Digital Lead Generation Firms Come to the Quad State Region

This subject may develop into a series as it impacts many businesses in our area.

There is a tremendous interest in lead-gen companies as marketing partners as technology is pushed deeper into society's fabric. Forget the kids, now even 'Grandma' can work her way around on a tablet or an I-Phone these days.

Why this topic may develop into a Quad State Business Journal series is because 'local business development' for many firms in many industries is often controlled by 'out-of-state' firms--more specifically lead-generation firms.

And local businesses going after local businesses don't really care WHERE the lead generation firm is located. But digital makes it all possible.

It all makes sense when one steps back to look at business from the proverbial 30,000-foot level. If you are a home service contractor, a dentist, an attorney or in need of quotes to tear down a building to finding money for a project, online search is the logical place to start.

A Society Integrated and Connected By Keywords

Everyone of us who look for people to get happily involved with our business (aka customers), can find them online.

So as business owners, we face a dilemma. Do we learn to do lead-generation ourselves (the online kind) and take the time to go through the learning curve, or do we stick to our knitting and hire an outside firm?

Most people in most professions opt for the latter. Some notable exceptions to taking the time to master the online lead gen process we have met include chiropractors, a swimming pool contractor and a construction worker.

A teacher in Martinsburg, WV looking to help his son earn some extra money doing around-the-house yard work with a power wash option have found 'almost too much business' they report.

Their marketing tool?

A home-made website with 'hired SEO' options. And as of this writing, they will not leave Berkeley County--even to turning down business from other Quad State counties.

A dentist, who prefers anonymity, reports he works with 'some lead-gen outfit in California' to find business from Franklin and Washington Counties.

U.S. Tax Receipts Setting Records--Online Sales Make Its Mark

The US Treasury reports a record $2.66 trillion in receipts through August and a large chunk of that increase is coming with online firms. (However the US still runs a $500+ billion deficit!)

The United States ranks way down to #32 among 34 industrialized nations according to new research reported by The Wall Street Journal. The study ranks and compares 40 tax variables of the 34 industrialized nations. Only France (#34) and one other country is lower than the USA.

You can find out more about the study here:  http://online.wsj.com/articles/were-number-32-1410729349

Coming to the Quad State: Contractor Lead-Gen Aggregator 

Although this news concerns only the home improvement niche of contractors, it shows how large the lead generation 'industry' truly is.

There are some 17,000 lead generation firms in the US for all industries. Of that number there are roughly 3,000 firms who work with contractors and of that number only a few hundred who work with contractors exclusively.

An aggregator may get you a red line misspelling in a word processor as it is a fairly new phenomenon but there are news aggregators (think of the famous Drudge Report, Google Reader, Feedly and so on), content aggregators and more.  Google News searching for your key word news items is another example.

The contractor aggregator is being build locally in the Quad State for national reach, but will focus on local activity within our region first.

The attempt with the developers of the contractor lead gen aggregator is to match local contractors and their specialty (roofing, wet basements, landscaping and so on) with the best lead generation company so that they can focus on what they do best (repairing and replacing roofs for example) and the lead gen firm can focus on what they do best (finding exclusive leads).

Some lead gen companies have a revenue floor for any prospective client (as in 'we won't take a contractor with yearly sales less than $750,000 or $1.5 million and so forth).

The QSBJ is told that the aggregator site, having been worked on for the last four or five months, will be up within three weeks.

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