companies should follow:
ü
Do not
resell registration data to the point where it becomes
ineffective and unresponsive for the advertiser who
originally purchased the leads.
ü
Do not data
dump or sell your clients a mixed bag of real opt-in and
bulk data.
ü
Do not
pre-populate fields without your client’s approval.
ü
Do not
FORCE registrants to opt-in to any offers.
ü
Do not have
a “survey process” (pages of offers) that frustrates
registrants by taking 15+ minutes to complete, or to not
completing at all.
ü
Do not run
too many offer pages hosted by other companies. You could be
displaying the same offers over and over again. I have seen
this a lot lately, and in many instances this will lead to
duplicate data and frustrated registrants.
ü
Do not
infringe on brand name trademarks – this confuses the
registrant as to who the offer is coming from.
ü
Do not make
the registrants jump through multiple hoops to claim their
prize, gift, discount or enter into a sweepstakes. [This
includes, but is NOT limited to: forcing them to follow up
via phone, fax or email in a specified time frame; tricking
them to sign up for a continuity program without clearly
disclosing the terms and conditions; not clearly stating
that they have to take multiple CPA offers, etc.]
ü
Do research
the companies that are hosting an offer page within your
process to make sure they do not force opt-ins, have
duplicate offers or run opt-outs.
ü
Do fulfill
on the “Freemium” you originally used to get the person to
register in the first place.
ü
Do have a
good customer service system in place for fulfillment
questions and concerns.
By
continually working to uphold these business practices our
client’s will have cleaner, fresher, more responsive data
which will ultimately lead to an increase in business. If
companies continue to ignore their client’s needs, business
will decline and my fears will become reality. How do I know
this? A large part of my job is buying leads. Lately, some
lead generation companies seem to be scrounging for new
advertisers because their long standing clients are dropping
off like flies. I can assure you this is due to invalid or
non-responsive data. The equation is simple: Bad business
practices = loss of clients; maybe not immediately, but
eventually.
On the
other side of the coin, advertisers and their media buyers
need to do their part in researching these companies before
working with them. Often, I meet advertisers who have
removed lead-generation from their online budget because
they received crap data from the first company they bought
from. When I inquire about the research that went into
finding this company I realize that one or all of these
things happened:
-
There was
not enough time to thoroughly research multiple companies so
they went with the first company they could find.
-
The company
made false promises, and the buyer did not research their
methods and practices before working with them.
-
OR the
buyer did not know what questions to ask in order to
understand what data quality, quantity and responsiveness to
expect.
Here are
some questions all buyers should ask before purchasing
leads/data from a lead-generation company or broker:
1.
How many registrations do you receive per month (per
site and across all sites if they own multiple web
properties)?
2.
What types of offers perform best on your sites?
3.
Can I have a link to all of your registration
processes? (Get a link, not a screenshot and go through the
entire process).
4.
If my offer was on your site, where would it be in
your process? (If you are one of the top spots you will receive
more leads than if you are the last offer presented).
5.
How many advertisers do you have on your pages?
6.
What is your site’s demographic breakdown? Can you
target based on these demographics?
7.
Do you have a data cleaning process? If so, what does
it do?
8.
Do you have client testimonials or references? (try
to get 2 – 3)
9.
How many companies manage your list of registration
data? (be wary if it is more than 2)
10.
Do you resell any of your registration data to other
marketing companies? If so how many? (be wary if it is more
than 2)
11.
Do you force registrants to opt in to any offers? (Go
through the registration process and double check that they
don’t)
12.
What is the “freemium” (sweepstake or free offer)
attached to the registration that incentivizes consumers to
sign up?
13.
If they are using a brand name in the “freemium” ask:
Do you have the brand’s permission to use their name? If not
be wary.
14.
Is the registrant required to perform an action in
order to partake in the “freemium”? If so what is that
action? (Knowing this will help you gauge if the company is
fraudulently having consumers sign up with no intention of
actually providing the “freemium”).
15.
How many pages within your process are hosted by
other companies? What are the names of those companies? (You
may already be working with a company that has their page
hosted within their process. Therefore you may receive a lot
of duplicate data).
So, after
all is said and done, my projections for the 2005 are
simple: Many companies will succeed and many will fail, but
overall our industry will continue to grow. I am excited to
see what the future has in store for those of us who uphold
the best business practices and I am fearful for the future
of those who do not. Good luck to all of you. I look forward
to working with you all toward a successful 2005!
Lindsay Mure
Director of Marketing and Partner Relations
