Happy New Year! To recognize the ways that digital marketing has grown and changed over the last year, we recently published an overview of the top five lead generation trends of 2012. Since DMi Partners’ philosophy is to make every year better than the last, this month is a time to build upon those trends and anticipate where the industry is headed in 2013. Take note of the evidence we’ve found supporting the following lead generation predictions and learn how you can use this knowledge to make 2013 your best year yet, too!
1. There Will Be a Continued Transition from Desktop to Mobile Acquisitions
According to a survey of business leaders, in 2012, 45% used mobile marketing to acquire customers. That percentage is expected to grow as the number of users with constant mobile access increases, calling for outbound marketing tactics different from those used for desktop acquisitions. These tactics create unique benefits as well as new challenges for lead generation.
Here’s what we’ve learned about mobile acquisitions in 2012: mobile phone opt-ins allow us to more easily contact leads via text, phone call, and email on the same device. These mobile leads tend to have higher answer and callback rates, while opt-in and click through rates for email are lower. One of the biggest challenges we’ve seen for lead generation on mobile devices is capturing postal addresses – consumers who are not using full keyboards are often discouraged by forms that require longer typed responses.
Last year, a new record was set for the most mobile device activations in a single day: over 17.4 million on December 25th. That’s 2.5 times more than the previous record, set on Christmas Day in 2011. With the mobile growth we’ve seen year after year, it’s important that the lead generation industry is consistently learning and adapting. We’re looking forward to more big changes as new iOS and Android devices are released and the transition from desktop to mobile acquisitions continues in 2013.
2. The Desire for Phone Validation Will Increase
This year, the marketing industry expects to see a major increase in demand for phone-validated leads. Prior to 2013, we’ve observed that more industries, for example, those in the consumer packaged goods and travel markets, are now seeing the value in generating leads specifically for call center use. This can be attributed partially to the surge of mobile adoption; as mentioned above, opt-ins via mobile phone have higher answer and callback rates.
DMi Partners routinely uses call centers to validate education leads and increase their likelihood of conversion. However, even for those companies not using the phone as a primary communication vehicle, call center validation is still a valuable tool. Each authenticated element of a lead lends itself to the overall value and legitimacy of the contact.
In 2013, call center phone validation is likely to become more affordable for lead buyers as the larger scope of its benefits are realized and its popularity grows.
3. Inbound Call Transfers Will Become More Prevalent
In addition to experiencing an increased desire for call center phone validation, in 2013, more advertisers will be taking advantage of the benefits of inbound calling. For those companies that already engage their consumers primarily on the phone, inbound transfers are the next logical step after purchasing call-verified leads.
Transferring a call directly to a client’s call center saves both time and resources. This live delivery, as opposed to ending a call to pass lead information, eliminates the inconvenience of reconnecting with a consumer. In addition, inbound calling allows a company to speak to a consumer at the time they’ve inquired about a product or service, instead of later when the initial interest may have waned.
In the last year, we’ve seen firsthand an increased need for live, agent-transferred, inbound calls. We predict that as this demand continues to grow in 2013, there will be a shift in lead purchasing habits: a progression from pay per lead, to pay per call-verified lead, to pay per inbound call.
4. Buyers Will Increase Their Focus on Transparency and Source Auditing
In our outline of the lead generation trends of 2012, we mentioned that last year Internet marketing further infiltrated common culture and lead buyers began to make more of an effort to learn how the leads they use are generated. These trends will be the driving force behind an increased demand for more transparency and source auditing from lead generators in 2013.
As part of this push for source auditing, agencies will be expected to share their knowledge of the actual points of origin where consumers are opting in. This move toward transparency will set in motion the collapse of blind networks and provide advertisers an increased opportunity to understand how they are reaching their consumers, what works for their brand, and what their marketing agency is doing to advance their business.
DMi Partners has always emphasized transparency, viewing client relationships as a two-way partnership, rather than a one-sided transaction. We believe that this new standard in lead generation will only improve the synergy between agencies and their clients, advancing the integrity of the industry as a whole.
5. Lead Generation Through Paid Search Will Grow
In somewhat recent history, we’ve seen many new developments in Google AdWords’ paid search format, including the evolution of sitelinks and the addition of location, call, and social information to ads. In the coming year, the popularization of AdWords’ contact form extension is set to change the process of generating leads through paid search.
Google AdWords’ contact form extension allows consumers to submit their information directly on a search engine result page (SERP) instead of first navigating to a form on a separate webpage. This feature simplifies the capture of contact information, including name, email, postal address, and phone number. In 2012, Google took this feature a step further by prepopulating name and email fields with information from Google+.
Much like how Amazon’s 1-Click ordering and Facebook’s prefilled forms both quickly gained momentum, we expect prefilled AdWords contact forms to become a major component of paid search. Since the biggest challenge in obtaining an opt-in is compelling a consumer to fill out a form, reducing the process to one click puts lead generation through paid search in a position to thrive.
