Lead validation is a crucial step for lead-generation internet marketing — and yet very few organizations do it.

Simply put, lead validation is the process of screening website-generated form and phone inquiries to separate actual leads from non-leads such as spam, customer inquiries, personal calls and sales solicitations.

Data suggests that on average, about half of website inquires are not sales leads.

For hotels, restaurants, and hospitality businesses, a key aspect of lead validation is its importance to the continuous improvement of lead generation internet marketing campaigns.

Typically, campaign results are reviewed with sales leads and non-leads being lumped together.

If that data is thought of as “leads,” organizations may be overestimating the value of their campaigns by half — leading them to invest in campaigns that may not be producing nearly as well as it appears.

Furthermore, basing tactical campaign changing on inquiry rather than true sales lead data leads to errors.

For example, if PPC keyword “A” produced 500 inquiries and keyword “B” produced 300, more emphasis will be given to “A.”

However, if lead validation is used and it is revealed that “A” produced 100 leads and “B” produced 200 leads, the emphasis (correctly) goes to “B.”

Professional SEO Company Straight North put together the following slideshow on The Importance of Lead Validation.

The presentation provides an explanation and additional insights based on actual client sales lead data to convince you of the importance of lead validation.

Get ready to generate more leads and better leads!