Monetizing your data can be very profitable if you set it upright. If you are thinking about selling your own leads, here are some of the first steps you should take:
- Define your marketplace
- Build a network of advertisers
- Set up your lead distribution channels
Let’s take a closer look at each of these essential elements.
Select Your Lead Vertical
In order to sell leads, you have to choose a profitable lead vertical to specialize in. When you don’t have a specialized vertical, you may find difficulty reaching out to everyone; however, if you select a specific lead vertical such as the healthcare industry or the finance industry that wants to purchase high-quality leads to generate new customers.
It’s better to work with industries that are big enough to buy around 100 leads a week. Generating leads in any industry works the way most lead verticals do. The lead seller has to prompt customers to fill out a web form or call a marketed number.
After you identify your customers and have leads coming in, it is time to make a profit by selling your data.
Build a Buyer Network
To get the best ROI possible, you can sell your data directly if you build a buyer network.
A buyer network is a group of parties that want to purchase your data. They are sometimes called advertisers. Having a larger network means there are more potential buyers, which increases the chances that your leads will sell.
Here are some ways to build up your network of buyers:
- Attend trade shows or networking events to meet new clients
- Offer online classes using tools like Zoom
- Host a private event and invite your top clients and your prospects
- Cold call potential clients and tell them about your network
Figure Out Lead Distribution
Learning about lead distribution — the process of sending your data to the buyer — is quite the rabbit hole, as there are many different methods out there. Here are some of the most popular options:
Lead Distribution Software
You can use lead distribution software to collect, organize, and sell leads. As you set up your campaigns, you can choose between different distribution methods. Choosing the most efficient distribution method is critical to delivering the right lead to the right buyer.
Push-Based
Push-based lead distribution is used to assign leads to sales representatives based on predefined criteria automatically. There are three types of push-based lead distribution: round-robin, top producer, region-specific, or territory:
Round Robin
The round-robin lead assignment shares the workload evenly, and every buyer gets the same number of leads. The leads are assigned in a specific order.
Top Producer
Unlike the round-robin method, the top producer doesn’t share the number of leads equally. Instead, leads are assigned on each agent’s performance, and high-performing sellers get better and more qualified and raise their conversion rates.
Region-Specific or Territory
Leads are assigned based on the geographic area of the lead or the seller. The leads are segmented by region and resolve specific geographic differences and requirements.
Pull-Based
Pull-based lead distribution enables agents to claim the leads that they are interested in. Unlike the pull-based methods, the leads aren’t preassigned. There are four types of pull-based lead distribution: cherry-pick blind pull, shark tank, and shotgun.
Cherry Pick
The cherry-picking method enables agents to view the leads and claim the ones that they are interested in. Each person picks their leads from the existing pool and makes sure that the most qualified leads are selected.
Blind Pull
Similar to the cherry-picking method, each person claims as many leads as they want. However, each lead is selected randomly, without seeing the details first.
Shark Tank
With the shark tank method, whoever responds to the lead also claims it. This ensures that whenever the lead distribution software collects lead information, it receives immediate attention.
Shotgun
In this method, the lead distribution software matches the leads to a specialized sales team based on different criteria such as experience or specialization. The first person to act first claims the lead.
Push-Pull or Hybrid
As the name states, this lead distribution method uses a blend of push-based and pull-based methods. If your team works with inbound and outbound leads, you can use push-based lead distribution for inbound leads and pull-based lead distribution for outbound leads.
Ping Post
A ping tree is lead distribution technology that uses strategic automation to connect consumer prospects looking for services with businesses that can provide them. It refers to the process of lead distribution using ping post-delivery.
Marketers work to generate leads across a variety of channels. The leads are consumer prospects who have filled out a form. Once this happens, the lead is set to a multi-tiered marketplace. This multi-tiered marketplace is called a ping tree. In the ping tree, calls or web leads are pinged to potential buyers based on specific criteria. The buyers have the option to purchase the leads or pass. This process continues until a connection is made and the business buys the lead. This ping tree optimization process gives companies a choice in which leads they acquire and how much they spend on them.
Ping technology allows the lead buyers to preview the lead in real-time and respond to the lead seller with a bid price. If their sales team is at capacity, or the lead contains information that is not favorable, they may pass it to the next highest bidder.
Consider Data Security
Data security is critical to keep your customer’s data safe. It would be best to stay up to date with data security standards specific to your industry.
Consider adding two-factor authentication to log in securely into your lead system, or consider adding a secure mode into your system. To increase data security, you can also add a feature to your system that allows you to export your data securely.
You may also want to use an API key to identify, track, secure, and control your API functions. Incorporating an API key can protect you from API abuse.
Use Data Science Tools
Data scientists use predictive analytics, statistics, and machine learning to extract, process, and analyze data to generate useful information. However, you do not need a giant IT department to get this kind of information. Some lead distribution platforms have built-in tools that can help with the following:
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring evaluates your customers’ behaviors and distinguishes who is more likely to convert, retain, or buy from your company’s products or services.
Real-Time Risk Evaluation
With AI-powered analytics, businesses can track their changing risk exposures in real-time and take the necessary precautions to avoid unwanted consequences. This is especially useful for those in the financial industry, as it can reduce default rates.
Fraud Detection
It is possible to detect anomalies by segregating and clustering data and identifying unusual patterns in your data that seem suspicious.
Avoid Sending Duplicates
Make sure that you are sending data that is free of duplicates. Duplicate data can cost a lot of money in marketing because you pay more money to send the same content to the same recipient multiple times. This is also bad for the brand image of your company. A good lead distribution platform can help you remove duplicate data.
Know When It’s Okay to Resell Leads
Some of your partners may not like it if you resell leads. If you decide to do it anyway, the lead will likely sell for a lower price compared to when it was newly acquired. You should let your clients know if any other customer already possesses the same lead.
It’s usually not a good idea to resell leads when the buyer:
- Does not have permission to reach out to the customer
- Operates in a niche very different from yours
- Thinks they are buying exclusive traffic
What Not to Do When Selling Leads
Just as important as figuring out how to sell leads is learning the pitfalls that can cause you trouble. Here’s what not to do when selling leads.
Break Any Law
When selling leads, the information may be at risk of misuse or harm. That’s why it is best to consult with an experienced lawyer to take the necessary precautions to ensure that you are not breaking any laws and that your lead buyers can only use your leads for lawful purposes.
Many laws regulate the collection and storage of personal information, such as:
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from the European Union
- Personal Information Protection & Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) from Canada
- California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) from California
All the laws mentioned above require that lead sellers disclose how they will be using the user’s information and whether they will be selling it to a third party. Users have the right to refuse to have their information sold to a third party and should be provided with the option of opting out.
Operate a Website Without a Privacy Policy
The law requires every company that collects personal information from their users to have a privacy policy on their website to disclose their practices for protecting the users’ information. This is also a great way to show your users that you care about their security and that they can trust your company and enter their personal details or engage with your advertisements safely. It is also a way to show that you respect the users’ right to know:
- why you are collecting their information
- who has access to it
- how they can opt out if they want to
Send Low-Quality Traffic
One of the things that can hinder you from selling leads is low-quality traffic. If you are experiencing some troubles in improving your traffic quality, identify the problem areas and optimize the traffic. Some practical ways to drive good traffic to your website include:
- make sure your advertising targets customers with high intent
- rank high on search engines to receive customers that have not already filled out forms somewhere else
- bring new customers into your database by marketing through a variety of platforms
Offer Poor Customer Service
Having professional customer service helps your brand’s image because it directly connects your business and your clients. That’s why offering good customer service is essential to enhance your reputation. Also, having expert customer service can increase customer loyalty, which by default will increase your revenue.
Have Only One Source
It’s best to have multiple lead generation strategies to bring in a large number of leads. If you only have one source of lead generation, there’s a chance that your only source might one day be insufficient and not generate enough data.
Consider investing in a minimum of three reliable lead sources. For example, an excellent way to generate leads online is to write quality content for your demographic or niche. With your marketing team’s help, you can produce SEO blog content and rank high on Google by using the correct keywords in your blogs.
To reach your target audience, you can also share your content on your social media platforms or with influencers within your industry. Create content that is useful to the buyer, so they are more likely to share it.
You can also produce content for other blogs and publications. This is known as guest posting. The benefit for you is it gets your name out there as an authority, which can help with branding.
Video marketing is also another excellent lead-generation strategy. You can produce high-quality video content related to the products or services you offer and upload it to YouTube. This way, a viewer interested in what you offer might become a potential customer.
Remarketing is essential because it can nurture leads by keeping potential customers engaged and distracted from your competitors. Remarketing can also recapture lost leads.
Consider remarketing to sell leads:
- Prospects that registered for your webinar but didn’t attend
- Prospects that visited your landing page
- Webinar attendees that didn’t convert
- Prospects that downloaded your free content but didn’t convert
- Newsletter subscribers that didn’t become customers to generate leads
Remember that to capture leads, you have to remarket to customers according to their stage in the sales funnel. First, create ads for remarketing different platforms specific to your niche. Then build an effective landing page that includes an attractive headline and a subheading, a text that explains your offer’s benefits with a visual display. Most importantly, a captivating CTA and a short form encourage the visitor to claim the offer.
Conclusion
Lead-generating companies put so much work and effort into selling leads. Before planning on starting a lead generation company or selling leads, do your research. If necessary, hire a lawyer. Have a good customer service representative, generate quality traffic, and incorporate data science tools.
