When you're a technology marketer selling to tech-savvy people, it's easy to make assumptions about your audience that ultimately can undermine the success of your campaign.

For example: when you drive prospects to the Web, and especially as part of an online program - a banner ad say, or an e-mail campaign - it's tempting to assume that prospects will think nothing of downloading the information, software, collateral or whatever it was that caused them to respond in the first place. This is a dangerous premise.

Case in point: recently, we launched a series of broadcast e-mail campaigns and e-mail newsletter ads for a software company that develops navigation tools for Web developers. The offer was an information kit that included a white paper, case studies and product information. Once at the landing page, respondents had the choice to either download the information immediately in PDF form, or request a hard copy be mailed to them. It would be tempting to assume in this instance that:

• the prospects are already online anyway
• they're used to downloading information
• they probably have a high-speed connection

The lesson is that no matter how technical or Web-friendly, human beings will always choose the simplest path from A to B. While downloading a white paper or free trial software may not seem like a huge imposition, the success of your campaign depends on how easy you make it to respond. If your reader hesitates, even for a second, to wonder whether it's worth the effort, you'll lose him.

Conclusion: always provide a hard copy option. If you limit the options to download only, you may end up losing a good portion of your potential response.