Jere Doyle

Once, marketers didn't worry about media fragmentation in their marketing plans. Having only limited means to reach consumers made it easier to determine which form of media best fit their target audience. But with the array of new media now available, marketers can find their task overwhelming.

I recently moderated a panel discussion at the September Online Media, Marketing and Advertisement (OMMA) conference that took on the thorny issue of best practices for the online lead generation industry — or lack thereof, to be more accurate. The panelists discussed the current scrutiny plaguing the industry regarding questionable practices by some online lead generation providers, including the third party sharing of consumer data and questionable use of incentives to drive the registration process. Such practices mean more consumers are getting bombarded by unsolicited and irrelevant e-mail.