TARGUSinfo Interactive Insights

Love it or hate it, we learned early on that doing your homework makes a difference.  So now that you your mind is made up and you are committing resources to leverage predictive analytics– what’s next?

You’ve gained acceptance from the top (see, “The First Step is Always Acceptance”) and your leadership has bought on to the idea that analytics is going to be the foundation of your future strategies. Your next step must be to gain a better understanding of  how your peers are using analytics. 

How is your industry using analytics?  Have they already started segmenting their customers?  What types of results have they seen?  Which partners are they choosing if any, to help achieve their goals?

During our recent Scoring Summit, I heard countless applications of real-time preditictive analytics.  For example, Clearwire leverages a data-driven customer acquisition strategy that offers a clear direction for others to follow.

A research-based strategy can help you better understand and evaluate the additional steps that will be necessary to achieve your analytical-based goals. 

When you achieved company buy-in, hopefully you established whether or not you have the right personnel, IT infrastructure and any other necessary tools in place.  Deciding the necessity of those tools will lead you down the path to acquiring the right software, people or both.

The best part of the research process will be training your personnel’s collective minds to start using the analytical sides of their brains.  Asking relevant questions, seeking answers, and implementing actions (wash, rinse, repeat) will enhance your internal analytical processes.

If the project you are researching has anything to do with customer scoring, segmentation or platform-based analytics stay tuned to my updates about how our customers are leveraging real-time analytics to enhance their customer’s experience and bottom-line.

Deryck

@DeryckDC

Regardless of the terms used – status, disposition, outcome, state– every lead should have at least two data points associated with it.  One regarding validity and one regarding outcome. 

In my last post “Clear as Mud: Transparency is Tricky,” I posed a few questions for lead buyers and sellers to think about regarding their business practices.  I’d like to touch on the last two buyer questions regarding lead dispositions.

It is my experience that the line between the status and disposition of a lead is often blurred into one hybrid lead outcome.  While one lead outcome may seem more manageable, the lack of precision in defining the true state of a lead makes refining and optimizing lead processes much more difficult.

Let us take for instance the outcome “invalid lead – not interested.”  Contacting a consumer who is “not interested” does not mean the lead is “invalid.”   The status of the lead is valid – which I define as a contactable phone – but the lead was not workable because the disposition is “not interested.”

As I see it, status and disposition are not synonymous and should not be mixed.  These two data points should be independent and based on different factors.  The status of a lead should be based on the criteria defining validity.  The disposition should be based on the outcome of the lead – i.e. the action taken with the lead – thus only end users will have this data point.

For instance, let us define –

Status has the following values:

• Valid – contactable phone number
• Unknown – inconclusive contact (no answer, fax)
• Invalid – non-contactable phone number (invalid, blank, disconnected)

Disposition has the following values based on the listed outcomes:

Equally as important as maintaining these two data points for each lead, is the definition and standardization of their assignment. 

Whether your classifications are as basic as the ones I’ve described above or more intricate, it is imperative that you clearly define and document the criteria governing each outcome to ensure accuracy and consistency.  This is increasingly important when incorporating a human element – such as a call center agent.

When utilizing a call center, it is often helpful to provide your call center agents with a table in similar fashion to the one displayed above.  A standardized set of outcomes mapped to dispositions creates accurate uniformity, which leads to higher precision.

Retaining information on both validity and outcome allows more granular analysis of lead performance and in turn more accurate decision making.

If you are the end user of a lead, then you have the capacity to attain both pieces of information.  If you are the lead seller, you will only have data points regarding lead validity based on your parameters, unless you have developed transparency in your partnership.  Either way, you’ve got a place to start.

Stay tuned to find out what’s next…

Andi

@Ask_Andi

I recently posted a link to an announcement that was made by DePaul University out of Chicago. The nation’s first Predictive Analytics Master of Science program is a testament to the momentum of analytics in our society and will undoubtedly be followed by similar programs from other esteemed universities.

Reading some of the comments at the end of the article, however, made me realize the stigma that can oftentimes be associated with terms that are used on a daily basis at TARGUSinfo.

Contrary to popular belief, “Predictive Analytics,” “Lead Scoring,” and/or “Customer Segmentation” are NOT solely used by huge Fortune 500 companies or institutions that generate and buy hundreds of thousands of leads a month.

Don’t get me wrong, custom scoring algorithms are proving to be powerful tools for larger companies who want to better understand who their best customers are, eliminate churn, and determine cross-sell/up-sell strategies. It’s important to understand, however, that smaller organizations can make use of the data that they regularly see as well.

Whether it is an “off-the-shelf” type of scoring model or simply coming up with a more efficient way to collect customer data, there seems to be no excuse in today’s day and age not to use analytical strategies when making the decisions about how to interact with your customers.

So here’s to the next generation of analytical minds coming out of DePaul University (and others). More importantly, here’s to your organization for taking the necessary steps to transition from making “gut” decisions, to those that are powered by the readily available data provided on a daily basis by your customers.

If you (or anyone in your organization) have any questions about how big or small organizations can benefit from “Predictive Analytics,” “Lead Scoring,” and/or “Customer Analytics,” I would be more than happy to help get you answers.

Deryck
@DeryckDC

You’ve heard us say this before, the lack of transparency in the lead generation process hinders even the most willing buyer or seller.  

For the education industry, the prospective student is also impacted by not finding the best program that fits his or her educational need.

We’re not alone in thinking that scoring prospective student leads can help improve the overall success.

That’s why a host of education industry executives have joined a panel at the upcoming Scoring Summit (May 5-6 in New Orleans) to discuss how scoring impacts not only lead pricing, lead management and campaign results,  but help improve the ability for schools to identify prospective students who will be most successful in attending college.

Moderated by TARGUSinfo’s Chris McArdle, the session titled, “Lead Scoring: The Impact on Lead Buyers and Lead Sellers”  will include : Natalie Young, vice president of research and analytics at Career Education Corporation (CEC); Matt McLaughlin, president of CUnet; Andrew Gansler, president of EducationDynamics; and Kristen Schiffner, senior director of internet marketing at Westwood College.

Hosted by TARGUSinfo, the Scoring Summit is a first-of-its-kind event bringing together B2C marketing decision makers to discuss how real-time scoring and analytics is transforming business.

Regardless of whether marketers manage online leads, inbound callers or display advertising, the Scoring Summit aims to educate attendees on best practices of how to wield real-time scores to attract the right leads, boost conversion rates and increase customer lifetime value.

For more information about the Scoring Summit, visit: www.TARGUSinfo.com/Scoring.

It’s not too late to make plans to join us in New Orleans.  See you there.

Rufus

@RufusManning

Sometimes it’s easy to drive in circles discussing the merits of having good data. 

In fact, one of the true benefits of pushing for a more transparent online lead generation industry is leveraging the data you best see fit.  We see it every day because our clients use our On-Demand data to drive millions of revenue impacting decisions every day.

Look for no greater proof about the value of real-time data than a recent Aberdeen Group report entitled: Predictive Analytics: The Right Tool for Tough Times.  The report surveyed leading companies and found that the top performing 20% of firms achieved a profit margin of 23% and a customer retention rate of 93%.  In contrast, the other 80% of survey respondents achieved a profit margin of 13%, and a customer retention rate of only 80%.

Think about it.  Profit margins and lifetime value can be increased by applying analytics in real-time on interactions with customers and prospects at all communication channels: forms, phone calls and display ads.

David White, a senior analyst with Aberdeen stated valuable insight can be gained. “What was striking is that top performers have a much stronger focus on cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.  As a strategy, that’s a great way to improve profits as many of the overhead costs associated with sales and marketing are avoided.  That’s one reason why leading organizations have been able to demonstrate higher operating profits, and also show better increases in profit margins.  There’s also a nascent demand for real-time predictive analytics.  A quarter of all survey respondents say that they need real-time data feeds to drive predictive models, yet only 59% of them can currently achieve that.”

The Aberdeen Group research highlights the importance of predictive analytics and what will be the sole focus of the first ever Scoring Summit event taking place May 5-6, 2010 at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, LA. 

The Scoring Summit is a first-of-its-kind event bringing together B2C marketing decision makers to discuss best practices of how to wield real-time scores to attract the right leads, boost conversion rates and increase customer lifetime value.

I hope to see you in New Orleans.  Register now and save $100 before April 4. 

I predict you will join the ranks of the other top performing company using predictive analytics attending this event.

Chris

@cjmcardle

Not too long ago, LeadCritic energized a topic that’s near and dear to our heart, and something that we at TARGUSinfo have written about twice before on this blog.

“The Industry Demands Full Transparency” and “How Transparency in Lead Scoring Helps us All” were attempts to move the discussion forward and engage readers.

Can we truly agree upon what lead transparency means for buyers and seller? 

Lead critic defined transparency for both buyers and sellers as:

• Buyers definition of transparency: Knowing exactly what each lead source is doing to generate leads. Knowing what the creative says and looks like, knowing where the ads are being placed, knowing the exact source of every lead (did they come from the another company or were they organically generated), what keywords are being bid on, etc
• Sellers definition of transparency: Conversion data (contact rates, app rates, conversion rates, etc) knowing what the Lead management process is.

As we have said before and I most recently shared on stage with Datamark at LeadsCon, we believe in complete transparency.  Five years ago, TARGUSinfo introduced our first generation of On Demand Lead Verification services – ushering in new advances in lead quality for the online lead generation industry.

Our verification solution was built on the simple premise that lead sellers and buyers should have a real-time tool that would enable either party to determine the ‘contactability’ of a given lead in sub-second time – with complete transparency as to the attributes of each lead (i.e. Consumer Name matches Phone, or another example, Consumer Name does not match Phone or Address).

Our belief in transparency extends beyond lead verification, but also on the rising tide of lead scoring.

We believe, along with our scores of clients and industry partners, that the promise of lead scoring is significant, but only if executed through a collaborative and transparent approach. Transparency enables both parties to better communicate and thus understand their campaign’s lead quality, ultimately providing valuable intelligence to facilitate broader collaboration between lead sellers and buyers.

The industry deserves transparency.  Our lead scoring solution was developed in a similar transparent fashion as to our lead verification solution.   We believe it is critical that anyone engaged in lead scoring understand how their score is built and challenge their scoring provider as such – it seems like common sense that the more comfortable one is with understanding the ingredients of the score, the more comfortable they will be in making operational changes to take advantage of this real-time intelligence.

I look forward to continuing to facilitate the transparency discussion between our buyer and seller clients.

Chris

@cjmcardle

Getting contactable leads in the hands of lead buyers isn’t enough.  Sound daring enough?

There will be a time in the not too distant future when all leads will be–or have the ability to be, scored based on transparent data in so buyers can choose those leads with the highest propensity for conversion.

Nowhere is this more evident and close to happening then the education industry.

That’s why today, at The AMA Higher Education Symposium, we announced our relationship with EducationDynamics to add real-time lead scoring and verification to their LeadWatchLive™ lead management system.

EducationDynamics

“Our relationship with TARGUSinfo allows schools to effectively verify and prioritize high-value leads at the moment a prospect reaches out, greatly increasing a school’s chances for conversion,” said Andrew Gansler, president of EducationDynamics’ Prospecting Services Division.

Designed in collaboration with and specifically for colleges and universities, LeadWatchLive is a state-of-the-art inquiry management system designed to help institutions accurately monitor and manage all aspects of their marketing campaigns, including the quality and performance of multiple lead vendors and the performance of leads from generation through enrollment.

The integration of TARGUSinfo’s On-Demand Insight into LeadWatchLive provides added program functionality, allowing higher education marketers to:

1. Verify leads in real time, allowing administrators to prioritize and/or route leads according to the “contactability” of leads.
2. Screen leads for incorrect or erroneous data in real time to prevent the follow-up queue from reaching capacity―saving time and resources.
3. Prioritize and deliver leads to the best-equipped agents by determining which prospects are most likely to convert.
4. Personalize phone scripts and prospect communications using dynamic content to highly engage prospects and compel them to take the next step.
5. Measure vendors’ lead quality to get the best value from a lead generation budget.
6. Identify ideal customer segments to tailor marketing messages and offers to, and reach them by using the most compelling media channels.

We are proud to work alongside EducationDynamics in providing a transparent and valuable role in driving the highest quality of leads possible

Dave
@DaveWengel

Following up on our earlier post and the article on LeadCritic, companies in lead generation space (buyers & sellers) have been abuzz regarding transparency in lead scoring.  According to Christel Mosby, SVP at Grand Canyon University, “We (GCU) believe transparency plays an invaluable role in the lead generation process.”

What transparency is not, is a risk.  Transparency would not compromise confidential information- I think that point misses the mark.  Neither buyers nor sellers in the industry supporting transparency are suggesting this.

What lead buyers & sellers are suggesting – as they have for years – is that transparency in the lead generation ecosystem will help both sides. 

Mark Garns, COO of Autobytel stated: “We believe there is an opportunity to improve the leads business with leads scoring.  To be successful lead scoring needs to improve the process for everyone: dealers, consumers, and the lead providers.  Transparency into the lead scoring model is an essential element of that. To that end, it is important to work with companies like TARGUSinfo who understand the importance of transparency to assist the entire industry.”

There have been some buyers & sellers in the past who’ve tried to benefit themselves by not being transparent.  This minority view the ecosystem as a zero-sum game, i.e. my gain is the other side’s loss. 

For example, a lead buyer may be tempted to cut its lead buying costs by cutting out the lower performing leads it buys.  However, the lead seller still had to spend just as much to generate the leads.   Without transparency, this hurts the lead seller’s ability to improve performance which ultimately would help the lead buyer.  Additionally, a lead seller might be tempted to not be transparent with its buyers so that it can charge more than a fair price for leads. This could ultimately hurt buyers in the short term and sellers in the long term.

These practices have been the exceptions, and the vast majority of both buyers & sellers do not see the lead generation ecosystem as a zero-sum game, but rather understand that all parties can act as partners to help reach the mutual goal:  Get the most desirable leads, most cost-effectively, and everyone benefits.

One analogy would be the “Nutrition Facts” on the food that we buy – the FDA created a common language of the ingredients of what is in the food, helping both the consumer, as well as the seller of the goods – assuming the seller has nothing to hide and the consumer wants to understand what he or she eats.  The seller would never divulge a ‘secret formula’ (like Coca-Cola) and rarely would divulge the entire recipe, but all in the ecosystem benefit with a common, transparent language about what goes into the food in the package, so that consumers have full understanding of what they are purchasing, and high-quality sellers can promote what makes them high quality – without any obfuscation about the facts.

When it comes to Lead Scoring, we are overwhelmingly hearing the same desire – ‘black box’ (non-transparent) Lead Scoring, which shows solely how likely the lead is to take a certain action, may at first appear beneficial (just as food without “Nutrition Facts” may still taste good, but may not be good for you). 

The reason that both buyers & sellers want more transparency is so that they can learn together and partner on how to find more of the desired leads, in the most cost-effective manner.  These companies are 100% in support of transparency – they are not going for short term gain at the expense of other members of the ecosystem, but rather see the significant benefits of working together as partners to solve the mutual goal:  Finding the most desirable leads in the most cost-effective manner.

Our view – shared by most companies in the lead generation industry- is ignore transparency at your own peril. 

Like Fredrick Goff, CEO of Percipio said this week, “All free markets evolve toward efficiency. Lead scoring will be a driving factor toward efficiency in the lead generation market, but only if the process, means and economics are transparent and understood by market participants.  Full access to the underpinnings of scoring models allows buyers to better manage acquisition costs and suppliers to generate higher quality leads:  A win-win result ”

Those who are still pushing non-transparency (black-box) scoring, or other zero-sum tactics, are missing the point.

For more information on how our 200+ clients are viewing & driving transparency in the Lead Scoring market, drop me a direct message at @DaveWengel.   #NoBlackbox

Dave

At our 4th Annual Online Lead Quality Summit in September, transparency was a key topic of discussion.  Today LeadCritic has a good post up that continues this important discussion and follows the same theme of our press release today about Industry Transparency in Lead Scoring.

As we head into Ad Tech this week, we think it is very important that the industry clearly understands where we stand regarding the broader topic of transparency, and best practice use of lead scoring as well.

• At TARGUSinfo, We believe in Transparency — Five years ago, TARGUSinfo introduced our first generation of On Demand Lead Verification services – ushering in new advances in lead quality for the online lead generation industry.  Our verification service was built on the simple premise that lead sellers and buyers should have a real-time tool that would enable either party to determine the ‘contactability’ of a given lead in sub-second time – with complete transparency as to the attributes of each lead (ie. Consumer Name matches Phone, or another example, Consumer Name does not match Phone or Address).
• It’s Good for All — TARGUSinfo, along with a number of clients and industry partners, believes that the promise of lead scoring is significant, but only if executed through a collaborative and transparent approach. Transparency enables both parties to better communicate and thus understand their campaign’s lead quality, ultimately providing valuable intelligence to facilitate broader collaboration between lead sellers and buyers.
• What Concerns Us? — A number of our lead generator clients have recently signaled the concern that some agencies and/or lead buyers are going to impose a “lead score screen” that not only throws out a number of highly contactable leads –but is done so in a ‘black box’ manner where lead generators have no ability to understand why one lead they generate is accepted and another is declined.
• What’s at Risk? — We think the ‘black box’ scoring approach could wash away the gains made over the past few years in terms of collaboration between lead sellers and their buyers, and it is apparent the lead generation industry agrees. If a lead generator is not privy to the conversion data, much less any other specific information pertaining to why a lead was rejected, they will inevitability face higher costs in trying to maintain, much less grow, their existing business.
• What the industry deserves? — TARGUSinfo has, working with our client-partners, created our lead scoring solution in a similar transparent fashion as to our lead verification solution.  We feel that it is critical that our lead scoring clients understand how their score is built– it seems like common sense that the more comfortable they are with understanding the ingredients, the more comfortable they will be in making operational changes to take advantage of this real-time intelligence.

Lastly, it is also critical that if a third party is going to host a lead score on behalf of a lead buying client, the companies generating the leads entering the funnel have to at least be given a solid understanding of the new filtering that will be taking place.

What do you think? We hope that you will stop by our Ad Tech booth (#1424) or feel free to contact me directly by leaving a comment with your opinions.

-Dave Wengel

@davewengel

Lead Scoring panel with TARGUSinfo at CCA-- "sitting on the floor room only"

Just got back from a great trip down to the CCA conference in Orlando.

There are a couple of interesting highlights from the show.  First, I attended a fascinating discussion on harnessing of Social Media. It was a great panel led by Sam Sebastian from Google on the topic and Clay Gillespie from CEC and Joe Charlson from EDMC each gave some insight into their strategies.

Another session I thought was worth noting included discussions around building a proud alumni support network to help diffuse contentious blog posts… let your customers be your best advocates!

I also thought it was very interesting to hear them both talk about the importance of social media providing a new resource for students as they make their enrollment decisions. More and more students are interested in the opinions of “credible strangers” vs. just admissions or guidance counselors. Social media tools like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter help students get a much richer view of what student life is actually like. Great stuff. Good job to all on panel.

Second hot topic- lead scoring.  The session gave attendees a good grasp of how lead scoring can be used in conjunction with lead verification.   George Moore, our CEO, was able to give attendees the only hard ROI metrics of the panel– good job George!– a case study reported by Liberty University, a TARGUSinfo client.

Here is a link to the eWeek article referenced by George during the panel: How On-Demand Lead Scoring Helps Combine Higher Education with Smart Business

We look forward to continuing the discussion of how lead scoring can impact EDU’s business at LeadsCon East and our Online Lead Quality Summit (OLQS). Also, check out how CUnet is using TARGUSinfo to contact, score and market to prospective students.

By the way, when was the last time that you saw a break-out room so packed that people had to actually sit on the floor! (above)

We closed out the event with our own private dinner party for 20 of the leading educators in the for-profit edu space.  It was a fantastic to get together with so many leaders from the space and discuss their thoughts on leading issues of the day.  We were also able to get a private industry briefing from one of the leading equity analysts in the US that covers the market– tremendous insight.  We look forward to doing more of these events in the near future.  In the meantime, feel free to email me if you would like a copy of our lead scoring panel presentation.

Dave

davidwengel@targusinfo.com

@davewengel