• Performance Advertising And The 'R Word'
    The subprime crisis, the dollar crisis, the credit crisis, the energy crisis -- and a few crises to be named later -- may all add up to an economic growth crisis, aka A RECESSION. Since many of the buyers and sellers in today's advertising market have never endured such times, a few thoughts from this wizened sage may be in order.
  • Strengthening Customer Relationships Through Lead Generation
    More and more, large companies with extensive customer databases are beginning to examine the merit of lead generation as a way to build customer loyalty and to better monetize existing customer relationships. Let me explain....
  • CAUTION: Don't Throw the Baby Out With The Bathwater!
    Should we let the government be the watchdog of our industry, or should we put more robust measures in place to self-regulate? I think the answer is a no-brainer: We should self-regulate. The current spotlight on "best practices" is great, but I think it's time we apply some peer pressure and begin the process of regulating ourselves.
  • Government Scrutiny Of Incentivized Lead-Gen Yields New Standards
    Two government regulatory decisions publicized in November set significant new standards for incentivized online lead generation. They are the Florida Attorney General's voluntary compliance agreement with Azoogleads U.S. Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission's settlement with Adteractive Inc.
  • Contact Center Reduction: How To Stifle Leads And Alienate Customers
    Recently, Walmart.com kicked off its "Customer Contact Reduction" program -- a quietly launched initiative to pull all customer service numbers from its Web site in an attempt to reduce costly inbound calls about order tracking. Instead of offering personal customer service, the retailer is forcing all of its online customers to rely on self-service tools to resolve questions and online customer service problems and denying access to phone support.
  • Navigating The Maze
    Is it just me -- or were there about 45 companies at Ad:Tech claiming to have a lead gen-network, the ability to target ads, have optimization, with both a publisher list and advertiser clients that would make the best of agencies drool? I wish I had a buck for everytime someone came up to me and asked "How do I tell the difference?" or "Can you give me 10 questions I should ask to help me find the good companies and weed out the brokers that aren't really bringing value to the table?"
  • Healthcare Lead Generation Takes A Giant Step
    Finding really good and scalable online lead generation opportunities for health care advertisers has long been a real challenge. Either the target audience was hard to find -- or the leads did not convert to par. But now comes a new platform that should define industry best practice in online performance-based advertising and lead generation.
  • IAB Lead Generation 'Best Practices': Helpful, But Not Exactly The Best Of Practices
    If you're a player in the online marketing space, you're well aware of the government and media attention focused on online lead generation providers that violate consumer privacy and trust. And, by now, you've seen the best practices recently released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Due to the misconduct of some online lead generation providers that has been brought to light in the past six months or so, I believe the IAB's best practices merely skim the surface of what the industry really needs.
  • The Lead Generation Industry's Little Lamb
    If the lead generation industry is like the Mary we read about in that childhood poem, then transparency is its little lamb. Wherever our industry went, transparency was sure to follow.
  • Think Beyond The Click
    Cost-per-click revolutionized the way marketers think about lead generation, campaign measurement and ROI. However, despite the Internet's promise as a commerce channel, the majority of consumers still transact offline. As a result, marketers are forced to prove value beyond simple click-throughs.
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