Everybody wants something for nothing.

It’s human nature to want free stuff, but free doesn’t necessarily need to mean it’s ‘cheap and hasty’. In the world of lead generation, there are a variety of options for you to choose from when attempting to get ahead and build your business on the back of another company’s system. If you’re a company looking for those leads, it’s important for you to restrain your enthusiasm, and make a calculated decision on whom your partner in growth should be.

Too often, we get excited about finding a lead generation company who’ll say yes, that you forget what you’re looking for; the consumer. However, even more than this, what you’re looking for is the best way to approach and engage this established clientele.

After all, without them you could be treading water for months while the lead generation company is trying to find qualified leads for you and any momentum you did have has now gone.

Before you find a partner, ask yourself:

Who is my ideal client?

Are they professionals who take the advice of associates? Are they mums and dads who would be interested in saving themselves some extra cash each month?

Consumer preferences

Would your consumer pick up the phone? Would they open the door to a stranger, or click on your email offer? Do they use Facebook regularly, or are they more inclined to reach out at their time of calling? Is your market vertical or horizontal, and how can others be influenced by your true believers?

Once you know the approach, and after you have set up your conversion rate optimisation plan and marketing strategies, you’ll need to find a lead generation company who can facilitate the connection for you. The beauty of a lead generation company, as in you’re simply paying for the lead, is all you pay for is what you can extract from the relationship. It’s the distilled essence of all the work which occurred before it.

Agreement between companies

There are some companies who see the opportunities in Lead Generation as short term. There are definitely opportunities out there which support this methodology, such as affiliate marketing, but other options such as Google AdWords benefit from longer-term investments.

However, there’s one thing lead generation isn’t for, and that’s companies who either haven’t got the funds, or simply aren’t ready for it. Even though you think you’re getting something for nothing, this is rarely ever the case. If you’ve got no money, go cut your teeth in the big wide world and find out who your client really is, then come back when you’re all grown up.

The other type of company this won’t help is businesses who have built their enterprise on referrals. They like warm leads, and have become soft over time.

Sure, if a lead generation company is willing to put their reputation on the line and hand you leads en masse for a minimal rate, why not give it a go? But you can’t expect to get much out of it.

With that said, if you’re hungry for success, and want in 12 months what most are comfortable to do in 36, let’s get into it.

Affiliate Marketing

This form of lead generation is where an individual or company own a large database of email addresses, and send your offer to their consumers by way of a mass distribution email. The client pays for a completed contact form being filled in by the consumer.

While there are mistakes to be made, these databases can number into the millions, and they can be very specific in which type of consumer receives your offer. The better operators protect their databases vehemently, refusing to spam their database for quick dollars. It pays to be a household name and willing to pay for the privilege of accessing these databases.

National consumables work best in this channel: electricity, telecommunications, credit cards, fashion, mortgages and education are good categories. Localised, specific and B2B offers don’t work well using this strategy.

Affiliate marketing is best viewed as campaign based unless you can access 6-12 different databases. It can be sporadic throughout the day as well so remember this if you’re concerned about the amount of YouTube hours call centre staff watch each day. For these two reasons it can lack consistency in its results.

Co-registration

The other way to receive a lead using this channel is called co-registration.

Here, you’re piggybacking off the success of another company’s campaign. Before the consumer completes the contact form, a pop-up asks if they would like your offer as well. Activating the connection is as easy as ticking a box, however the challenge is consumers are on the page for a totally different reason.

While these leads are very inexpensive ($1-2), they are of poor quality, and it’s at odds with the consumer’s expectation. It’s ironic that the companies who have used this form of lead generation say the leads were more of an annoyance than anything else, so for this reason co-registration has given the affiliate industry a bad name.

There is an abundance of ways for those hoping to push ahead of their competitors when utilising lead generation strategies. However, without the right planning, it can be a difficult process just to work out where you should begin! Hopefully this has been an eye-opening experience, and has given you the little extra confidence needed to take the lead in your field!