Tagged: lead generation RSS

  • Bill Rice 6:11 am on June 19, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: #140conf, fred wilson, lead generation, ,   

    3 Fundamentals of Making Money on the Internet 

    Image representing Fred Wilson as depicted in ...
    Image via CrunchBase

    Fred Wilson, a VC and Principal at Union Square Station as well as an investor in Twitter, made some very important and often missed observations about making money on the Internet.

    Fundamentals of Making Money Online

    His whole talk at #140Conf can be boiled down to the 3 Funadamental Rules of Making Money on the Internet:

    1. “Links are the currency of the Internet”
    2. Links yield consumer traffic (revenue) in a variety of ways
    3. Passed links are the most valuable (conversion) links

    Why Social Media Traffic is Better

    Assuming those fundamentals, there are some very important and significant observations that should be made about Twitter, social media platforms, and online lead generation.

    Fred Wilson articulated those Internet money making observations very well:

    1. Passed links are generally delivered via email
    2. Social media platforms allow passed links to be scaled
    3. Passed links convert better than search or paid links
    4. Social media referrer traffic is already significant and growing

    Online Lead Generation Opportunity

    This would tend to lead to the conclusion that social media traffic, as it scales to a meaningful size will yield better lead generation ROI – assuming you can design a capable, viable social media lead generation business or business unit.

    Is anyone trying this?

    You can and should watch Fred Wilson’s remarks:

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    Take a moment to subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter. If you are looking for a better way to manage your leads, generate more sales leads, or beat your competition to the sale visit my company at Kaleidico.com.

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  • Bill Rice 12:45 am on November 6, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: lead generation, ,   

    Market Looks Positively at IAC/InterActiveCorp Break-up 

    I guess the market agreed with my positive outlook on the break-up of IAC/InterActiveCorp. IACI was rewarded with a $2.22 a share and 7.49% increase and one of the NASDAQ volume leaders for yesterday.

     

  • Bill Rice 12:06 pm on November 5, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: lead generation,   

    LendingTree Gets Spun Out of IAC/InterActiveCorp 

    IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI) reports early this morning that it will spin out LendingTree as a part of a reorganization that will split IAC into five public firms (WSJ subscription). Barry Diller makes a couple of interesting statements in this announcement. Like a concern over complexity and lack of clarity in their conglomerate of businesses:

    In a statement Monday, Mr. Diller said that "while we’ve created a lot of value, I’ve always believed our complexity and many mouthfuls of sentences to explain who we are and what our strategy is have hampered clarity and understanding with all our constituencies, particularly investors."

    and a confession that their transactional businesses where seed capital for strategic business acquisitions and may be less valuable to him long-term:

    He added, "One of the reasons we’ve stayed with some of our more transactional businesses is that we needed their earnings to allow us to invest in emerging Internet businesses. Now that we have real scale in the pure Internet units, it makes nothing but sense to me to reorganize the whole."

    So, what does this mean for LendingTree and its consumers and clients?

    1. As with most of these types of announcements, they do not occur spontaneously. Most of the changes relevant to this restructuring has already occurred:

    2. Diller feels he has positioned each business unit for success and independence (WSJ subscription):

      • Mindy Grossman, Sean Moriarty, C.D. Davies and Craig Nash will continue as CEOs of HSN, Ticketmaster, LendingTree and Interval International, respectively. Bret Violette will continue as president of RealEstate.com, which will be part of LendingTree.

        Mr. Diller said, "Each of these spun-off businesses is in fact a distinct business sector, and each will benefit from standing on its own, with its own capital structure, its own currency which will enhance its ability to attract and retain superior talent and make acquisitions, and a focused story investors can clearly understand and buy into."

    3. LendingTree should have the opportunity to focus more closely on their business model with more flexibility to manage the volatility of a transactional revenue model. Whereas, other  transactional businesses encased within larger conglomerates like Experian/LowerMyBills may have to take less client friendly and more Experian shareholder appealing tack line.
    4. LendingTree will undoubtedly be able to pursue more innovative, LendingTree specific, strategies and tactics in lead generation.
    5. LendingTree, unlike other mortgage lead providers, will have support from non-mortgage specific business units (HSN, TicketMaster, and Interval International) to smooth the chop in the mortgage market, yet continue to effectively address the market.

    All in all, I think this is a positive move and will benefit LendingTree and their network.

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  • Bill Rice 8:45 am on October 31, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: lead generation,   

    Performance Makes the Best Marketing 

    ZipSearch! has been surging above the radar in the mortgage and insurance lead generation space. The neat part to watch is that their surge is not based on colossal partnerships or press release buzz. It is built on good old fashion performance.

    Their founder and CEO talks a lot about the efficacy of advertising. Answering the buyers’ biggest fear. Can I really get the effect that I am being offered in the pitch?

    ZipSearch! has not only used the traditional means of happy client testimonials, but they have put their ongoing mortgage lead performance, as measured by Kaleidico’s Lead Marketwatch on display.

    Tags: , , , ,

     

    • Jami Walker 1:27 pm on November 27, 2007 Permalink

      Can you give me a little more information on how this may work. Cost? Lead information? Do you purchase any area?? Thank you

    • Joe Blackwell 4:12 pm on November 27, 2007 Permalink

      Do you have information and a site for examples of Insurance leads?

    • paul psareas 10:57 am on November 29, 2007 Permalink

      What is your close rate?
      How many people do. You sell the same leads to ?

  • Bill Rice 3:51 pm on October 29, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , lead generation, ,   

    What Online Lead Generation Best Practices Should Be… 

    Jere Doyle of Prospectiv dissects what online lead generation best practices should truly be addressing:

    What our industry needs is to come out with firm best practices that address HOW leads are collected and WHAT advertisers do with leads once they get them. Issues such as transparency, data sharing, and misleading promotions need to be tackled head-on. When we talk about consumer data, isn’t the bigger issue the reselling of this personal data over and over again without the consumer’s knowledge or consent? Best practices that deal with these types of issues are what the industry lacks.

    Unfortunately, we often dive to the minutiae

    when everyone is dancing around self-interest and perceived loss of flexibility in our practices.

    I could probably script 10 Best Practices for Online Lead Generation in a day, without much effort.

    I think I will!

    Watch for tomorrow’s post…

    Tags: , , , , ,

     

  • Bill Rice 10:27 am on October 19, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: lead generation,   

    Kaleidico is coming to Los Angeles and San Diego 

    Keith Burwell and I will be in California most of next week and we would love the opportunity to get everyone (lenders, lead providers, etc.) together for dinner.

    Any suggestions for good places to gather?

    Here is the tentative schedule:

    If you can make it and/or have an idea for a location leave a comment, call, or email me.

    UPDATE: Feel free to invite anyone that you think will be interested. These are informal, fun, and full of networking opportunities!

    Tags: , , , , , ,

     

  • Bill Rice 8:21 pm on October 16, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: lead generation, , ,   

    Internet Lead Quality Decline or Market Change? 

    There has been a lot of discussion about Internet lead quality declining. Is it the marketing or the market? I believe it has a lot to do with consumers reacting to the media and the market.

    read more | digg story

     

  • Bill Rice 5:51 am on October 11, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: lead generation, ,   

    LeadPoint does Education 

    LeadPoint announces the launch of education leads within it’s unique lead exchange model. Not particularly interesting in and of itself, but there does seem to be the hint of something different:

    …service that it says allows online and campus-based educational institutions to purchase leads submitted by students that have the highest likelihood of matching each school’s target student profile.

    LeadPoint says the offering gives schools the ability to bid on real time higher education leads based on both the subject and the profile of the prospective student. Schools are able to target based on the prospect’s profile and their educational interests, employing filters such as school type, campus location, and highest level of education completed. 

    I am drawn to the concept of matching or targeting a student’s profile. This is certainly unique in the education market where most leads are generated by prospective students selecting a college and then providing an inquiry.

    I have long believed that this was destined to be a bit backward and certainly not focused on the student getting the most appropriate results from their inquiry.

    Although this is certainly an interesting announcement from LeadPoint it is not unique or original. And, in my opinion, probably not the best executed in class. Whereas LeadPoint simply focuses on matching the student to “each school’s target student profile,” a more interesting approach is to match a school based on a full picture of the prospective student’s profile, interests, career, and professional propensity.

    This is where I think CollegeRover excels in education lead generation, with an eHarmony type of student to college matching technology.

     

  • Bill Rice 5:08 am on October 11, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: lead generation,   

    Local Lead Generation Gathering Investor Interest and Capital 

    Local lead generation and social networks have begun attracting the eyes of prominent venture capital firms.  ReachLocal and Outside.in raise over $60 Million in separate efforts.

    ReachLocal, who is addressing opportunities for online media to dip into a $97 billion offline local advertising market, attracts $55 million from Rho Ventures and Galleon Crossover Fund.

    Outside.in, a Brooklyn, NY local social network, raised $1.5 million from Union Square Ventures. Interesting note this is the VC firm of Fred Wilson an avid technology investor, blogger, and Web 2.0 tinker. Look for commentary on his blog possibly.

    VCs run in packs once someone throws there chips on the table and sets a marker value on an investment theme. I suppose local lead generation is on the radar. I am eager to see where it goes.

     

  • Bill Rice 8:39 am on October 10, 2007 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: lead generation, ,   

    Experian Shares Fall as They Point to LowerMyBills’ Drop in Revenues 

    Experian drops more than 7% yesterday as the market discounts their slowing growth attributed to their connectivity and revenue reliance on credit troubled US, UK, and Ireland markets.

    Interestingly, Experian quickly and specifically lays the slowing growth at the feet of LowerMyBills:

    The group said that in the six months to the end of September, its revenues from continuing businesses, at constant exchange rates, rose 6 per cent. However, the figure would have been 2 percentage points higher, Experian said, but for the fall in revenues at LowerMyBills, its US subsidiary which provides leads to subprime mortgage lenders.

    In July, Experian said that LowerMyBills’ revenues fell 20 per cent in the first quarter, after an 8 per cent decline in the previous quarter, but it expected that to be the low point for the business.

    This subsequent statement may explain reports that Experian has swooped in to the once hot start-up and is reengineering:

    Don Robert, Experian’s chief executive, said that "while the revenue environment is tougher, we remain focused on delivering profit in line with our expectations for the year as a whole."

    Maybe the dancing office workers didn’t work?

    Tags: , , , , , ,

     

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