What Can We Expect In 2023?

Following on from our blog  What Big Things Can We Expect in 2022? we have decided to do a follow up, the imaginatively titled - What Can We Expect in 2023?

Yep, this needs little introduction. We’ve simply set out a few predictions for things we believe we will see happen throughout the course of the next twelve months. We’ve combined the incredible insights from our guests on the B2C Lead Gen podcast along with some of our own ideas for a quick rundown of key things you may want to consider as you begin to plan your strategy for the new year.

This blog is adapted from the podcast - What Can We Expect in 2023?

Lead Buying Will Become a More Appreciated Role

If you look at Lead Generation World  you will see the importance of educating lead buyers. Indeed, the new course they have introduced to certify lead buyers has seen a massive response because more companies are beginning to understand just how important the role really is. 

Lead buyers and brands who are buying leads will really start to take the role seriously in 2023, and the companies who embrace this will see huge rewards. 

We recently wrote a blog called 10 Ways To Level Up Your Lead Buying wrote a blog which sets out how to take control of your lead buying. 

Lead Gen Companies Will Start Building Their Own Brands

This may not necessarily happen by the end of 2023, but we believe there will be the realisation that it must happen.

There are two types of lead gen companies this will impact:

Lead Gen Brands 

Companies that generate leads on behalf of other companies will need to become brands in themselves. They will become similar to comparison sites that will operate in smaller niches where they find they are able to resonate. 

External Lead Generation Agencies 

Companies that generate leads on behalf of their clients ( Lead Gen Agencies) will have to adapt. These are the companies that are building landing pages, media buying, and possibly selling leads to their clients on a CPL. In just the same way, these companies will begin to realise they need to build their own brands OR use the assets of their clients. 

More and more companies will move away from simply and quickly creating generic brands and landing pages and investing more time into building their own brand within particular niches. 

Or at least the successful ones will. 

Call Centres Will Have to Adopt a Multi-Channel Approach

Both external call centres and brand’s internal call centres will have to adopt a multi-channel approach.

High volume, low quality, smile and dial all day every day is no longer viable.  We have seen the slow decline of the traditional call centre model for a few years now and this will only continue meaning call centres have to evolve. 

Fewer people accept cold calls. Even engaged prospects don’t always want to speak on a phone. Call centres will need to adopt a multi-channel approach, exploring SMS, WhatApp, emails etc. 

Lead Gen Forms Will Evolve

As we progress from the old model of lead gen and move away from the collection of high volume, low intent leads it follows that lead gen forms will evolve.

The new way of doing lead gen is to focus on intent. This means further qualification of the lead before the point of generation. As such, more of the sales function will be slowly built into the lead gen form itself, asking more questions and verifying intent and suitability before the lead is even submitted. The lead gen form will change and evolve to capture this intent. 

Brokers and Agencies That Don’t Add Demonstrable Value Will Start to Suffer.

If you’re a broker or an agency adding demonstrable value, great. Ignore this.

However, if the value you are adding seems hidden or ambiguous, now is the time to change that.

2023 will be all about transparency with people’s data. Nothing should be hidden.  The whole “Where there’s mystery there’s margin” mentality of lead gen 1.0 will die out. The new way requires total transparency and demonstrable value.

And if you can’t offer this, you will suffer.