double POSITIVE Marketing Group, Inc.

Post By
Brian Ocheltree

How to identify value while diversifying and increasing lead supply

Summary

• The value of aggregator leads – both shared and exclusive ­­– has changed
• After self-generated leads, the best option might be aggregator leads, not paid search
• Shared leads are often a better value than if the same leads were exclusive
• Lead-Buyers should also test exclusive leads to determine whether they convert better
• New quick connections allow Buyers to add more lead supply, from more diverse sources, without adding IT integration costs

A New Mix of Business Drivers

When planning the integration of Internet leads into the company’s sales and marketing efforts, Lead-Buyers need to check their assumptions about shared versus exclusive leads.  The market has changed.  Optimized properly, both lead types can be significant growth drivers.

The Problem of Shared versus Exclusive

There’s a misunderstanding about the value of the different types of leads today.  Because exclusive leads can be 2-3x the cost of shared leads, some Lead-Buyers think they are too expensive.  But are they?  Others think that because shared leads are shared, they are not worth the price.  Is that correct?  Could both be right?

Rather than guess at answers, DoublePositive recommends taking a step back and considering the facts.

Your Most Valuable Leads

First, a word about your most valuable type of online lead, the self-generated branded lead.  These are the leads generated from your own website typically.  Generally, these leads are the highest quality because they are from highly motivated, proactive consumers who tend to be “in market” and are therefore the consumers most likely to convert.  In addition, self-generated leads are often very inexpensive since many come from free organic search traffic.

So, if self-generated branded leads are the best, and usually the cheapest, why do anything else?

In most cases, the volume of self-generated leads is not sufficient to hit required sales goals.  Increasing the volume is a slow process, and Lead-Buyers can’t simply “step on the gas” to generate more self-generated leads overnight.  You can use paid search to increase the volume quickly, but in most markets, this becomes cost prohibitive quickly due to brand advertisers bidding up the primary keywords to unrealistic prices.   Think of trying to compete with Geico and Progressive for the key phrase “Auto Insurance” to drive traffic to your website.  It doesn’t work.  So, to fill the gap between self-generated leads and sales goals, aggregator leads are one of your best options.  Both shared and exclusive should be considered and ideally tested since everyone’s situation is different.

Are Shared Leads a “Necessary Evil”?

Some Lead-Buyers have always believed that shared leads are bad.  We hear it all the time.  Shared leads are “a necessary evil”.

DoublePositive challenges our clients to look deeper before deciding whether that statement is true.  Some shared leads are bad, no doubt.  Perhaps most are.  But we have found that if a shared lead is bad, it probably isn’t because it’s shared, but rather more likely due to other reasons.  For example:

• The lead was generated from a low quality source
• The lead was sold too many times, or is aged
• A Lead-Buyer has abused the lead with unscrupulous dialing methods

Are Shared Leads Any Good?

A complaint I hear every day from our lead buying customers is that shared leads are no good because they are shared.  There is too much competition fighting over the consumer’s attention, they complain.

While it may be true that these leads would be better if they were not shared, they become less attractive when the price is adjusted appropriately.  Suppliers would have to charge 2-3x the price of a shared lead to make their economics work.  And I do not believe these leads would convert 2-3x higher if they were exclusive, which would be required to justify the higher price.  Keep in mind that if a consumer is truly “in-market” and motivated to buy, it is likely that they visited multiple supplier sites and submitted multiple forms, so even though you got an exclusive lead from one supplier, you probably aren’t the only sales organization calling that lead.

During a recent client visit, my client asked “How do the lead suppliers do it?  They only charge me $7 a lead, and it costs me $50 per lead to generate on my own through paid search.”  I was speechless.  This was the first time I had ever been asked that question, and usually it’s the opposite.  In my opinion, sharing the leads is a big reason the economics work for all of us.

What about Exclusive Leads?

If all else is equal (lead type, lead source, speed to lead, etc.), then an exclusive lead should convert higher than a shared lead simply because there are fewer companies pursuing the sale.  However, all else is rarely equal, and these other attributes contribute more to the likelihood to convert than the exclusivity attribute, I believe.

Just as with shared leads, some exclusive leads are good, and some are bad.  We believe the best plan is to include them in your testing and optimization process along with shared leads so that you can see which type and sources convert the best for your particular situation.  As long as all lead sources are optimized for Cost Per Sale Per Supply Source (see DoublePositive white paper “Tapping the Value of Supplier Leads” at http://bit.ly/lnjmaz), the more supply sources you have, the better.  For the clients whose lead supply we manage, we rarely see the cheapest lead source being the lowest cost per sale, or the highest priced lead source being the highest cost per sale.  It is different in almost every case, and it changes over time as each supply source adds new affiliates, and other lead sources to their offering.

Access to More Suppliers

As we have shown in previous white papers, there are compelling financial reasons for having as many supply sources as possible.

A supplier offering exclusive leads generated from search is just one example of the multiple lead sources available.  In our opinion, every Lead-Buyer should try out as many lead sellers as they can.  Especially since the greatest obstacles to connecting with these suppliers has been eliminated.

Utilizing Third-Party Connectivity

In the past, the technical integration to connect to more suppliers was difficult and time consuming.  For many clients, getting connected to new suppliers could take months, if not a year or more, due to the technical and testing requirements with each data feed.  This level of complexity and cost prevented most companies from engaging with any but the largest of suppliers, at least initially, thus limiting their supply diversification.  It has been difficult to justify the effort for a small set of new suppliers.

Third-party connectivity platforms have eliminated this problem.  DoublePositive’s Lead Funnel, for example, facilitates and automates the physical connection to many lead sources automatically.  Lead-Buyers simply build one physical connection that is already connected to multiple supply sources.  This allows them to maintain a direct relationship with the supplier, without incurring technology integration costs.

Lead-Buyers with a Lead Funnel can turn the lead flow on and off for new suppliers, without any expense, and pay only for leads.  Let’s take another look at how it works:

In the above illustration, “You” are using a DoublePositive Lead Funnel to make a single data connection to multiple, diverse suppliers.  Our proprietary Translation Engine handles the entire custom data mapping per supply source.  By building one connection to the Lead Funnel, the company can be connected to virtually every supplier, large and small, quickly and efficiently.

Once the necessary connections are in place, Lead-Buyers can add and test new sources at the same time, filling the gap between self-generated leads and sales goals.

Review

What options are available for companies looking to leverage diversified lead types and drive growth?  Let’s review the facts.

1. Misconceptions about the value of shared versus exclusive leads can cause missed opportunities for today’s Lead-Buyer
2. A shared lead can be good or bad, depending on factors such as speed-to-lead, quality of lead, lead type, source, etc.
3. The best exclusive leads often are not exclusive, because a motivated buyer is likely to visit multiple “exclusive” supplier sites and submit multiple forms
4. Connecting to a Lead Funnel allows companies add more suppliers and test more shared and exclusive leads, without adding IT costs
5. Companies that pay only for the lead, and optimize their supply sources, can successfully use both shared and exclusive leads to reach sales goals

Post By
Brian Ocheltree

How to Use the Supplier Lead Funnel to Optimize Supply and Maximize Sales Volume

Summary

• Supplier leads should be used appropriately to help optimize your growth
• Lead-Buyers can improve overall lead performance by connecting to more suppliers
• Lead-Buyers can overcome the typical technology integration hurdles with new Quick-Connect options
• A broad source of suppliers optimized on cost-per-sale-per-supplier creates aligned incentives for buyers and sellers

Understanding the Role of Supplier Leads

No one would question that supplier leads are almost always lower quality than branded leads. Branded leads are typically highly motivated and proactive consumers who are “in market”. They are usually exclusive, as well. The combination makes these the highest quality leads possible, and most likely to convert.

So why, then, would Lead-Buyers EVER want a lead from a lead supplier?

The reason is usually scale required to hit sales goals. Companies are limited in how many branded leads they can create cost-effectively. Once this point is reached, the cost-per-lead can sky rocket, making the ultimate cost-per-sale much too high. If a company has maximized its volume of cost-effective branded leads, wherever that point may be, and yet still needs sales growth, supplier leads are usually the next best option, by far. The quality may be lower, but the price is usually low, relatively speaking, and the available volume very high, if not unlimited for most buyers. If a buyer can make the economics work with supplier leads, meaning they can convert enough of them to obtain a reasonable cost-per-sale, then the injection of supplier leads into a sales floor can help a buyer attain almost any desired sales growth.

In our opinion, it is this combination of branded leads first, then supplier leads to fill the gap, that all Lead Buyers should consider when planning the best method of integrating supplier leads into their sales and marketing efforts.

The Power of Connecting to Many

Another simple fact: Lead-Buyers can lower their cost-per-lead and improve their ability to optimize lead flow by connecting to many suppliers.

There are several reasons to diversify supply sources as much as possible. First, having multiple supply sources creates more potential lead volume. Having more volume allows you to extract the performance of each supplier, and optimize towards the best performers.

Second, being connected to more suppliers increases the number of original lead generators, as opposed to lead aggregators or wholesalers, who buy from lead generators and resell to customers like you. This shift creates transparency that can help in your efforts to find the best performing leads sources. If all leads are purchased through an aggregator, you loose transparency to the original lead source, and then are dependent upon the aggregator for your supply source optimization. It is hard to know what an aggregator’s criteria might be when optimizing their supply sources.

Physically Connecting with New Suppliers Overnight – Third Party Connectivity Services

Despite the benefit of doing so, it can be challenging for Lead Buyers to connect with multiple Lead Supply sources and optimize lead flow to the top performers. We have seen firsthand from many clients that getting connected to new suppliers can take months, if not a year or more, due to the technical and testing requirements with each data feed. This level of complexity and cost prevents most companies from engaging with any but the largest of Lead Suppliers, at least initially, thus limiting their supply diversification.

One solution to this problem is to utilize a third-party connectivity platform. For example, DoublePositive’s Lead Funnel facilitates and automates the physical connection to many lead sources automatically, allowing Lead-Buyers to build one physical connection that is already connected to multiple supply sources, while allowing them to maintain a direct relationship with the supplier.

Lead Funnels are basically platforms that have already built XML connections to the suppliers. They can handle the connectivity and translation issues required, typically much more quickly and cost effectively. Here’s how it works:

In the above illustration, a Lead-Buyer in the Auto Insurance sector is using a DoublePositive Lead Funnel to solve this exact problem. The Lead Funnel consists of robust physical connections to all Lead Suppliers, combined with a proprietary Translation Engine that handles the entire custom data mapping per supply source. By building one connection to the DoublePositive Lead Funnel, the company can be connected to virtually every supplier, large and small, very quickly and efficiently.

In addition to reducing the time and cost of connecting to new supply sources, this type of third-party platform allows large Lead-Buyers to justify building connections to smaller suppliers, thus increasing the pool of available supply sources.

Using the Supplier Lead Funnel to Reduce Cost-Per-Sale-Per-Supplier

The Supplier Lead Funnel model overcomes the typical technology integration hurdle for Lead-Buyers looking to add new suppliers. Now that you are connected, how do you optimize for top performance?

The most effective way to optimize for top performance is to track conversions, or sales, and run cost-per-sale-per-suppler models. Incremental metrics – such as cost-per-contact, cost-per-transfer, transfer ratio, or cost-per-lead – can also be used as lower value, but real-time optimization metrics.

Understandably, that’s easier to do in some verticals than others, because of varying sales cycles. For example, in the auto insurance sector, a two-week sales cycle should be enough to give a feel for the quality of a lead source. In the mortgage sector, the sales cycle is a bit longer, whereas for-profit education has the longest sales cycle.

Services exist, such as DoublePositive, that will track conversion metrics for you. Companies can do it on their own, as well. Lead-Buyers with the ability to track can match conversions against leads and calculate the cost-per-sale-per-supplier on a monthly basis. They can then optimize by giving the bulk of the volume to their best performer.

When Conversion Data Is Not Available

What to do if your company cannot get conversion data? One option is to use performance data gathered through a process such as the DoublePositive Hot Transfer process, that provide real time metrics that are highly correlated to lead quality.

For example, you could use metrics such as “Contact” percentage, “Not Interested” percentage, or “Invalid Phone Number” percentage as an indicator of lead quality to compare multiple leads sources.

The Value of Transfer Ratio

The next best metric to optimize against, after conversion data, is the transfer ratio. The transfer ratio gives the strongest indication of lead quality, because it indicates the strength of leads relative to four key hurdles:

1) Consumers have been physically contacted

2) Consumer interest is confirmed

3) Consumers are qualified

4) Consumers are willing to hold on and be successfully transferred to the lead buyer by phone.

If any of those hurdles fail, the call is not transferred. But if all those hurdles are cleared, and the call is transferred, that is probably a very good lead.

Another benefit to transfer data: It is usually available within a second of the transaction, allowing you to optimize your lead sources in real-time, without spending more money on underperformers.

How to Optimize Toward Top Suppliers

As stated above, Lead-Buyers who have sufficient lead volume, along with the ability to track their conversion ratios, can match conversions against leads and calculate the cost-per-sale-per-supplier on a monthly basis. They can then optimize by giving the bulk of the volume to their best performer.

Why Let Suppliers Know You Are Optimizing

Another useful strategy is letting your suppliers know that you are optimizing your lead sources, and that the best performers will get the bulk of the volume. This allows you to create a Champion/Challenger environment where the top performer puts pressure on the weaker performers, and the incentives of the suppliers are aligned with yours: Namely, finding and optimizing their best sources of leads.

We have found suppliers to be very receptive to receiving data on their performance (cost per sale, for example), as long as they are given some conversion data to help them optimize on their end. This is especially true if they know that doing so could raise the lead volume that you are willing to purchase from them.

This is a productive and healthy win-win environment.

The Ability to Control Capacity Variability

In this light, the primary role of the supplier lead, tied to the Lead Funnel, is to improve the most important growth metric: cost-per-sale-per-supplier. More lead volume from more supply sources, with whom you are more transparent, equates to a lower cost-per-sale.

There is another benefit to using the Supplier Lead Funnel: increased control.

Companies striving to hit a growth goal will, at some point, need to hire more salespeople. The problem is that salespeople are fixed costs that don’t go away, whereas organic lead flow is variable.

Having variable control over volume allows companies to handle the inevitable ebb and flow or self-generated leads. The Supplier Lead Model provides this level of control. Lead-Buyers have almost complete control over volume, up or down, which they use to level out the accumulative lead flow on top of their organic lead flow. This gives companies control over capacity variability, and allows them to grow.

Review

What options are available for companies looking to grow beyond the capacity of their self-generated leads? Let’s review the facts.

1. Every company should maximum their high quality branded leads first
2. Supplier leads play a key role in growing the company as well. Putting plans in place to connect to multiple supply sources allows Lead-Buyers to lower the cost-per-sale and optimize for top performance
3. Though building connections to new supply sources is costly and difficult, new options are becoming available all the time to help, such as the DoublePositive Lead Funnel. Therefore, we recommend that all large Lead Buyers continuously search for new supply sources
4. Using a Supplier Lead Funnel significantly improves the most important growth metric: cost-per-sale-per-supplier
5. Companies that have control over cost-per-sale-per-supplier, and have control over capacity variability, are poised to grow

Post By
Brian Ocheltree

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DoublePositive Wins Two LEADER Awards

HOT Lead Transfer Company Recognized for Excellence in the Field of Online Lead Generation

Baltimore, MD – January 20, 2011 – DoublePositive Marketing Group, the industry leader in LIVE Hot Transfers, announced today that it has been named winner of two important industry awards by LeadsCouncil (www.leadscouncil.com), the largest independent industry organization focused on online lead generation. The LEADER Awards is a new annual awards program designed to showcase the leading companies in online lead generation.

“We are thrilled to be a recipient of two LeadsCouncil LEADER awards,” said DoublePositive Co-Founder Joey Liner. “There is no higher honor than to be recognized by your clients and peers as the best.  It is humbling to be named Best Hot Transfer company in both the Lending and Technology categories.”

For lending companies, DoublePositive contacts, qualifies and transfers online consumers who have requested a quote or information about the company. Companies’ salespeople receive phone calls from live consumers who are qualified, interested and have the highest probability of converting into a sale.

For lead gen technology partners, DoublePositive’s work improving transfer rates increases overall demand for leads in the industry, and provides disposition data that allows lead aggregators to improve their sources.

“Receiving two LEADER Awards is the result of the outstanding effort and dedication of our team,” said DoublePositive CEO Sean Fenlon. “We look forward to working even harder on behalf of our clients and technology partners in the year ahead.”

About DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc.

DoublePositive was founded in 2004 on the belief that the traditional method of buying "leads" as a marketing solution had become costly and inefficient.  DoublePositive’s LIVE Hot Transfers out-perform other lead generation solutions because every DoublePositive lead passing through a DOUBLEconfirmT process, which delivers LIVE, interested consumers who have the highest probability of converting into a sale. DoublePositive specializes in LIVE mortgage leads, debt settlement leads, education leads, insurance leads, automotive leads and real estate leads. DoublePositive is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information, please visit www.doublepositive.com.

About LeadsCouncil

LeadsCouncil is the first independent industry organization dedicated strictly to advancing online lead generation. LeadsCouncil members include lead buyers, lead sellers, technology solutions providers, and investment professionals. The group focuses on best practices, research, education, and networking to provide a more transparent and effective marketplace for online lead generation.

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Post By
Brian Ocheltree

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Web’s most popular insurance shopping service adds the Market Leading LIVE Hot Transfer service to its offerings.

Baltimore, MD – November 10, 2010 – DoublePositive Marketing Group, the industry leader in LIVE Hot Transfers, announced today that it has formed a private label partnership with Bankrate Insurance, a division of Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate Insurance, thru its acquisition of Insureme and Netquote, is largest seller of Insurance leads, and the partnership with DoublePositive allows them to add Hot Transfers to their offerings so that their customers can not only purchase the markets best Internet Leads, but also the markets best Hot Transfer services as well.

“The requests for Hot Transfers have increased over the years as the average order sizes have increased. Hot Transfers allow some clients to effectively consume more leads per hour per sales professional, so it was critical that we find the best Hot Transfer solution available to offer to our clients. That search resulted in the selection of DoublePositive” said Bankrate Insurance President Paul Ford.

Bankrate’s customers will still purchase Bankrate leads as they do now, but can now also choose to have the Bankrate LIVE Hot Transfer service turn those data leads into qualified and interested In-bound phone calls to their sales team. This will allow the client’s sales team to do what they do best, sell.

Each customer will have their own private credentials to the proprietary Bankrate Hot Transfer Platform, and here they will be able to listen to recordings, view dispositions, and put their account on hold at any time.

“Bankrate is setting the standard for lead suppliers today,” said DoublePositive VP Brian Ocheltree. “We’re proud to have been selected by this Industry Giant, and our partnership should provide massive growth and ROI improvements across the entire Insurance Lead Ecosystem from which we all will benefit.

About DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc.

DoublePositive was founded in 2004 on is the market leader for LIVE Hot Transfers.  DoublePositive’s LIVE Hot Transfers utilize a DOUBLEconfirmT process, which delivers LIVE, interested consumers who have the highest probability of converting into a sale. DoublePositive specializes in LIVE mortgage leads, education leads, insurance leads, automotive leads and real estate leads. DoublePositive is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information, please visit www.doublepositive.com.

About Bankrate, Inc.

The Bankrate network of companies includes Bankrate.com, Interest.com, Mortgage-calc.com, Nationwide Card Services, Savingforcollege.com, Fee Disclosure, InsureMe CreditCardGuide.com, Bankaholic, CreditCards.com and NetQuote. Each of these businesses helps consumers to make informed decisions about their personal finance matters. The company’s flagship brand, Bankrate.com is a destination site of personal finance channels, including banking, investing, taxes, debt management and college finance. Bankrate.com is the leading aggregator of rates and other information on more than 300 financial products, including mortgages, credit cards, new and used auto loans, money market accounts and CDs, checking and ATM fees, home equity loans and online banking fees. Bankrate.com reviews more than 4,800 financial institutions in 575 markets in 50 states. Bankrate.com provides financial applications and information to a network of more than 75 partners, including Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), America Online (NYSE: AOL), The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times (NYSE: NYT). Bankrate.com’s information is also distributed through more than 500 newspapers. Bankrate, Inc. was acquired by Apax Partners, one of the world’s leading private equity investment groups, in September 2009. Apax operates across the United States, Europe and Asia and has more than 30 years of investing experience. For more information on Apax, visit: www.Apax.com.

Press Inquiries

For inquiries related to Bankrate Insurance or either of our two companies- NetQuote or InsureMe – please contact:
Amy Graham
graham@netquote.com
303-382-8221

For inquiries related to Bankrate, Inc, please contact:
Kayleen Yates
Senior Director of Corporate Communications
kyates@bankrate.com
917-368-8677

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Post By
Brian Ocheltree

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Growing Internet lead supplier to offer LIVE Hot Transfers to meet demand for more lead volume

Baltimore, MD – November 10, 2010 – DoublePositive Marketing Group, the industry leader in LIVE Hot Transfers, announced today that it has formed a private label partnership with RateElert, a growing Internet lead supplier.

Formed to meet growing demand for insurance leads, the partnership differentiates RateElert in that RateElert will now be able to offer LIVE Hot Transfers to their customers who want to optimize the use of their staffs time while also more effectively consuming more RateElert leads.

“DoublePositive’s LIVE Hot Transfer service gives our clients a way to effectively consume more leads per sales professional per hour.” said RateElert CEO Brian Hannigan. “It’s the improved efficiency they’ve been asking for to allow them to process more, and improve the return from our high quality leads.

RateElert’s customers will still purchase the normal RateElert data leads as they do now, but can now also choose to have the RateElert LIVE Hot Transfer service turn those data leads into qualified and interested In-bound phone calls to their sales team. So in effect, the customer’s sales team can spend 100% of their time doing what they do best – Selling interested consumers over the phone. All of the dreaded out-bound dialing work is removed. And, since all of the time spent leaving messages and getting no answers goes away, the customer can consume three times the lead volume that they could before.

Each customer will have their own private credentials to the RateElert Hot Transfer Platform located at: http://RateElert.Hot-Transfers.com. Here, they can view full lead data, listen to call center recordings, view negative dispositions, put their account on hold, and much more.

“We’re excited about our private label relationship with RateElert,” said DoublePositive VP Brian Ocheltree. “It gives us the opportunity to fuel the entire ecosystem with more volume of high quality leads, and we are excited to partner with one of the industry’s innovative leaders .”

About DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc. :

DoublePositive was founded in 2004 on the belief that the traditional method of buying "leads" as a marketing solution had become costly and inefficient.  DoublePositive’s LIVE Hot Transfers out-perform other lead generation solutions because every DoublePositive lead passing through a DOUBLEconfirmT process, which delivers LIVE, interested consumers who have the highest probability of converting into a sale. DoublePositive specializes in LIVE mortgage leads, debt settlement leads, education leads, insurance leads, automotive leads and real estate leads. DoublePositive is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. For more information, please visit www.doublepositive.com.

About RateElert.com:

RateElert is based out of Clinton Township, Michigan and is a valuable resource for shopping and comparing insurance rates online. Created with the vision of helping agents compete for the growing number of consumers shopping on-line and provide the greatest ROI to their Nationwide Network of Insurance Agents. To learn more about RateElert leads visit http://www.RateElert.com or call 1-800-736-4907.

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Post By
Brian Ocheltree

I wanted to post a whitepaper we just developed on the recent consolidation within the Insurance Lead Supply industry.  You can read the full version below, or download a PDF version here.

Insurance Lead Supplier Consolidation

How Having Fewer Supply Sources That Are Difficult to Add Impacts Lead-Buyers in Need of More Lead Volume

Summary

• The Insurance Lead Supplier market is consolidating
• One supplier now holds major market share
• Buyers can negotiate during transition
• Though current options for high volume suppliers are limited, new options are emerging
• The typical Technology Integration hurdle for Lead Buyers looking to add new suppliers is aided by new Quick-Connect options

When Giants Collide

Every insurance carrier and large agency knows the value of getting inbound phone calls from contactable, interested and qualified consumers who are ready to talk to an insurance-sales professional. Insurance carriers also understand the value of having multiple Lead Suppliers to allow for optimization to the best performers.

What few carriers know, however, is how a consolidation in the Lead Supply market will directly affect them. The number of high volume Lead Supply options is limited and getting smaller. Furthermore, the effort and cost to connect physically to the pool of small to mid-sized Lead Supply sources is excessive and can take months or years for many Lead Buyers.

The State of the Current Supply Market

Never before has there been such a shake-up in the supply of Internet-generated leads for the insurance sector. When Bankrate acquired NetQuote (the leading insurance lead seller) in July of this year, they became the 600-pound gorilla in the vertical. Bankrate had already acquired the #2 player in the space, InsureMe, back in February 2008. These deals have positioned Bankrate as the market leader by quite a margin.

Behind this new Bankrate market giant seems to be a relative new comer, All Web Leads, out of Austin, TX. They have experienced fantastic growth over the past two years, and are being watched closely by all.

InsWeb, another top volume producer and the only publicly traded player in the group, hasn’t gotten as much press as the others lately but may be set for a resurgence. In addition to some leadership changes internally, they announced in August of this year the acquisition of Potrero Media of San Francisco, CA. Although a relatively small transaction, it is an intriguing one, for sure. In our experience, Potrero Media produces some of the highest quality leads available, which we believe are all Search generated. A challenge for Potrero, however, has always been a lack of volume. We respect InsWeb’s insight in finding this high quality producer, and truly hope they can apply InsWeb resources to help grow the Potrero volume without too much of a sacrifice in quality, thus raising the volume of high quality leads for everyone in the ecosystem.

HometownQuotes out of Nashville, TN rounds out the top volume producers, and you have to wonder if they are not in someone’s acquisition sights, or looking to bolster their position with an acquisition of their own.

The Impact Consolidation on Lead Buyers

What does this mean for Lead Buyers? The news is both bad and good. On the one hand, before the mergers, there were only five or six suppliers who had substantial daily lead flow. Seeing that number decrease hurts the buyer, who loses the advantages of competitive pressure. Ideally, every buyer will have as many suppliers as they can, allowing them to optimize their lead flow to the top performers. Less competition yields less optimization capability.

On the other hand, buyers still can claim some negotiating power, especially if they are buying from both companies being merged. They may be in a position to demand the better rate between the two former competing suppliers, which could lower their current cost per lead. As time passes, however, rates will adjust, and this window of opportunity will close.

Independent of the number of options available to you, we still recommend that Lead Buyers diversify their supply sources as much as possible. This not only gives you more volume to draw from as needed, but also allows you to create a Champion/Challenger environment where the top performer puts pressure on the weaker performers. We have found suppliers to be very receptive to receiving their performance (cost per sale, for example), as long as they are given some conversion data to help them optimize on their end, based on what converts the best. This is especially true if they know this could raise the lead volume that you purchase from them.

New Suppliers Come Forward

Unfortunately, as stated above, the community of volume-capable suppliers was small before the recent consolidation, and is even smaller now. However, this is changing as we speak.

The demand for insurance leads is at an all-time high, creating a lot of attention from new firms eager to break into the space and grab a piece of the growing pie. We have seen very capable lead generators from other industries with strong brands enter the space this year, like LendingTree and LowerMyBills. We have also seen a rash of new startups enter the space this year with leaders with impressive resumes. AgileClicks,a relative new comer to the space, is generating significant volume of insurance leads already, we believe through their affiliation with the rocket scientists at Adverplex, which drives many of the EDU lead generation platform out there today. CoverHound, a new Auto Insurance Lead Supplier, was founded by Basil Enan, son of InsWeb Founder Hussein Enan. And another InsWeb alumnus, Jaimie Pickles, has a new startup in the space. Pickles, formerly the President of InsWeb, is now the Founder and CEO of Canal Partner, LLC.

In time, the pool of high volume insurance Lead Supply options will increase, so large Lead Buyers should keep their ears to the ground for new activity.

Connecting with Suppliers Gets Easier – Third Party Connectivity Services

As we have mentioned, we recommend that all large Lead Buyers connect with as many Lead Supply sources as possible, providing the ability for buyers to optimize lead flow to the top performers. However, we have seen firsthand from many carriers that getting connected to new suppliers is quite difficult. It can take months, if not a year or more, due to the technical and testing requirements with each data feed. This level of complexity and cost prevents most carriers from engaging with any but the largest of Lead Suppliers, at least initially, thus limiting their supply diversification.

One solution to this problem is to utilize a third party connectivity platform. These are basically platforms that have already built XML connections to the suppliers. They can handle the connectivity and translation issues required, typically much more quickly and cost effectively.

For example, DoublePositive offers their Lead Funnel for this express purpose. The Lead Funnel was designed to solve this exact problem, and consists of robust physical connections to all Lead Suppliers, combined with a proprietary Translation E
ngine that handles the entire custom data mapping per supply source. By building one connection to the DoublePositive Lead Funnel, a carrier can be connected to virtually every supplier, large and small, overnight.

In addition to reducing the time and cost of connecting to new supply sources, this type of third party platform allows large Lead Buyers to justify building connections to smaller suppliers, thus increasing the pool of available supply sources.

Add New Suppliers Overnight by Eliminating the Data Feed

As we have indicated, Lead Buyers are facing a Catch-22. You know you need lots of supply sources to give you room to optimize to the best performers, but because it takes so long and so much work to connect, you can only justify the effort of connecting to the biggest of the big. Another idea to consider is simply testing new supply sources through your inbound call center before bothering to build a feed to each of them. This can be set up overnight, and requires no data feed to be built. All you have to do is use a third party Hot Transfer service to convert the new suppliers’ leads into inbound phone calls.

For example, DoublePositive is currently connected to virtually all of the active insurance Lead Suppliers, and can turn any of their leads into inbound phone calls in minutes with their Hot Transfer service.

There are two ways this can be accomplished. The first is to use regular long form leads, and have your sales professional look the lead data up in the Hot Transfer companies lead interface. They then can re-enter the data into your quoting engine as they verbally review it with the consumer.

The second method is to request short form leads from your suppliers. With these short form leads, the consumer has only provided contact information, so when the transfer is made, there is no need for your sales professional to use two systems. They simply capture the information for the first time from the consumer over the phone. You could argue that these short form leads are of lower quality, since the consumer hasn’t had to spend as much time or effort to complete. However, the volume should be higher, cost lower, and when combined with the Hot Transfers company’s ability to provide a layer of filtering at the call center level, they may convert just as well.

Review

Where does the market consolidation leave the insurance leads buyer? Let’s review the facts.

1. The acquisitions have happened. Buyers have fewer options for Lead Supply today.
2. However, the wisdom of maximizing your lead sources remains. Putting plans in place to do so may be worth it as new supply sources seem to be right around the corner.
3. Though building connections to new supply sources is costly and difficult, new options are becoming available all the time to help, such as the DoublePositive Lead Funnel, and the Short Form/Hot Transfer bundle. Therefore, we recommend that all large Lead Buyers continuously search for new supply sources to consider.

 

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Post By
Brian Ocheltree

I believe that any Industry that has a burgeoning Lead ecosystem (Lead Buyers and Lead Sellers growing their relationships together) will eventually experience a drop in Lead Performance across the board simply because there is only a fixed amount of truly interested and highly motivated consumers out there for any product or service. Once these are successfully captured, Lead Aggregators have to cast a broader net to keep up with their customer demand. This broader net then begins to dip into the fringe….. consumers who are less interested, less qualified, and less motivated.

In my opinion, this shouldn’t be a Deal-Killer for a Supplier/Customer relationship, but rather simply a need to re-consider the economics of the relationship…..[READ: these Fringe Leads should cost less]. There is value for everyone (including the consumer if high quality products are sold) when this dip into the fringe is made, as long as the economics are appropriate for everyone.

Aggregator Leads, even if on the tail end of this Value Cycle, are still one of the cheapest and most scalable marketing options for many industries, and we highly recommend them assuming you have maximized all other Higher Value options (like SEO to our Web Properties). In fact, Aggregator Leads represent about 90% of the fuel for all DoublePositive Hot Transfers….. HOWEVER! It is important that everyone realize that Any true expression of interest from a consumer can be used as fuel for our Hot Transfers. In fact, Internally created Leads such as the following types have proven over the years to be our top performers, often performing 200% better than Aggregator leads:

â?¢ Leads from your own Website or Web Properties
â?¢ Leads from Traditional Marketing efforts like Print, Radio, TV
â?¢ Leads from Tradeshows and other events

Remember, our value to you is our ability to work leads Faster, Cheaper, More Cost Efficiently, and More Scalable than you ever will on your own, so why not provide this thorough and comprehensive service to your best leads so as to Maximize the potential return on these high performers…… Just some food for thought…

Post By
Brian Ocheltree

In our endless effort to find creative ways to reach prospective customers, we have tested several new advertising channels. So far, we have talked to and are fans of Millennial Media, AdMob, Voodovox, Ingenio, Free411, and a few other mobile or pay per call channels, all of which have some unique approach or claim to fame to hang their hat on.

But, the one vendor who’s approach has intrigued me the most is Mobile Posse, and I think this is due to my undisputed status as a foolish gadget geek who likes to save money but is too lazy to clip coupons….

[Side Bar: To illustrate my credentials as a foolish gadget geek….. I had wireless email in 1992 on an HP Clam shell device and some sort of wireless modem that worked on its own data network of some kind (Air Card maybe???). I had the first Palm, and the first Wireless Palm (the Palm VII), which I used to dispatch service calls to PC techs in the field. I had the very first (and the third, and the fourth, and the eighth) Blackberry device.]

Mobile Posse is providing advertising on cell phones just as I imagined it would be when the buzz began a few years ago. Namely, they provide Ads on the device from a client side application that is pre-loaded on the device. I suppose others are or will e doing this as well, but this is the first I’ve seen of this approach, and I think it is quite compelling.

If I put my “consumer” hat on, the other forms of traditional mobile advertising that I have seen don’t excite me too much. Now, I agree that the future market must be huge with all of the buzz, and the behemoths heading in that direction. But, traditional banner and text ads on web sites accessed by a mobile device just isn’t what I expected when I first thought of mobile advertising. It’s just a normal ad accessed by a mobile device. Ok, ok… the potential for Brand Advertisers will be Huge based on the sheer volume, and the ability to easily click-to-call will be cool for lead generators…. but for some reason Retail Coupon aspect of the client delivered model really caught my attention. Let me explain.

The way I believe the Mobile Posse platform works is a consumer buys a phone from a carrier that has a deal with Mobile Posse. The device is pre-loaded with an application that connects to Mobile Posse. When the device is Idle for a certain period of time, an Ad or a news item is delivered to the device and the screen lights up and displays the highly creative image. The user can choose the “View More” button to view the one or two page ad, news item, weather report, coupon, etc. If the user hits ANY other button on the phone, the Ad or news item goes away. Ads are then stored in an easily accessible folder on the device for future use.

The samples that I saw were things like “Show this Coupon at Dunkin Doughnuts and receive a free small coffee…”. I don’t believe they have geo-specific ad delivery at this time, but they do know the address you used to buy the phone, so have an idea of where you are likely to be, how old you are, etc…. assuming they get this data from the carrier.. not sure though.

Now, for a guy like me, this is pretty cool. I’m pretty lazy. I will not seek out coupons or ads. And if I see one that is interesting, I will not put forth much effort to bookmark it or save it. However, I Love Dunkin Doughnuts coffee, I like to save money, and I ALWAYS have my cell phone with me. If I know I have seen an ad on my phone before, and I can easily retrieve it from a folder on my cell phone, and show it at the cash register to get free stuff, I’m all over it!

If I put my Retail Advertiser’s Hat on for a second, it feels like this would give me the ability to reach out and put a coupon in the pocket of tens of thousands of my prospective customers who will most likely have it on them the next time they stop in my store. Afterall, when’s the last time you left the house without your cell phone? nice……..

Post By
Brian Ocheltree

It seems that two of the fastest growing categories for Hot Transfers are education leads and insurance leads.  These industries seem to be a bit unique in their relationships between the Lead Sellers and the Lead Buyers, and these variations are creating some unique uses of our DoublePositive Platform™.

One of the uses that has been quite successful is the combining of Data Lead Sales with Hot Transfer sales, which has:

- Increased the leads per day a buyer can effectively handle
- Increased the closes per day per sales rep for the buyer
- Decreased the cost per policy or enrollment

This is being done by putting the DoublePositive Platform™ between the Internet Lead Seller and the Lead Buyer.  All leads are imported into the engine in either real time or batch mode.  The Platform then scrubs and scores the leads, putting them in order of most likely to close, to least likely to close.  The top ½ (higher quality leads) are pulled out of the system and sold to the buyer as a regular data lead for the lead buyer’s Outbound sales team to call down. Since the average lead quality is higher, the overall performance is better (contact ratio, qualifying ratio, close ratio). The bottom half is put thru the Hot Transfer engine which uses the DoublePositive call center agents and a sophisticated technology process to efficiently call, contact, qualify, and transfer the LIVE consumer to the lead buyer. This teams ratio’s are high because they have 100% contact with a genuinely-interested consumer, and only need to close the sale.  The combined effect of the Inbound and Outbound teams allows for more data leads to be handled per day, as well as creating an improved ROI for the Buyer.

Another popular use of our Platform in these verticals is to provide the Buyer with the flexibility to switch back and forth between LIVE Hot Transfer Leads, and Voice Verified Leads on the fly.  If they have the man power to take incoming calls, they Turn On the application and their phone begins to ring with interested and qualified consumers.  Should they be unable to take incoming calls for a while, they Turn Off the application and our call centers will continue to call their leads, make contact, confirm interest, qualify, and inform the consumer that a representative will call them shortly.  That Voice Verified lead is then shipped real time to the Buyer, and includes all data captured as well as the audio recording of the entire call center conversation.

We are currently working a few additional uses of our Platform in these and other verticals, and we’ll post info on these as they develop and are tested.  If your using Hot Transfers, or phone based services in a unique way, I’d love to hear about them.