So here’s me thinking that publishers have really missed an
opportunity when it comes to providing guaranteed leads from their
web properties.
Admittedly, whitepaper programmes work well when you’re trying to
generate a list of names. But, sometimes that’s all they are – a
list of names who are often unreceptive when followed-up by
telemarketing. Surely all of these “names” are active on the
publisher’s website – they’ve been visiting, reviewing content,
contributing in forums, etc. But all of this information isn’t
captured when they fill-in a form and the data is passed on to the
client.
Surely publishers should be able to provide something that looks
more like a lead than a name. Yes, they’ve registered for a piece of
high value content, but there’s also so much more information that
can be appended to their profile e.g. how many times they’ve been on
the website, areas of interest, levels of interaction and
contribution, etc.
So, give me a score for each person that shows a combination of
“Profile Fit” and “Interest/Activity Fit”. And, as time is of the
essence when handing over leads (think of it as an atomic half-life of
opportunity), don’t give me a list of names once a week. Find out how
to automatically pass leads to our CRM system in near real-time. That’s why open APIs were invented.
In my humble opinion, if publishers can’t provide this speed of
service and level of information, then guaranteed lead programmes
will become obsolete.
