During the third installment of the online marketing Podcast series, hosted by Rich Tehrani (CEO, TMC) and Peter Radizeski (RAD-INFO, Inc.), the topic du jour was online lead generation and advertising: Two interrelated but very different battles marketers must fight day-in and day-out .

You can listen to the complete Podcast here, which features insights on how marketers aren’t spending enough time, or budget, on proper branding initiative, even though it’s one of the most important things a company can invest in. By building trust with your target audience, your sales efforts will see radical improvement as people don’t buy from companies they don’t trust.

Consistency is another vital component of online marketing and lead gen discussed during the Podcast, and also covered by TMCnet Managing Editor Juliana Kenny in a recent article about the event.

It all comes down to making your content, and your brand, valuable to your target audience, and giving them enough to build trust in you so that when they’re ready to buy, they’ll come to you.

How are you positioning your online lead gen and advertising/branding efforts for 2012? Join the conversation @connectincloud.