With lead generation world London around the corner, what have we learnt over the past year in the external marketing space, and what can we expect at this years’ event?
Thomas Brett, our Head of Mortgage and Lending discusses the changes in external lead generation over the last 12 months, and why he’s looking forward to this years’ LGW conference.
The end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 have been an interesting period in financial services lead generation. The effects of the mini budget are still being felt, consumer duty will be going live within the next three months, and customer’s attitudes are changing with regards to what data they share online.
But, as always, with difficulty comes innovation and new ways of doing things, and lead generation is no different.
With Lead Generation World approaching (9th and 10th May) what’s changed in the last 12 months?
Lead Enrichment
What we’ve seen in the past 12 months are more detailed customer journeys. Historically, the worry with asking further questions on the customer journey towards becoming a lead was the drop off rate. With greater transparency and lead buyers and sellers working as partners, the cost of leads for further enrichment journeys can increase while the conversion rate increases.
Thank You Pages
Thank you pages are beginning to become integral to good customer journeys. Instead of the work being finished when the customer enters their details, further channels from that point can improve conversions and direct the consumer to take control of how they’re contacted by the lead buyer.
Taking a lead which has less chance of converting through further enrichment from the thank you page will improve customer outcomes, and by allowing the customer to book in the time suitable for them to speak with an adviser will improve contact rates.
A Market for Smaller Buyers
One of the biggest issues I’ve seen over the last 12 months is smaller lead buyers haven’t got access to external lead generators. There are thousands of smaller brokerages with 2 to 4 advisers who desperately want to work with a lead generation expert, but because their capacity is smaller, therefore lower volumes are being purchased, they struggle to find a lead generator partner to work with them.
There are some really innovative marketing businesses out there looking to service this marketplace now, with lead buying markets, or white labelled customer journeys which direct to the brokers own website.
Networks are starting to take notice of this and following in their American cousin’s footsteps with ‘groupbuy’ options. Utilising their size and buying power to help those smaller firms with customer acquisition.
Real-Time Feedback
Real-time feedback has been a ‘game changer’ for those lead generation firms who are using it. Instead of waiting for feedback on how leads and campaigns are performing from a daily or weekly report, receiving automated feedback at the touch of button means they can optimise in real-time, informing budget placement and producing better leads much quicker.
This all looks back to how building transparency and trust into the lead generation market will benefit everyone, from the lead buyer, the lead generator, and most importantly, the customer looking for products to help with their needs.
Lead Generation World Panel Discussion
All of these innovative lead generation journeys are very exciting so we wanted to host a panel discussion to talk about them.
‘Lead generation is changing! Meet the lead sellers leading the innovation’ will be hosted by myself and we’ll talk about the changes and challenges that three of the most successful lead firms are implementing.
We’ll hear from David Haycock from Desquared Marketing on how lead enrichment can improve conversion rates, alongside Steve Davies from Giving Mortgages where a lead buying journey can work for smaller brokers, and finally, Charlie Carroll from Push Group who will talk about how appointment booking can improve contact rates and conversions.
Lead Generation World 2023 will be another fantastic chance for external marketers, and large lead buyers to work together on improving customer acquisition practices, and it’s very exciting to be a part of that.
