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Marketing and lead generation are a part of any business. The most successful marketers know how to generate and nurture their leads, and they know the importance of keeping those processes going and the ramifications of them becoming unsuccessful.

To keep things moving along swiftly and effectively, marketers may think about switching from completing tasks in-house to outsourcing their operations. There are both positives and negatives that come with either side, a recent blog post at Chief Marketer points out, so before making any rash decisions to outsource, it is important to consider the reasons why one might choose to complete tasks directly from his or her office.

Chief Marketer first discussed lead forms. These sorts of forms gather information from potential customers and must be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. If they do not draw in the eyes of customers in the first place, customers will never consider filling them out. This places a lot of weight on marketers to be good visual designers, so anyone who considers him- or herself a bit lacking in the artistic department or does not have access to a design team may want to purchase lead generation forms from an outside entity. Third parties may also include campaigns that accompany their forms.

Marketers are also responsible for verifying the information their lead forms provide. Customers are not always genuine, and they may intentionally or unintentionally provide false information such as fake names or addresses. Marketers can complete verification in-house, but they may be pressed for time to complete this sort of taxing process. Third parties that specialize in this sort of operation can likely capitalize on their specialized software and expertise to get it done more quickly.

Lead scoring allows marketers to identify data points that can lead to future successful campaigns. Since the definition of a "high quality lead" can be subjective, this operation may be better completed by marketers themselves if they have access to, and experience using, data analysis and marketing software.

Finally, the piece suggests that lead tracking -- following contacts over periods of time -- may always be better handled by an outsourced agency or by using third-party software. Such agencies can utilize specialized customer relationship management software that will replace clunky home-grown spreadsheets and replace the need to train several departments to utilize the software to understand what is taking place. On the other hand, if a marketer's business is technically savvy throughout all its departments, staff may have no trouble utilizing such CRM software and completing the process for themselves.