What is an Internet Lead?: The Anatomy of Lead Generation

Internet lead generation can be complex and confusing. However, understanding how this process works can be as much of a strategic advantage to lead buyers as it is to the marketers who sell them. But, whether you buy leads or generating them it is critical to understand the lead generation process.

Basic Lead Anatomy

The most basic elements of an Internet lead are simple in concept, but ultimately much more complex in execution and success. At the core of every Internet lead are three simple ideas: a web form, an Internet location, and consumer traffic.

Making each of these elements work together effectively to produce the right quantity and quality of leads is the complex part of the equation. This is also why you should probably buy Internet leads. After all, selling products and services is the primary driver of your business (i.e., mortgage, real estate, insurance, education, network marketing).

Form

If you have spent any time on the Internet you have met up with the classic web form. Forms are simply a mechanism to collect information. In lead generation, it is the fundamental building block of a lead--consumers needs and wants. Once collected, these data elements can quickly be evaluated, sorted, and matched to various buyers. Sales organizations, teams, or individuals matched based on their product and services fit to the consumer(s)’ needs or wants.

Location

When we discuss location on the Internet we are generally talking about a web site, web page, or position on a web page. Like real estate, when we are talking about lead generation it is all about location, location, location. This single element within the construct of an Internet lead will have the single largest effect on the convertibility of a lead.

Traffic

Once the form is in place and the location chosen the age-old question becomes, "Will they come?" No. As a general statement, the Internet is already to endless a landscape. Attracting interested consumers without a method to gain their attention is impossible. These mechanisms are numerous. The techniques, used to generate or drive traffic into a location and ultimately a form submit, exist within a broad spectrum of effectiveness and integrity.

Internet Leads

We will analyze each element within the creation of an Internet to help you learn more about Internet leads, what to look for in buying, and how they can be a powerful part of your business. This analysis will start from the bottom, at the form, and work up to the consumers themselves. All along the way pointing out how each element and technique potentially effects your sales process and opportunity.

The web form is nearly as old as the web browser, giving people an easy and consistent way of submitting information to a web page. The simplicity and familiarity of the form to Internet consumers has made it the foundation of a growing lead generation industry.

Understanding how this simple concept is used to collect and segment consumers can improve your lead buying decisions and sales processes.

Design

Believe it or not, how a form is designed and what it says can ultimately effect the lead it produces’ convertibility.

Imagine for a moment your experiences as an Internet consumer. Typically, the more interested you are in a purchase the more information you are willing to provide. And regardless of your interest level you certainly need to understand why you are providing the information.

Form design is a careful blend of:

the right information request(s),
clear messaging of why the request(s) are appropriate, and
foreshadowing of expectations or next steps

Too many or seemingly irrelevant requests will reduce submit rates. Too few or irrelevant requests can cause both the lead buyer and the consumer to become confused as to what is needed. And of course, forms that are not clear in setting expectations of the next steps will also produce confused or worse negative consumers.

Short Forms

The shorter the form the less an Internet consumer needs to do, which may lead to less commitment to the process. The short form may produce more volume and submits, but certainly opens the funnel to consumers with less intent to buy and less motivation to respond to sales follow-up.

However, often times a carefully crafted short form can give you all the relevant information necessary to start a good sales conversation. If you can serve a broad geographic and product mix, a short form can give you the same quality at a much lower price.

So, if you are buying short form leads here are a few quality checks:

sufficient data points to segment for your product mix
it is clear someone will contact them
the offer is appropriate to your products and services

Long Forms

A long, multi-page web form can be cumbersome and frustrating to even the most savvy Internet consumer. This can make it challenging to get a consumer to provide all the information we might want for a complex transaction (i.e., mortgage or insurance). However, if you do get a submit action on a long form chances are the consumer will be more responsive and closer to a buying decision.

The natural tendency, for long forms, is to have a much lower submit rate that inevitably results in a much higher price per lead. Therefore, if you are buying long form leads it is critical to monitor your economics (i.e., return on investment) and establish very accurate filters to match your products.

The last point bears repeating and highlighting--long form leads will be expensive--so, make sure you:

filter for serviceable geography
filter for qualification attributes
properly forecast sales capacity to lead volume
analyze and optimize!

Efficacy

This million dollar word needs to become a part of your everyday Internet marketing vocabulary because it is critical to sales success.

Efficacy: the power to produce an effect

Can submitting the form produce the offer that induced that submit? If you are buying an Internet lead remember you are not making the initial offer to the client. Make sure you know what that initial offer generally looks like. Make sure that you can meet the expectations of that offer or you will be in for a very long, expensive battle to regain the consumer’s trust and confidence.

Did they fill out a form for a free iPod or a mortgage? Less extreme, are they looking at comparable home prices in a new area or have they picked out a home and are now looking for financing? These two scenarios are worlds apart in sales time and process. Both are convertible, but only when handled to produce the effect the consumer expected.

Do not buy Internet leads from someone who will not show you samples of their offers and their forms. Here are some things to look for:

is the offer reasonable?
is the form a registration for one or multiple products (co-registration)?
is it clear to the consumer that their information will be provided to third-parties?