Since 2000, an increasing number of sales organizations have been shifting their direct marketing budgets into the online channel. The internet allows for the development of an extremely targeted lead generation campaign offering geographic, demographic, and contextual targeting services.

Although the online channel is growing extremely rapidly, with search marketing and pay per click (PPC) advertising commanding the bulk of advertisers' online budgets, the demand for highly skilled search marketers remains high. Similarly, a number of software tools (such as bid management software) have emerged, allowing individual search marketers to more efficiently manage their paid search campaigns.

Lead acquisition is one of the most critical activities within the lead generation process. Identifying or attracting a prospective candidate is an expensive and complex task, which becomes even more so if you do not have mechanisms to capture that information for action. The lead acquisition process can take several forms:

1. Business card
   
   
2. Participant scanner
   
   
3. Inquiry card
   
   
4. Inbound telephone
   
   
5. Email
   
   
6. Web form