Recently, WhitePages.com decided to survey consumers about what methods of communication they prefer, how they use it and why. Our goal was to really understand the psychology of making contact. We understand very well who our customers are but we don’t really understand motivation all the time. I won’t lie to you and say that we did the survey for the greater benefit of the advertising industry. We did the survey because we wanted to learn more about the people who search on our site so we can develop new ways to slice and dice the data so we can offer advertisers more options for targeting. All kidding aside, the results from the survey were actually quite surprising and I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of that interesting data with you.

We asked nearly 2,400 Internet users two questions regarding how they like to communicate with others, as it relates to several different types of situations. Despite the fact that our culture is becoming more addicted to electronic forms of communication like text messaging and email we were really surprised to find out that when it comes to delivering bad news most people prefer to have discussions face to face.

For example, 82 percent of those surveyed said they prefer to apologize or admit error in person. The numbers are just as high for delivering negative news (you’re fired!) or letting someone know that you are angry with him or her. This makes perfect sense right? A face to face conversation is probably the best way to go if you are going to give someone the boot from their job or let them know they did something to make you mad.

Compare that to the 89 percent of survey respondents who prefer breaking up with someone face to face. This, I have a hard time believing. Generally speaking, breaking up with someone can be a scary task and I am really surprised that many people would prefer to dump someone in person. Even Britney Spears was too chicken to dump K-Fed face to face. He received the news via text. (The fact that the YouTube video of the whole thing has been viewed more than 300,000 times is a topic for another day.) I’ve had my share of breakups in the past and I’m not at all ashamed to admit that I once dumped a junior high boyfriend with a letter and a bag of M&Ms —the early 1990′s equivalent to the text message.

Speaking of old boyfriends, have you ever wondered what an old flame has been up to? What happens when you find out and want to contact them to say “hi” or more importantly, brag about how much bigger/better/faster/richer/cuter you or your job/spouse/car/kids are? A little over 30 percent of the people in our survey said they would prefer to reconnect with an email. This is only slightly more than those who prefer to reconnect by telephone and in-person. Surprisingly, 19 percent of survey respondents actually prefer to send a letter in the mail.

I can agree with this one. Email has become such an integrated part of our daily existence it almost seems natural to prefer making contact in an email, especially if you have been out of touch for a number of years. Just like with ending a relationship, rekindling a relationship can be a scary thing, and it’s much easier to take rejection if it comes in the form of a no-reply versus laughter from the other end of the phone.

Finally, because we did pay for this survey, we had to ask at least one meaningful question that would give us data we could directly tie back to our business. We wanted to know what types of personal information people are most comfortable revealing on the Internet. Once again the answer was not what I expected. Perhaps it is because I am a woman, but I am shocked to see that 71 percent of survey respondents would be comfortable revealing their age. On the other hand, it bodes well for sites like ours that people don’t mind sharing their age. It is always our goal to ensure that consumers find the right person and that they find them quickly. If we included age data with each listing, someone could probably identify the correct person much quicker than if it weren’t included. Despite my commitment to keep this article behavioral targeting free, the wheels in my head are spinning as I try to figure out how we can slice this data into relevant information that can help us give marketers more behavioral targeting options!

The Psychology of Making Contact has given me the opportunity to look at things from a different angle for a change. I am so focused on running the business on a day to day basis, it is nice every once and a while to take a different perspective on the business and have a little fun with it.

I’ve got a secret to share and it might surprise you: Mobile marketing is not as difficult as it sounds. Seriously, it isn’t that complicated and if you bear with me for a few minutes I will explain why.

I don’t have to tell you that mobile is a hot topic in the interactive advertising world these days. It seems like everywhere you turn, there’s talk about mobile marketing. But for all the hype, I was genuinely surprised that the mobile marketing sessions at ad:tech NY left me even more confused than I when I first went in. The single most important thing I learned during that conference was that there is a lot more dialogue that needs to be had before everyone is on the same page and fully understands all of the options of mobile marketing.

Maybe it is what grabs headlines, but most of what I hear about mobile marketing seems really daunting and scary. “You need to work with carriers, handset makers, watch the permissions and get a short code!” are all the things I heard in Mobile 101. Even to me as a mobile search provider, that seemed like a tall order to fulfill. I can’t imagine what a media buyer must think. Especially when most of them don’t have the time or resources to figure it all out.

To be fair, media planners and buyers need to be risk averse at times, and new advertising platforms are tough to pitch to clients who look to online for somewhat predictable and measurable results. When WhitePages.com conducted its own informal survey of media planners and buyers at ad:tech NY, we learned that mobile marketing is nearly at the bottom of our respondent’s list of marketing tactics to test in 2007, and that mobile marketing’s special place in the mix is yet to be defined: is it good for driving online sales? Offline store visits? Branding? Nobody really knows—yet.

However, what irked me more about the mobile marketing sessions at ad:tech was the failure to mention that there is a huge, relatively easy to execute opportunity to buy banner and text advertising on popular mobile sites. By this I mean WAP-enabled Websites that are operated by publishers like WhitePages.com, USA Today, and the New York Times. Because these sites are independent of carriers, or “off-deck” there is no worrying about permissions, carriers and handset makers, as we already have permission from the users. Executing a marketing campaign on a mobile site can be as simple and uncomplicated as executing a marketing campaign on a regular Website. At WhitePages.com we’ll even design and build WAP-enabled campaign landing pages and re-size our client’s creative to ensure they appear correctly on all devices and browsers. We want to make buying mobile as simple as possible, especially given the current landscape.

Here is something I bet you didn’t know: Research from Enpocket showed that a majority of mobile users between the ages of 16 and 44 find advertising on mobile Internet sites acceptable. A recent Forrester report stated that when mobile advertising is done right, which means among other things that it is relevant to the consumer, response rates are high, and consumer engagement is increased.

According to WhitePages.com’s internal study to learn about consumer’s mobile habits and perceptions, study participants told us that they use their mobile devices for three main purposes: Web searches, email and making phone calls. The typical lookup for someone using their mobile device to search the web are local business listings, like restaurant phone numbers and hours, maps and directions and news and sports headlines. Most people use their mobile devices for lookups several times a week some even do it several times a day. Given what I heard at ad:tech, you would think that the major carrier decks were the most popular sites for these activities, but you would be wrong. What you see users doing on the Web, is mirrored in mobile, with popular sites including Google, Yahoo! Mapquest and White and Yellow Pages sites.

So what does this mean? It means that there is a huge untapped mobile advertising market out there, just waiting for marketers to leverage. As mobile advertising gains more of a foothold and myths and misconceptions are put to rest, I hope marketers will reconsider and think of mobile as another solution for driving sales whether it is online or offline. I know that I can’t wait for the day that mobile becomes a standard part of any marketing campaign. Like the hundreds of other publishers out there, we are chomping at the bit and ready to execute. Just say the word.

Maybe not as engaging as your favorite appointment TV, but interesting nonetheless, are the once-a-year TV upfronts. You know what I’m talking about. The one time each year when the networks trot out their biggest stars, hype their new programming and sell advertising before anyone has had the chance to see the finished product.

This summer, I eagerly read about the venerated TV upfront and the impact digital media has had on early sales and overall marketing budgets. As we all know, upfront sales are not what the networks hoped for as varying percentages of TV marketing budgets are being reallocated to online media.

Personally, I am excited about this shift because it means that online advertising is finally being taken seriously. On the other hand, I feel a bit of trepidation because it means we have to rise to the challenge and make very few mistakes. The pressure to deliver a positive ROI is even greater when the advertiser is brand new to online.

The online advertising industry has been expecting this news for years and I had to ask myself again why we care so much since we know that marketers don’t like the upfront buy. It might not have started that way, but over the years, over-zealous networks have left marketers feeling a bit bullied and vulnerable, and they were happy to have a good reason to reduce their participation.

So knowing that, why would we want to be in this position? We’d love for media buyers to plan a year ahead. In the online world, sometimes we’re lucky to get one week’s notice, so naturally, we’re jealous. There’s also nothing bad to be said about having a structured opportunity to talk to all of your clients on a regular basis.

So why isn’t this the best problem online publishers have ever had? It’s simple. Like most large sites, we’ve been selling out of premium inventory since the beginning, but now we’re facing shortages even of our least targeted, least costly run-of-site inventory. Because online marketing works so well we’re now faced with the problem of it working too well. Theoretically this would be a great problem to have. Simply raise rates across the board and assume that the market will bear the cost.

So why the concern? If we raise our rates whenever we need to in reaction to previously oversold months or quarters, we risk damaging great relationships with our long-time advertising partners, without any real guarantee that other buyers will pay the new prices and fill any possible shortfalls. That’s a big gamble for a publisher to take, but for now we don’t really have other options if we want to guarantee full delivery for all of our campaigns, which we do.

Periodic rate-raising creates an unpredictable marketplace for media buyers and publishers alike. Media buyers can’t put a site in their media plan and build useful ROI models if their top performing, larger publishers are constantly shifting rates upward, and publishers can’t assume that buyers will be willing to pay their new rates just because they’re selling out. It’s a no-win situation.

The art of negotiation is what makes the advertising world go round. Media buyers want to the best results for their client and publishers want to give it to you: for the right price of course. Being able to find the solution that works for both sides takes testing and it takes negotiation. With that said, in the end your publisher wants your campaign to succeed because they value your business above all, and they want your renewal.

Great customer service is a hallmark of a great online publisher. To stand out among publishers in this complex online media world, advertiser and ad agency support needs to be a publisher’s number one priority, particularly after the insertion order is signed.

Publishers must be proactive to earn your business and to keep it, so don’t be afraid to ask for services that go above and beyond the standard campaign reporting and optimization tasks.

To get you started, I’ll let you in on a secret. Here are a few additional services you should know that most publishers will provide, if you ask:

1. Campaign impact research initiatives
Publishers will happily bear the cost of brand impact studies on their sites if they can share the results publicly.

2. Create a great case study
Publishers love a good case study, but advertisers aren’t always necessarily thrilled about informing competitors of their strategy. However, for some advertisers the reward can far outweigh the risk. Agencies can ask publishers to document a campaign’s success for their future new business efforts. Marketers get the free press. Think of the recruiting potential. It’s all good, and publishers are happy to do the work to make it happen.

3. Creative re-sizing
Ask a trusted publisher if they can help you re-size creative. You will be amazed how quickly the creative teams on the publisher side can turn these types of tasks around at no cost to you or your client.

4. Creative “localization” for geo-targeted campaigns
It is no secret creative tends to work better when it is customized to the user’s experience. Publishers have creative teams and dynamic localization technologies that you can, and should, take advantage of—it will save you and your client time and money.

5. Custom creative concepts
Publishers are always happy to create unique creative concepts for you or your clients. You’d be surprised by the great ideas that come from publishers, and they are more than happy to let you play the superstar. We won’t tell if you won’t.

6. Joint public relations and event hosting
Publishers have marketing budgets, too. If a campaign goes well, or a new targeting technology test yields good results, let the publisher pay for PR. The only thing we ask is that you let us put your name on it. Publishers promote their successes no matter what, so why not take advantage of the free publicity?

7. Industry insights and trends
If something is happening in our niche, in your industry, or in your client’s industry, we are happy to send you a note to keep you informed. We keep track of the news, helping you stay ahead of the trends. Sometimes your publisher has access to information and resources that you don’t.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, I trust you will take this info to heart and work your publishers for every last benefit you can. Just don’t tell anyone I spilled the beans! Seriously, I encourage media buyers and publishers to keep the dialogue going. The key to getting the most out of your relationship with your publisher is to ask. You may be surprised at the answer you receive.

In other words, I’m thinking about behavioral targeting.

It is a well known marketing truism that major purchase decisions tend to happen when life happens. Marketers know this, so they attempt to reach people who are in the process of undergoing a major life event. This allows them to capture the attention of a consumer precisely when their need is greatest.

While it all sounds easy enough, the fact is, it is not a simple task to find people in a particular life stage. As a result, online media spends tend to go to demographically targeted banner ads, keyword search, or sponsorships on niche sites like legal and medical advice sites. These types of spends approximate life-stage targeting by using age groupings, not search related keywords or category terms.

These strategies work, but the challenge comes when the media plan needs to be scaled and the inventory just is not available. There is good news, however. Recent online audience research by Nielsen NetRatings indicates that there may be a new way to reach people in the throes of major life events by using search-based behavioral targeting.

According to Nielsen, WhitePages.com search-based behavioral targeting segments appear to cluster into traditional life stage demographic groupings. For example, people who have recently searched in the automotive category are four times more likely to be in the “new family” life-stage. Something you may not consider surprising since people tend to have a baby first, and then decide to purchase a new ‘family friendly’ automobile like a minivan. But when you realize the strong correlation between the two, you suddenly have a very powerful piece of information.

Using the auto manufacturer as an example, you can translate the nuggets of information like search keywords ‘baby furniture’ or ‘toy store,’ and make a reasonable assumption that the consumer is expecting to be a parent sometime soon if they aren’t already. Knowing this, the auto manufacturer can more effectively place a highly relevant ad targeted specifically at this customer.

Understanding the relationship between search behavior and life stage clusters provides high-consideration consumer product marketers a new, high-reach method for finding people in a particular life-stage. Knowing that the people they are reaching in an auto segment are more likely to be in the “new family” life-stage, insurance companies might consider advertising both auto and life insurance products. This allows them to stretch their media dollars further by reaching people actively in need of auto insurance as well as people who could, and arguably should be considering increasing or revising their life insurance policies.

Vertical search sites are unique in that the ability to identify customers in life-stages can be easily inferred from a simple keyword or category search. Of course, audiences vary depending on the vertical site, but if we know that people searching within particular product categories are more likely to be in the same life-stage, the obvious next step is to turn the model upside down by creating “life stage” behavioral targeting segments that group all search categories correlating to that particular life-stage.

A “new family” segment would combine people searching for autos, moving companies, insurance or wedding services. All of these categories are strongly correlated with Nielsen NetRatings’ “new family” life-stage. By identifying a life-stage segment, vertical search sites can enable advertisers to reach people while they are in the directly relevant search category, or “in-market,” as well as all of the other life-stage correlated categories or “in the market soon enough.”

As more dollars shift online, the landscape will become more competitive. Marketers should be on the lookout for unique opportunities to reach relevant audiences in the most effective and efficient way. By leveraging the power of life-stage behavioral targeting via vertical search, a marketer can more precisely reach the right audience, at the right time, generating real, measurable results.

All these years later, I never imagined the basic principles I learned in that sociology class would apply directly to how we market today. It is only now that I realize how powerful the understanding of human intent can be.

Almost eight years later, behavioral targeting is still a popular concept that’s finally beginning to come into its own. The challenge was extending the reach once the users left the relevant section of the Site. Thanks to technological improvements, we can now harness users navigating through other sections of our Site and leverage it for marketers looking to achieve maximum impact with their target audience.

Another innovative way that behavioral targeting has grown is through harnessing user intent. We should distinguish and understand the difference between intent and subject interest. A web search is often times the first step in a consumer’s search for product information. A directory assistance search on the other hand, in almost all cases demonstrates intent by the consumer to make a purchase decision.

Independent research firm Knowledge Networks/Statistical Research Inc (KN/SRI) published a study that suggests a majority of consumers who search business listings are doing so because they intend to make a purchase in the very near future. For marketers, the knowledge that a consumer intends to make a purchase in 30, 60 or 90 days is a powerful combination, and it is unique to online directory assistance.

Online directory assistance searches also give marketers a wealth of information that can be used to enhance and refine an ad campaign. The layering in of valuable demographic information like gender, age or geographic information and even whether the person is searching from work or from home can increase a marketer’s chances that an ad is reaching the right consumer at just the right time.

Take the auto industry for example. A large part of the ad budget spent in this industry happens at the local level because people buy new vehicles from their local dealership. If Toyota knew when a female consumer living in Seattle searched for a Honda dealer in her area, they could target an ad for the Sienna minivan to this consumer, grabbing her attention, instigating a similar search for Toyota dealers in her geographical area, or better yet, a click through to the ad.

Toyota assumes that the consumer is close to making a purchase of a new automobile and because she is a female, they may infer she is looking for a family car and that passenger safety is an important concern. In this case, Toyota could take the information acquired from this customers directory assistance search query and use it to their advantage by serving up a relevant ad at a point where the consumer was still uncommitted to a particular brand.

Research by comScore also tells us that consumers searching online directory assistance are often times reacting to a life changing event like planning a wedding or the purchase of a new home. By evaluating the most popular business categories searched for in any given month, we can gain insight into why people are using online directory assistance.

If those categories included restaurants, hospitals, doctors, churches and schools, you could assume these consumers are new to the neighborhood because anyone who has lived or worked somewhere for any length of time would already know where the closest services are located. Advertisers like Lowes could use this information to serve a relevant ad to a potential new home buyer. When you add in demographic information and geographic information, Lowes can further refine the ad to meet the needs of that particular consumer.

As a marketer your goal is to build brand awareness. Being able to reach a specific audience at a key time can make all the difference in the world when it comes to measuring success. Online directory assistance sites provide a wealth of simple behavioral information that can be leveraged and turned into a successful advertising campaign with real results. For the consumer, this means they will continue to visit online directory assistance sites for local searches because they are being served ads that are of interest to them. For the marketer, this means less money wasted because ads are reaching the right audience at the right time.