Co Registration Lead Resource

I get this question about coregistration leads often, in two forms, really.

People who have bought premium email leads are shocked by the price difference between those and leads generated by coregistration, and people who are just starting out mistakenly think that penny leads should work just as well as leads that cost several dollars and more. So let’s clear up a few misconceptions.

First of all, coregistration leads are, by definition, shared leads.

The qualifier “CO” in the word means just that - they signed up for more than one opportunity or information series simultaneously. They might have checked off six “business opportunity” offers on a page, or they may have asked for information on business opportunities, weight loss, and who knows what else - baby carriages, porch swings, whatever.

Because that lead has been sold several times right at the outset, the coregistration lead generation company can reduce the cost to each person purchasing it, and still make a nice profit.

Some leads are sold only a few times, and some are sold again and again, depending on the business practices both of the lead generation companies, and of the coregistration services providers and leads vendors.

At my sites, I tell you right up front how many times I’m going to sell the lead, but not all lead vendors do that. I use lead co-ops to reduce the price to my customers, and openly state that the lead may be shared with up to 4 other customers, after which I “retire” that lead.

What sophisticated email marketers know, and many beginners apparently do not, is that working with coreg leads is a numbers game. They buy tens of thousands of coreg leads knowing that only a tiny percentage will become loyal newsletter subscribers or customers.

They also know a secret that most people seem not to grasp… the bottom line is in the long term return on investment.

If you buy penny leads, and 1% become potential customers, then your net cost was $1 per lead. Perhaps you use pay per click, and pay 50 cents to get people to your opt-in page, but only 25% actually opt in. In that case, your net cost per lead was $2. Or you buy $5 premium leads, and lose half of them at the opt-in confirmation, effectively paying $10 per lead for the ones you retain.

If your business model is such that you would have to pay more per lead for direct opt-ins than for the customers generated from coreg leads, then it makes sense to do some or most of your lead generation via coregistration. Otherwise, it does not.

Technorati Tags: coregistration leads, coregistration lead generation, coregistration services

I get this question a lot.  Let’s start from the beginning.  Even if you run an opt-in form on your website, your opt-in confirmation rate will probably average around 50%.  Some sites get more, some get less, but that 50% average has been my own experience, although I’ve seen it vary from as low as 30% to as high as about 75% at best.

If you lose a significant number of your opt-ins *on your own site* you can hardly expect to do better with co-reg leads who don’t know you, your site, or your offer.

So if the “conversion” question is how many will take a double opt-in, the answer is “a lot fewer than the 50% or so you get from an opt-in form on your own site.”

I always tell my customers who buy coregistration leads that they need to consider their net cost per lead.  If you buy leads at .01 each, and convert 10% to subscribers, then your net cost is .10 per subscriber.  At 1% conversion, your net cost is a buck.

The other issue that most people overlook is the long term value of a subscriber or customer to your business. 

If you make $X per month, on average, for every subscriber on your list, you can afford to pay at least that much, or more, to get those subscribers, and you can still turn a very nice profit over time.  The key is to focus on long term customer value.

The other “conversion” issue is how many coregistration leads will turn out to be customers and buy your product.  That is impossible to predict, since I don’t know your niche, your product, your business, or how effectively you market.

I can tell you, though, that in general co-registration leads need to be “warmed up” before you can effectively sell to them.  You need to give them what they expected when they signed up.

If they signed up for a free newsletter or free report on a given subject, give it to them, and don’t be too quick to fire off a series of “hard sell” emails.  On the other hand, if they responded to a targeted ad about a specific product, then they probably expect a sales pitch, and might even be surprised if you did anything less.

The real question is not how well the leads convert, but how effective you are at getting good conversion rates with coregistration leads.  You need to test what works in your market - you may find that what works for direct opt-ins on your site does not work as well with co-reg leads, and vice versa.

Technorati Tags: opt-in confirmation rate, co-reg leads, conversion rates with coregistration leads