Leadpile's Blog» do not call list

FTC Looking At Implementing “do-not-track” List

Mari Woods Holt — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 05:18:32 +0000

As we are all now figuring out is that if we visit a website or fill out anything online, a million other people are going to have this information about us. Being in the online lead generation business I know that if you fill out something online you will be someone that most likely will develop a lot of new “friends” that email you. However, visiting certain websites and that being tracked, is something totally different. Should companies be able to track your information online so they can better understand your online behavioral trends? Should this be something that the Federal Trade Commission regulates?
No matter what you think is right or wrong, the FTC is now looking at regulating those that are tracking our online behavioral information. Being in lead generation, we all know that the benefits of lead generation are not the initial requests the consumers are filling out, yet it is the additional remarketing that is the attractive part of capturing the lead information. However, should companies have the right to capture all your internet activity to potentially use to remarket you? Many think the answer is no, therefore this is what is promoting the FTC to look into enacting a new law.
Agree or disagree?

FTC Cracking Down On Illegal Marketing Practices

Mari Woods Holt — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:26:50 +0000

Has your cell phone or your landline rang many times in recent months, with you only to answer and there is a computerized extended car warranty recording? I know I experienced this call many times to the point of annoyance. Well, it appears that there are many other people, 4,000+ complaints to be exact according to DMNews, and now it seems the FTC (Fair Trade Commission) is involved.
There are potentially a lot of issues here with what this company is doing. First, there is the violation of the Do Not Call List and also potentially offering a phony product. The FTC is actively working on stopping this illegal marketing while the court case proceeds.
Working with all sorts of marketing methods, Leadpile Lead Exchange is very much concerned about who it works with and what those partners are doing to generate leads. We would certainly never condone this sort of illegal method of generating traffic/leads. With all these new technological ways to do marketing, the FTC is probably going to have it’s hands full in the years to come. Use the phone as a potential source of generating business, HOWEVER do it the legal way!

Lead Exchanges VS List Brokers

Mari Woods Holt — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:22:15 +0000

To build your business you must come up with ways to bring in new clients, however each business will have their own “right” way of generating this new business. A few options businesses have is to work with list brokers and to work with lead exchanges.
List brokers are companies that gather data of things such as home owners, consumers information in certain geographic regions, fax numbers, email lists, businesses and many many more. These are lists of people or businesses that meet the specific requirements the business is looking for.
Lead exchanges are a common platform for buyers AND sellers of WEB based leads. These are consumers specifically looking for a particular product or service.

The biggest difference amongst these two sources, of generating business, is the consumer/business is expressing the interest in something. They are “opting in” to receive more information about the particular product or service. Things such as the Do Not Call list do not apply to these consumers that are filling out a request for information. However, list brokers are dealing with general lists and MUST be scrubbed with the Do Not Call Registry. Those that are purchasing lists for various email marketing, SMS marketing, or other advertising purposes need to make sure that they are scrubbing their lists, to prevent any penalties being enforced.

Purchasing leads that are very targeted, real time, exclusive, and consumers/businesses that are WANTING information is probably going to show more success. One is like working a “warm” lead VS a “cold” lead. Why not call someone who wanted your product or service VS trying to add the extra step of trying to hard sell a consumer, and then have to deal with a potential longer sales process?
Leadpile Lead Exchange works with intelligent advertisers who know working with high quality web based leads, produces a higher return on their investment, versus buying lists and making the “cold” calls.

The true value of a lead

Mari Woods Holt — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:15:18 +0000

In today’s business world businesses somehow have to figure out a way to bring in customers to build their business. It appears that some companies are better at doing this than others. This is where lead generation comes into play and becomes very important to all types of business. Cold calling works, but it is getting tougher and tougher with the do not call list and other methods consumers are using to filter out telemarketing/sales calls. I was reading an article in Business Week that spoke about sales leads and really how many of them are really “sales ready” when that business buys them. Sometimes half or so of the leads that are being purchased are not “ready”, and then there is always going to be the portion that are disqualified for one reason or another. So the question is, what should a business expect out of the leads that they are purchasing? Should they always expect a “sale”, and if not they should be able to get their money back? If they expect that then should they expect to pay a large amount of money for those leads? What would be the true value of a “ready” sales lead? Isn’t it their job and their sales people job to ultimately turn a valid consumer/lead into a new customer of theirs? Bottom line–>> what should we really expect from on-line leads that are being generated?