Podcasting and blogging are among the most effective marketing tools for generating technology sales leads, according to a new survey.

Among the offer that are "very effective" for generating high-quality leads, according to business technology marketing executives surveyed (pdf summary) by Marketing Sherpa, are blogs and podcasts - the fourth and fifth most popular tools cited, respectively, reports Podcasting News (via Micro Persuasion).

Some 35 percent of software and ASP marketers rated their corporate blog as very effective, as did 33 percent of technology services firms, but only 19 percent of hardware companies said so. that a corporate blog was effective.

Some 22 percent of software marketers consider podcasts "very effective" lead-generation tools. Free trials were cited most by the surveyed marketers, followed by webcasts and white papers.