Direct response TV marketers are famous for being very, very savvy with their budgets. They know exactly how many Time/Life book sets, Thigh Masters or Ginsu Knives they can expect for every commercial. Unfortunately, this same savvy is actually holding them back in the Internet age. Dana Hill, Senior Campaign Manager at agency Frederiksen Group explains, "Old school DRTV people know exactly how much every order phone call costs them. They have this fear of spending the extra dollar it would cost them for the operator to ask for an email address and get each and every letter correct. So you have to make a pretty interesting pitch to convince them to do it."

It's Hill's job to make this pitch and convince clients to add an email component to their campaign. How does she do it? Hill says, "I point out that the cost to resell to a customer on a phone call is very expensive. Email is so much cheaper than telemarketing. I explain how they can use each name to cross-sell and up-sell through email. If they only have one product it's harder, but if it's a long term thing like a continuity club or Home Shopping Network, they begin to realize they can make more money down the line with the medium."