DoublePositive to the rescue.  Today, we’re offering our “Top Picks, Part II” for can’t-miss speakers and topics.  (Here’s “Top Picks, Part I”).

Like we said previously, this list is made up of the topics we are most interested in.  Please don’t feel bad if we didn’t highlight your event in this pre-show blog.  Feel free, in the comments below, to tell us why we should, and you just may see us in the audience at the show!

And now, friends, open your calendar, and get ready to plug in these choicest of events.  Here’s today’s batch of Top Picks for LeadsCon ‘12, and why we like them:

TUESDAY, 2:00-2:30PM
Break-out Sessions, Financial Services Track, “Inside the Great Big Ping Tree Circle Jerk”

Colorful title, and don’t worry, you won’t be bored.  QuoteWizard are good guys.  This is the second act for the founders, who sold their previous business to Education Dynamics and now focus on insurance.

TUESDAY, 2:30-3:00PM
Break-out Sessions, Financial Services Track, “What the Agents Have to Say”

Mike Ferree is a good friend of DoublePositive and runs a popular industry blog at LeadCritic.com.  Mike is Director for LeadsCouncil, and we’re interested in hearing insights from his ever-expanding point of view.

TUESDAY, 2:50-3:30PM
Break-out Sessions, Financial Services Track, “Is ‘Lead Gen’ a Dirty Word?”

This should be an interesting and engaging discussion on positioning vs. sentiment.  The moderator is Jeff Lawson, CEO & Co-Founder of Twilio.  Panelists include DoublePositive’s own Co-Founder & EVP of Sales Joey Liner (you may know him as “the mayor of LeadsCon”), along with other experts in lead generation.

TUESDAY, 4:00-4:45PM
Sponsored Workshops, “Lead Industry Awards (Presented by: Leads360)”

Sure to be a crowd pleaser.  Leads360, a strategic partner of DoublePositive, will look back on 2011 to award the top performing lead generators across verticals, as well as look forward to the opportunities for continued growth and evolution in 2012.

TUESDAY, 4:30-5:00PM
Break-out Sessions, Education Track, “New Technology Showcase”

New tech showcases are always fun.  Among the presenters are good friends of DoublePositive, including Joe Charlson of CallerReady, and Dave Wengel, who is a former TARGUSinfo and LeadsCon/LeadsCouncil executive and current Founder & CEO of iDatafy.

We warned you that LeadsCon ’12 has almost too many great sessions to offer!  And yes, there are still more to come.  Check back soon for DoublePositive’s Top Picks, Part III.

Well, you can’t – unless you plan to dash madly back-and-forth every few minutes like some character in a bad TV sitcom.

That’s why, over the next several days, DoublePositive has decided to present to you our Top Picks for this year’s conference.  We assembled our list based on the sessions that we, personally, are most interested in.  It’s not meant to be a judgment of how good they are.  They’re all good!

So open your calendar and get ready to paste in these can’t-miss sessions.  Here’s today’s batch of Top Picks for LeadsCon ‘12, and why we like them:

MONDAY, 3PM
Lead Buyer Summit, “JT Benton on Mobile Marketing & Lead Gen”

Yes, we’re cheering for the home team here, but if you haven’t had a chance to be in the same room with JT, he’s a captivating speaker with a brilliant perspective on what it takes to win in today’s mobile environment.  Cost-per-Lead buyers will learn how Cost-per-Call strategies on the mobile web affect their media plans and drive high quality leads. This first of its kind event is for those whose primary business is the purchase and closing of leads. Registration is required, and the event is invitation only.  Learn more at http://leadscon.com/leadscon-las-vegas-2012/buyers-summit/.

TUESDAY, 9:00-9:45AM
General Sessions, “Michael Norton – The IKEA Effect”

The presenter, Michael Norton, is a behavioral scientist and Associate Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School.  His work has been covered in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, and his topic, “The IKEA Effect: When Labor Leads to Love,” was featured in Harvard Business Review’s Breakthrough Ideas for 2009.

TUESDAY, 9:45-10:25AM
General Sessions, “LeadsCon Las Vegas ’12: State of Industry”

MUST SEE!  Sharing their view of the State of the Industry are CEOs from the two top publicly-traded companies in the space, Tom Evans of Bankrate and Doug Valenti of Quinstreet.

TUESDAY, 10:30-11:15AM
General Sessions, “Creating the Next Big Thing”

Here’s another high-octane panel.  The Moderator, Tolman Geffs, is Co-President of The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.  Panelists include Patrick Quigley and Josh Armstrong of Vantage Media, Howard Yeh from BrokersWeb and Damien Dovi from BIA Digital Partners.  Get the inside scoop on Vantage’s unexpected and ambitious move to acquire BrokersWeb last year.

TUESDAY, 11:15-11:35AM
General Sessions, “You’re Buying Crap – More Than You Would Ever Know”

This is a short, powerful presentation by customer acquisition strategist John Demayo of zozi.  John is a former Ad.com exec with many friends at DoublePositive.  He’ll distill his 10+ years of weeding out the crap so we can all practice safer lead gen.

Remember, these aren’t the only events at the conference.  They aren’t even the only good ones – just the ones we are most interested in.  Whatever you choose to attend, you’ll be sure to have fun, learn a lot and leave Las Vegas better informed about the leads ecosystem than before you came.

Check back soon for DoublePositive’s Top Picks, Part II.

Thus, the title (or, question) of today’s contribution: Why mobile; why now?

Because it’s time. And, because before now, it wasn’t. Seriously.

If you’ve attended LeadsCon, Ad:Tech, Affiliate Summit or any other performance marketing event in the past four years, you’ve surely heard the hype on mobile. For years now, soapboxes at major industry shows have been occupied by folks signaling the ‘year of mobile.’ They blogged. They tweeted. They spammed us all on LinkedIn. Some of these zealots even went so far as to don QR-coded T-Shirts that were color coordinated to match their converse sneakers. Indeed, active were the hypesters.

And yet, despite all the hoopla, they were wrong. That’s right – flat wrong. At least in the context of the Cost-per-Lead media ecosystem. Mobile has been unworkable and unnecessaryuntil fairly recently. It’s taken Publishers, Advertisers, Networks and Consumers time to find the right way to play. We just weren’t ready, yet. Mostly, this was on the consumers and the publishers. It’s taken adoption rates skyrocketing, Apple’s stock booming, the Android market maturing, bandwidth levels rising and a whole host of other factors to get consumers ready for this at scale. For mobile publishers, the question has never been if – it’s been how and when. As in, ‘how and when can I make as much money selling leads as I do selling impressions and clicks.’ These groups needed to converge and align. It took help, muscle and risk. And, again, time. But now, it’s clear to me that it’s happening: mobile lead generation is alive and growing.

Ok. Before we get too far, I’m coming clean: I get the irony. In writing the above, one could argue that I’m now guilty of the same soapboxing I’ve just poked fun at. The argument is pretty linear, actually: I just said the people who announced the era of mobile lead-gen were wrong. And yet this post’s thesis is that the era of mobile lead-gen is, in fact, now here. Thin ice, right? Totally. Except I’ve got the in-house data to support this, and I see the interest on the advertiser side mounting: we introduce a new major advertiser to the mobile web weekly.

Last month, MobilePositive facilitated over 25,000 inbound phone calls to our early advertiser clients. These were direct, net-new customers, each happily dialing in. And, a considerably high number of them bought the services our clients were selling. These advertisers include leading brands in the Education, Mortgage, Insurance, Home Services and Identity Protection vertical markets. So far, the proof is the campaign performance. We see cost-per-sale figures that consistently perform on target and our budgets are growing. The publishers are happy, too. Both sides (buyers and sellers) see long-standing, steady campaign growth and an exciting new mix of partnerships as a big part of the upside to mobile.

So, why mobile? And, why now? Because – like I said, it’s time.

That’s all for today, gang. Thanks for reading. Next week, we’ll get more tactical with a piece on why publishers should love the pay-per-call format.

I’ll be blogging here fairly frequently.  I’m excited to share with you a bit about our growing work in mobile, how we plan to add value and show first-hand how easily the mobile web can drive alignment in a performance marketing format.  I’ll also make it a consistent point to emphasize that this growth comes from a very solid foundation of connecting sales teams with live, interested customers on the phone.  Indeed, I think it’s fitting that game-changing mobile marketing developments would come from the industry leader in delivering LIVE Hot Transfers.

I’ll spend most of my ‘air time’ describing our mobile product offerings and musing on the industry on large.  The mobile web is quickly transforming the way advertisers connect with consumers, and MobilePositive is helping to lead the charge.  As such, we’re learning a lot – and I have every intention of sharing these learnings with the reader along the way.  With major Advertisers in the mortgage, EDU and insurance verticals already participating, our platform is driving tens of thousands of inbound calls monthly.  We see lots of data, and we talk about this stuff all day.  Just ask my wife.

So please, dig in.  Follow us, and share with others that there’s a new player in mobile.  And, don’t miss next Tuesday’s followup: Why mobile; why now?

This position reports to the Vice President, Mobile Marketing in Tempe, Arizona. Salary and bonus structure to be discussed upon completion of the first interview.

Responsibilities

• Identify, recruit and acquire key mobile publisher (affiliate) relationships.
• Develop strategic solutions to achieve Publisher Revenue Targets.
• Communicate with key Publishers daily to ensure performance objectives are achieved.

Qualifications and Experience

• 3+ years of experience in online, affiliate marketing.
• 1+ year in mobile marketing preferred.
• Knowledge of the lead generation and performance marketing space
• Bachelor’s Degree or related experience, MBA a plus
• Comfortable in a start-up environment
• Passionate
• Analytical
• Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously

Position has full company paid benefits including:

• Family Health
• Family Dental
• Family Vision
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance

It’s all about the people at DoublePositive Marketing Group, Inc., the undoubted leader in live telephone transfers and online marketing. And now, it’s all about MORE people. The company strengthened its online marketing team recently by making some key executive hires from powerhouses like AOL/Advertising.com and One-to-One Global, as well as others with deep experience in the space.

The recent hires—and their ability to deliver superior performance-based services—broaden the company’s industry reach and position the company to service new customers formerly unable to take advantage of live telephone transfers. Search engine marketing, display advertising, mobile marketing and advertising, and social media advertising round out the company’s online services suite.

Trent Walter, DoublePositive’s new vice president of national sales and former director of regional sales for AOL/Advertising.com, is enthusiastic about the offering. “Our technology is designed for real-time advertising. And, unlike others, our system, by design, aims to satisfy the performance goals of the advertiser, not the publishers or the networks.”
JT Benton, DoublePositive’s new vice president of mobile marketing, adds “we are committed to making a serious impact on the mobile web. Our mobile marketing division has a simple, vital mission: connect advertisers, publishers, and consumers on the mobile web. We will add value to every inquiry.”

Two years ago the company committed to the online marketing space, and soon after hired Paul DiDonno, current vice president at DoublePositive and former strategy manager at AOL/Advertising.com, to manage their flagship education account. Brian Tomasette, current vice president of media products at DoublePositive and former director of product sales and agency partnerships at AOL/Advertising.com, was hired shortly after DiDonno.

“I came to DoublePositive to continue my passion for performance marketing in the education space, and for the people,” says DiDonno. “The (then) small team, everyone passionate about what they did, trusting each other, and everyone working for one goal—we made serious progress in a short amount of time.”

“It was an amazing opportunity to apply my experience and knowledge in online marketing. In the last two years, we have developed technology that surveys the marketplace, scores and optimizes bids based on our client’s performance goals, and then automatically adjusts those bids based on performance. That’s industry leading, and we continue to innovate.”

To support these initiatives, account management, delivery, media analysts, quality assurance, and sales teams are all in place lead by the industry’s most experienced and staffed with dozens of the industry’s brightest.

“We are really excited,” says Tomasette. “We are creating the future of online advertising, and are armed with all of the tools and people to make it something memorable.”

So last month at Leads-Con East, I am chatting with this guy who says he’s a big leads buyer.  He likes our LIVE Hot Transfer concept, and wants his enrollment officers to receive live, interested leads on the phone, but …

“Can’t you guys qualify them more?”

This comment shows how times have changed.  In the old days, companies were simply handing a fat pile of leads over to sales, and asking them to call them all.  It was like looking for a needle in a hay stack.

Then DoublePositive came along and found the needle in the hay stack.  We patented the LIVE Hot Transfer process, so that companies could receive phone calls from live consumers who were ready to talk with a salesperson.

Now this guy wanted to know if we could take it a step further and thread the needle for him.

“We do some simple qualifying,” I cautioned.  “But in my opinion, you should be careful what you ask for.  You might do yourself more harm than good.”

He said, “Why?  If I’m talking to people I can’t help, I want to filter those people out.”

“I understand,” I said.  “But you need to be careful who you filter out, or you will filter everybody out.”

“Not sure I follow,” he said.

I tried again.  “Think of it this way.  What if they have a family member you could help out? What if you discover there is another service or product you could provide?  You never know unless you talk to them.”

He shrugged.

“You are basically asking the call center agent to make that decision for you,” I said.  “That’s not wise.  What you should do is, let us eliminate those consumers who really had no interest of ever speaking to you about your product or service.  Let us take away that work for you.  And the rest?  Those who have raised their hand and said they want to talk to you?  You should take those calls as fast as I can transfer them to you.”

“I don’t know,” he said.  “There’s got to be an easier way.”

I gave him one of Sean’s great lines: “There’s nuggets of gold in the hills.  Finding them is the hard part – that’s our job.  It’s your job to work them.”

“Well, I need someone who will do all the work for me,” he said.

At this point I just had to laugh, shake his hand, and wish him luck.

So I’m writing this post to help folks understand.  There is a right way to use a LIVE hot transfer service and a wrong way.

If you want us to call your leads and transfer back only those that are ready to talk business, that’s the right way.

But you want us to call, qualify the lead, sell for you, close the deal and just send you the money …

Booth babe says, “Good luck.”