Posted by: Kelly Hall, Account Manager

When you start any lead generation or lead nurturing campaign, one of the biggest questions to answer is what you’ll offer your prospects. What you offer is very influential in how prospects will interact with your company. If you offer something requiring very little involvement, then you may wind up with a large volume of unqualified leads. However, if you offer something requiring a lot of involvement then you may wind up with a very small volume of leads – albeit more likely to be highly qualified. Using the purchase cycle, and your goals therein, can help to identify what offers to lead with.

How your lead generation campaign speaks to your prospects is entirely in your control. First, you need to identify the goal of your campaign. Are you just looking for people ready to buy? If so, your offer should align with Decision Phase needs.  Are you looking to educate your audience? Then an offer that assists with prospects in the Research Phase would be most appropriate.

Posted by: Christy Roth, Project Manager

Most marketers are in the same spot: do more with less money. As you’re facing this challenge, here are three things that you can do to improve the efficiency and results of your lead generation program:

#1 – Stay Visible Even in a Tough Economy
Through these tough times it is more important than ever to stay visible to prospects whether or not your competitors are doing the same. There are many cost-effective and even free opportunities to help us accomplish this. Use social media and social networking sites to your advantage. Even though it may be out of your comfort zone, consider being present on tools such as Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and more. In addition, if you are planning online media buys for 2009, work to negotiate tactics that include freebies such as e-newsletters and ad units. All of these things help keep you in front of potential leads.

Posted by: Kayla Wagner, Account Manager

The search engine landscape is always changing and will continue to do so in 2009. But rather than going with the latest and greatest, take the new year to focus on the basics first and then build on top of them. Is the base of your SEM program serving as a strong foundation?

1. Recalibrate your keywords in your SEO and paid search (or PPC advertising) programs to match your goals. Often we start with terms that we’re used to using internally at our companies. But is this what your prospects are using to search for you? And aren’t those prospects at various points in the purchase cycle, ranging from completely unaware to aware and ready to buy? Make sure your terms and phrases account for the various segments of your audience.

Here are a few resources to help you create your strategic keyword list:
-    Google’s Search-based Keyword Tool
-    SEO Book.com
-    Microsoft adCenter Labs Keyword Forecast

Posted by: Jenny Bachner, Media Specialist

The economy is looking down, and companies are feeling the pinch. When companies feel the pinch, they often consider slashing marketing budgets. For 2009, however, I’m holding steadfast in the marketing recommendations I’ve made to my clients. It’s not about marketing less – it’s about being smarter with the ways we spend.

One of the upsides to online media is that you can carefully measure results and track success. When every marketing dollar counts, it makes sense to invest in a marketing program that will deliver guaranteed results. In online lead generation campaigns, it’s important to keep the leads coming in and to use very specific criteria to qualify those leads as viable opportunities. And while some publications have been offering cost-per-lead (CPL) campaigns for ages, others are just beginning to warm up to the idea.

Cost-per-lead campaigns definitely run the gamut. A program can be as simple as purely paying for leads – which typically doesn’t guarantee the best quality – to the more modern day practice of targeting specific assets to a highly targeted audience. I prefer the latter.

Posted by: Megan Amick, Marketing Coordinator

As 2009 gets going, it’s certain marketers will have several challenges ahead, but on a more upbeat note, it’s a great time to look toward the future of interactive marketing. There are many predictions about whether the online advertising industry will see the growth it has in years past. It seems most projections point toward increased spending but at much lower growth rates than before.

So, what can we expect from the industry that doesn’t quit?

• More keyword inflation: As traditional advertising budgets shift to digital, competition will increase and advertisers will have to be sure their paid search (or pay-per-click advertising) campaigns are strategic and focused.
• Tracking conversions: To keep cost per acquisition (CPA) at a minimum, it’s time to focus on optimizing conversion rates for the highest possible ROI.
• Data privacy and security: The question of how to regulate privacy and keep online users protected will be further explored.
• Qualitative analytics: Knowing not only what your consumers did on your website but why they did it will give greater insight to user activity and increase your ROI.
• Mobile advertising: With the release of several mobile hardware devices from Apple, Google and Blackberry to name a few, more users will have online capabilities at their fingertips.