Secure Connection

Lead data should be transferred in an encrypted format in order to comply with all laws and ensure the security and privacy of the data. Sending data over secure connection encryption at least 128-bit SSL encryption (through HTTPS web services, etc) is recommended.

Real-Time Lead Delivery

Lead data should be transferred in real-time. The amount of time that elapses between the prospective student submitting the request for information and that new lead record arriving in your CRM should be no more than a couple seconds. You can’t follow up on a hot lead if your provider is waiting until the end of the day to batch deliver them.

Source, Campaign and Placement Variables

Vendor optimization requires more than just the vendor name that generated the lead. Wherever possible I suggest requiring vendors to pass along a campaign and/or placement variable. This will allow lead quality reporting to be performed for each vendor at a much deeper level. By providing all of your vendors with detailed feedback related to their individual campaigns and placements you will be helping them, to help you, generate higher quality leads.

Unique ID Exchange

Every lead transfer should include a unique identifier (a lead id) and also be returned one upon success. If both parties append their own lead record with the other party’s unique ID, then monthly reconciliation and reporting become much simpler. This can be as simple as the auto-increment id of a database table, as long as it is unique to your own system and if referenced, you can locate the lead record in question very easily.

Meaningful Error Messages

An invalid submission should return a meaningful error. Generic errors like “Invalid Value” do not help in the troubleshooting process. If the email address is invalid, return an error like Invalid Email Address. The system response should be an easily parseable format, I suggest XML which lends itself nicely to nested errors and response codes.

Test Mode

There should always be a test mode that vendors can easily switch to and send leads. Not only is it helpful launching new vendors, but old vendors still want to test new transfers and when you edit the validation requirements. The leads delivered in test mode must follow different business rules to prevent them from being distributed to enrollment reps and counted in the performance reporting.

I recommend reading the Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems from the National Institute of Standards and Technology if you are interested in learning more about securing web applications.

Pay per call has been especially interesting when it comes to search engine marketing. Previously, the emphasis has been on whether people make it to your web site, not what type of action they take once they get there. Pay per call provides an avenue to obtain more qualified leads. According to MediaPost Publications, “by allowing companies to track phone calls back to exact keywords, call tracking technology facilities a cost-per-lead model that delivers real-time leads to merchants in the form of a phone call, and creates a much more complete cost-per-lead analysis for online campaigns.”

Pay per call is an extremely valuable tool that helps companies make the most of their advertising dollars and I believe this is only the beginning of technological advances that will affect how companies track advertising campaigns and ROI in the future.

Accountability by one definition, is defined as “A is accountable to B when A is obliged to inform B about A’s (past or future) actions and decisions, to justify them, and to suffer punishment in the case of eventual misconduct.” This form of accountability has been taken to the next level at EDU Interactive.

Our proprietary “Lead to Acquisition” report tracks the amount of time it takes individual leads to progress through the multiple milestones that make up a schools unique enrollment process. By weighting and averaging this time variable for each lead/milestone combination, a complex algorithm is used to calculate an overall quality score. This quality score is then used to instantly and accurately measure the lead quality for every vendor/school combination.

From a media planning and buying perspective, this report has proven to not only allow us to create the most effective and efficient online lead generation campaigns, but has also increased enrollments and return-on-investment at each of the institutions we partner with. Just imagine, at a glance, we can understand the effectiveness of our campaigns by school, vendor, placement and/or date range for each of the particular milestones; thus producing results for our Clients promptly and punctually — just in time for classes to commence.