While discussing the impact of social media, online marketing and corporate blogs with a group of marketing executives, I made this passing comment.

This sounds like an irrational statement -- especially coming from a direct marketer who makes a living making money by using accountable advertising

It amazes professional direct marketers that large numbers of companies still do not understand the back-end of sales. Both sales and marketing executives or their companies do not fully understand their customers and how they prefer to do business once leads are generated.

Clients seek greater targeting capability with their media buys. But what do direct marketers look for when creating more accurate predictive modeling that generates more revenue, more profitably than past efforts?

When discussing testing with one of my respected fellow direct marketers, I mentioned that companies really hire direct marketing consultants to advise them of what to test

After nearly 16 years of off and on consulting, the requirements for having fun and making a little money in the process revolves around one's credibility as a consultant.

This is not mine, but rather a question posed by a marketing leader of other CMOs and marketing executives throughout the US who are MENG members.

Have you ever taken on a marketing project you just couldn't get your hands around because nobody was clear on the objective or even what questions to ask?

Email marketing continues to grow unabated despite the down economy. Companies use email for retention, acquisition, PR and BtoB lead generation.