The Pontiflex CPL Blog

As we all head off from work to enjoy the long weekend, whether we’re escaping the city or sticking around, chances are, friends will be around. The 4th of July is one of the most social holidays of the year (all of the red, white and blue around must inspire just the right kind of beer drinking, hotdog eating, camaraderie).

And speaking of socializing.. Facebook recently announced new privacy features that will allow users to control what kind of information they share, and with whom. For example, instead of sharing the fact that you just ate an overpriced burger for lunch with every single person you’re Facebook friends with, you will soon have the option to just share that news with the few people who are truly invested in what you eat and how much you pay for it. (The NY Times has more details).

For anyone who supports user control (like those of us in CPL advertising), this is great news. Whether it’s choosing to opt in to receive marketing from brands or nonprofits you like, or choosing to share details of your weekend with a specific group of friends, the ability to decide how your information is shared is a very nice thing to have. It’s freeing, in a way – which, incidentally, is another reason why this post goes so well with the upcoming holiday.

Adweek’s recent article cites a study conducted by BabyCenter that found a significant increase in the percentage of moms who use social media. According to the research, 63% of moms report being active on social networks vs 11% in 2006. BabyCenter also found that community sites dedicated to moms are viewed as more trustworthy platforms for exchanging ideas and advice than more general social networks like Facebook.

Marketers who are looking to connect with moms are increasingly looking to transparent CPL advertising to build email databases and engage with moms in exactly this way. Using cost per lead marketing, advertisers target moms on relevant sites and only pay when they acquire the contact information of someone who is interested in a brand-specific product or offer. Through email, marketers then invite moms to join community sites and social platforms as a way to both interact with each other, and the brand.

A recent article by Edward Barrera on Adotas brings up the question of lead quality versus quantity. Edward rightfully points out that a marketer’s priority should not be simply to amass a frenzy of leads, but to spend resources on acquiring the right kinds of leads and converting them.

This article identifies one of the most important issues in lead generation and is another poignant example of the difference between sales leads and marketing leads. Sales leads are generic leads that can be sold to anyone – and are often times sold to multiple advertisers (think debt consolidation leads that include household income, FICO score, and zipcode). Sales leads do not reflect consumers’ preferences, nor do they indicate a high level of intent.

Marketing leads are brand-specific leads that include more detailed information such as first name, last name, and email address. They are collected on a strictly opt-in basis and are sold only once. They reflect a user’s interest in a specific brand, product, or service. And, because transparent CPL advertising allows marketers to pay only when they acquire new, valid sign-ups, marketers can now have it both ways: they can generate quality marketing leads at volume.

The pressure on eCPMs doesn’t appear to be lifting. Dollars are shifting as advertisers continue to prioritize ROI.  According to the IAB, performance-based media accounted for 57 percent of Internet advertising revenues in 2008 and is expected to increase significantly this year.

By including performance advertising within their existing site framework, publishers can easily alleviate the strain of price erosion and take advantage of market opportunities.

Read more in our latest article on Folio.com

As you might have read in AllThingsD this morning, Pontiflex has rolled out a new offering that allows marketers to capture Twitter usernames, along with other fields like name and email address, from within an ad banner. Pete Kafka, in one of the industry’s most insightful blogs All Things D, includes a clip of maybe the best Alec Baldwin performance to date (besides a few choice episodes of 30 Rock, a personal favorite). Luckily due to the Internet, closing on leads isn’t the sweaty, testosterone-laden, Glengarry Gary Ross, game anymore.

Sadly for the Hollywood screenwriter of sequels, the era of name, phone number, and FICO score, sold en masse to numerous mortgage companies is over. Instead marketers can now get marketing leads – leads that are unique to their brand and never resold. Marketing leads have basic contact information – First Name, last Name, Email address and Twitter username. Marketing leads aren’t for quick pinch cold calls; they’re for engagement.

As Pete points out, with the solution that Pontiflex announced today marketers can capture the Twitter username of a person and then get that person to follow them on Twitter. Re-marketing to leads is critical and can be done in a number of ways. Twitter is an important component of that puzzle.

A recent study by Forrester predicts that email marketing spending will grow from $1.2b in 2009 to $2b in 2014. The study also predicts that marketers will prioritize relevancy-empowering tactics to make sure that the money spent isn’t wasted due to erroneous blocking.

DIRECT’s Ken Magill digs into the research, calling to attention two very important points. (As you might recall, Ken also wrote a great article about the role of Pontiflex and CPL in building good email lists in March).

1. Marketers will continue to waste money ($114 million, to be exact) due to “inadequate list hygiene and mailing practices, as well as overzealous ISPs that lump good messages in with bad ones.”
2. The biggest growth area for e-mail spending between now and 2014 will be in transactional messaging (which is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 9.2%).

The key takeaways:

• Don’t rent or buy lists; build your own. CPL helps marketers grow healthy, clean lists in house.
• Communicate with lists in a timely manner. Using an auto-responder technology, you can integrate your front end and back end to follow up with your leads by email in real time. For more on best practices for designing auto-responders, see our previous post on the topic.

Earlier in my career, when asked what I did for a living, I would hedge by asking a question in return: “Do you like reading Internet content for free?”

The answer was always yes. And I would then, without having to explain impressions, clicks, or conversions, take credit for the entirety of their Internet experience by saying, “What I do makes that possible.”

Obnoxious, right? But also very true. Online advertising makes digital content (for the majority of websites) totally and unequivocally free for the consumer. The recent IAB report on the economic contribution of the online advertising industry, however, adds yet another dimension to what we do every day.

According to the study, the Internet directly contributes $175 billion to the US economy. While retail and payments to ISPs comprise the bulk of this revenue, over the past 7 years, advertising is the only source of funding that has increased substantially. Digital advertising not only makes content free, it makes accessing the Internet itself more affordable for people.

Add to that the fact that Cost per Lead advertising makes online marketing more affordable for advertisers and nonprofits trying to stay afloat in this economy, and I think I’ve got a better answer for the next time someone makes the mistake of asking what I do….

First the bad news: based on yesterday’s ClickZ article by Fred  Aun, the overall numbers for online ad spending show a decline in Q1 (from the same time period in 2008).

Now the good news: when you look more closely, like Forrester Research VP and Principal Analyst Shar VanBoskirk did, it’s clear that while CPM-banner ad adoption has decreased, spend on direct response interactive tools is increasing. Marketers want to see results – and they only want to pay for the kind of adverting that drives them.

Transparent Cost per Lead advertising represents exactly the kind of accountable, results-driven model that brand advertisers are looking for. Because advertisers pay only for leads who are interested in their brands, and know exactly where those leads are coming from, there’s no need to sacrifice brand for performance.

While it certainly helps that Cost per Lead advertising is one of the fastest growing segments in digital marketing,  dedicated entrepreneurs in all industries can get VC attention – even in this harsh environment. By picking the right target market, showing strong momentum, investing in the right team, and pushing past the naysayers, you can position yourself, and your company, for big rewards.

Read more in my latest blog post on Silicon Alley Insider.

My latest post in iMedia Connection deals how people can use performance marketing and social networking this summer to plant the seeds for a successful holiday season.

You can read it here.