One of the aspects of online marketing that makes it so fantastically alluring to even the most frugal of e-commerce advertisers is its, shall we say, accountability. Any serious online marketer can tell you what your "return" was on that $1,000 you spent in online advertising yesterday, usually calculated as an A/S Ratio percentage. This is partially what makes online marketing such an attractive recessionary marketing channel for advertisers in many different verticals. And while this accountability of a dollar-spent-to-dollar-gained ratio certainly makes online advertising the Rocky Balboa of the marketing channel boxing ring, a simple A/S Ratio calculation can …

Five years ago, cost per lead was an emerging high-ROI solution for many B2C and B2B marketers. Qualified leads derived from online offers significantly reduced new customer acquisition costs, provided marketers followed up appropriately. In those early days of online lead gen, any ongoing communication -- targeted or not -- usually meant great returns. With 2009's constrained marketing resources, simply generating leads with "one size fits all" follow-up is not enough. Today, companies don't just need leads -- they need sales. And they need them fast. But when budgets and follow-up personnel are limited, conversion is limited as well.

In today's hyper-competitive Web-o-sphere, it has become increasingly challenging to dominate a target market in any niche. Integrating fundamental search engine optimization strategies will touch every part of your site's key performance indicators: organic, referral and direct load traffic, page views, time spent on the site, conversion rates and -- naturally -- sales.

Given the current economic climate, it's no surprise the marketing world is abuzz with talk of maximizing results for every campaign. For lead generation marketers, that means an even stronger focus on delivering quality leads. The secret lies in the art of optimization.