Lead Generation: How to Get More Qualified Leads

Look, your lead generation has a problem: getting enough information to qualify and contact leads.

Here’s what’s happening:

You get leads through your lead gen efforts. You and your sales team reach out to the new leads. And, half of those leads are no good because the contact information is incorrect.

Your lead database is riddled with incorrect phone numbers, invalid email addresses, and fake names. That translates to a ton of wasted time and money.

So, how is this happening? And, more importantly, what can you do about it?

Why your leads aren’t working for you

Simply stated, you’re losing leads to bad data.

Over 60% of customers intentionally provide incorrect information on lead generation forms.

Only 1% of contact forms get completed.

81% of people have abandoned a form before completing it.

On top of all that, most people have multiple email addresses and multiple phone numbers. So, even automated lead generation systems struggle to collect accurate data. That’s why 63% of businesses say that generating traffic and leads is their biggest challenge.

These inaccuracies cause three critical issues:

• Your leads are unreachable. The contact information you have is incomplete or invalid. These leads are utterly useless.
• Your leads aren’t who you think they are. The contact information is valid, but incorrect. When you contact these leads, you connect with the wrong person. These leads are also useless.
• Your leads give you inaccurate sales information. Part of the lead generation process is gathering information that helps you sales teams. Information like an email or physical address help your teams research leads and create customized offers and pitches. If the information is incorrect, you have no idea what your leads want. And, this severely hobbles your sales efforts, even if you are able to contact these leads.
• Your leads expose your business to fraud and collections risks. It’s very difficult to protect your business from fraud and collections risks if you don’t know who you’re doing business with.

That’s the bad news. But, it’s not all doom and gloom.

There are ways to fight back against bad data, without overhauling your lead generation systems. You can even turn unusable leads into useful contacts.  So, don’t toss out those bad leads just yet.

How to get more leads in minutes

You’ve already got a database full of leads. The problem is that you don’t know how to contact many of those leads. If you can get the information you need to reach out to them, those dead leads suddenly come to life.

Boom. Zombie leads.

Just kidding. More like instant lead generation.

Batch processing

Here’s how you do it:

1. Export your bad leads to a .csv, Excel, or .txt file. Put each piece of contact information in a separate column, like this:
2. Remove any duplicate entries. There’s no need to check the same lead twice.
3. Upload your file to our batch append service. You’ll select the data you need to get and the level of accuracy you want (standard, premium) during the upload process. Your results will typically arrive in a matter of minutes. However, very large files may take longer.
   
   
4. Download your results and reload them into your lead management system.

Our batch append service automatically retrieves the most recent recorded information for each lead, and turns incomplete and uncontactable leads into usable contacts that you can immediately hand over to your sales teams.

It’s estimated that 30% of your CRM data is out of date, on average. So, cleaning your lead databases could instantly generate a lot of leads. That’s how you turn bad data into profit.

How to get more qualified leads

Verifying your existing information is a good way to access leads that were previously useless. But, it’s even better if you can prevent bad leads from entering your databases at all. This is where data integration is the best solution.

Here’s how it works:

1. Use an API to connect your CRM system to our data systems. There’s no need for an API key. The Searchbug API integrates with a unique URL. Most CRM systems have an interface for integrating APIs. But, you may wish to have your tech or IT team take care of the integration.
2. Configure your system so that it automatically checks new leads using our system as soon as it’s gathered from a lead form. Or, you can configure it so that leads are checked whenever team members access them.Either way, your leads will be verified before anyone tries to use them. This means that your sales teams can pull a lead from your database at any time, and the contact information will be correct.
3. You can also use our API to integrate data verification into your lead forms. This will validate lead data as users enter it on your forms. Then, your lead generation software can prompt users to correct incorrect entries.

Both methods will automatically protect your lead databases, and maximize your lead generation ROI. Additionally, once the data integration is complete, your lead verification will be entirely automated. There’s no continuous effort or maintenance. Just more usable leads (and more profit).

Using data verification in lead generation

Lead generation isn’t all about quantity. It’s also about quality. When you add data verification to your process, you’ll see a drop in your overall lead count.

That’s because you’re going to identify and remove any leads with invalid contact information. These were never real leads anyway. So, this isn’t really a loss. It just makes the numbers look smaller.

But, if you use data integration, you’ll also see a dip in incoming leads. Verifying information at the point of entry deters people who want to enter fake email addresses or bogus phone numbers just to get to your gated content. Again, these were never useful leads in the first place. So, you’re not seeing a drop in lead generation, just a drop in false information.

All these numbers represent an increase in lead quality. Your overall lead pool may be smaller. But, you’ll see an increase in sales efficiency, which is the true goal of lead generation.

Additionally, verifying your leads reduces your risk of fraud. Validating personal information makes it significantly harder (if not impossible) for people to use fake identities or commit credit card fraud.

Adding data verification to your lead generation system is a simple process that will save you tons of time and money. Check out the Searchbug batch append and data validation API, and start generating leads with dependable data.