The most revolutionary aspect of Web marketing is perhaps its most as-yet-untapped one: the ability to measure consumer behavior and to deliver messages accordingly tailored to fit that behavior. The Web allows marketers to glean the type of information from consumers that makes more traditional marketers extremely jealous. By culling behavioral information during each phase of the consumer life cycle, we are able to target the right consumer with the right message at the right time, thereby securing response rates that far exceed campaigns in other mediums like print or television.

Think of consumer behavior patterns in terms of a ladder, each rung of which is made up of consumers at varying degrees of involvement with your brand. At the bottom rung is the general pool of consumers at large. Your customers are somewhere within this pool; your task is to dive in there and find them. On the second rung are the suspects-people who fall within certain demographics, psychographics or life-stages and therefore are likely targets for your offer. Suspects who have demonstrated a clear desire to learn more about your offering then become prospects. These are the hand-raisers, people who identify themselves by asking for more information. Prospects who have made a purchase become customers, and then the top rung of the ladder-the holy grail of marketing-consists of customers with whom you have developed such close relationships with that they become loyal brand advocates, a state in which your customers become advertisements themselves.

In this analogy, either brand- or direct-focused messages are more important depending on which rung consumers are standing. It is the combination of the two, however, that determines how far up the ladder they'll ascend.

For instance, brand advertising is more effective at the bottom rung of the ladder, where it is essential to build awareness and establish perceptions. Direct response tactics must then take over during the suspect and prospect phases, in which the user needs to be given incentive to take action. Direct gives way to brand again in order to transition a user from a customer to loyal brand advocacy. But in all cases, elements of both brand and direct must be used in each message.

Using the combination appropriately will greatly improve your customer acquisition and retention rates and thereby maximize the return on your marketing investment.