Online marketing firms moving into lead generation business

• The mantra "it's just another channel" that rolled off the tongues of many list professionals when discussing e-mail and the Internet during the dot-com bust has returned amid the buzz about online lead generation and search engine marketing, according to several list firms.
• While there he moved from sales to product management to launching the firm's online marketing efforts.
• Though Young joined Millard in October to develop customer acquisition and revenue generation opportunities in the online channel, Millard launched its interactive division in 1999.
• Most traditional list brokerage and management firms have been involved in e-mail list management and brokerage and other Web marketing for years, but their online lead generation efforts seem on the upswing amid all the hype about search engine marketing.
• "We're not moving into the lead generation space because we are giving up on the traditional lists, but because we can do it well for our clients and it complements what we already do," said Michael Cohen, general manager of brokerage for Walter Karl Interactive, a division of Walter Karl, a Donnelley Marketing Co., Pearl River, NY.
• "It's a case of a company keeping an eye on what their clients want and moving in that direction as a natural progression to offer products that grow out of our core competencies, which are databases and leveraging lifetime value," Cohen said.
• Direct Media launched subsidiary interactive division DirectMedia.com in 2000, but rolled it back into the organization the next year.
• A typical cataloger sees 30 percent to 50 percent of its transactions online, he said, but a good portion of that business is generated through a postal campaign.
• Among the online lead generation services these firms offer are e-mail, banner advertising, co-registration, affinity marketing, strategic partnerships, performance-based opportunities and search engine marketing.