After the success of Lead Generation World 2022, it was fantastic for Contact State to sponsor, speak and exhibit at this years’ London conference. Our Head of Mortgage and Lending Thomas Brett breaks down this years’ main talking points.
Trust, transparency and partnerships
One of the main themes of this years’ event which featured in many talks is the need to build greater trust and transparency between lead buyers and sellers. By sharing conversion data with lead generators, campaign optimisation can occur in real-time, improving ROI for both.
By sharing this data, it builds trust which is the basis for a great lead generation partnership. And by creating partnerships not just transactions, we can share campaign risk and in turn, move to differing payment models which work better for everyone.
Internal Marketing vs External Marketing
A thoughtful panel discussion hosted by Nigel Borwell from Leadtech discussed how external lead generation can work with larger firms who have their own in-house marketing teams.
“Not only can it work as a strategic part of a marketing campaign, but it must work as part of a marketing campaign”.
These words from John Grimbaldston, CMO at The Private Office show how integral it should be to utilise expert external marketers on specific areas of client acquisition on behalf of brands.
Lead generation is changing
I was fortunate enough to host a talk about how lead generation is changing. On stage we had David Haycock from Desquared Media, Charlie Carroll from Push Group, and Steve Davies from Giving Mortgages.
All three have really innovative campaigns working which challenge the standard lead generation journey. From appointment booking, further lead enrichment beyond the ‘thank you’ pages and the use of tech to provide qualified potential customers, we had a lively discussion about what’s changing.
Key takeaways from the experts on stage were regarding real-time data and transparency not only benefitting lead generators, but actually improving conversions for lead buyers. And of course, the advent of AI use in consumer funnels becoming not only a risk, but a huge opportunity for buyers and sellers.
Is it a lead buyers market currently?
Our Co-Founder Alain Desmier hosted a panel talk on the second day titled ‘Is it a buyer’s market right now?’ which included Hayley Clucas, Head of Marketing at Caspian Insurance, Kesh Thukaram, Founder of Best Insurance and Neil Fisher, Director of Marketing at Axa Health.
This talk asked large lead buyers where they see the lead generation market going, what they look for from their lead generating partners, and how they want to build partnerships with the right firms.
What we learned is how the bidding and sell to many model is broken - buyers need exclusivity and are willing to work on those partnerships to make sure it’s successful for lead sellers.
Consumer duty was a hot topic with this due to go live soon, lead buyers are willing to share more of the lead generating risk, but need transparency and oversight of customer journeys to do this.
Consent is key
With the latest announcement from the Government where they aim to ban all cold calling in financial services, a big topic at the conference this year focussed on how to provide and prove consent to contact customers.
The question remains, ‘can we rely on implied consent?’ and this will tie in with the FCA’s view of ‘sludge design’ in customer journeys towards advice when Consumer Duty goes live in July. Is a calculator that promises a quote but really designed to just capture data a fair and compliant customer journey towards advice?
Changes in the year ahead
The consensus in the room centred around lead generators taking the customers further along their journey before they become a lead. Further enrichment isn’t the cheapest option but will improve conversions, and the lead buyers in attendance agreed they would be happy to pay a higher cost per lead for enquiries which contact and convert better.
With an 83% increase in consumers who will look online for their next mortgage, this presents a huge opportunity for lead generators to optimise their customer journeys towards advice. And early adopters of AI technology could find themselves with an advantage.
Most important will be the move away from short term connections between buyers and sellers towards long term partnerships, we know these work better for both parties, and provide a better journey for customers, and this can only be a good thing.
