Advertising, blogging, and content are just the beginning of the marketing ABC’s.

There are so many more lead generation tactics that can be leveraged to ensure that your business is optimized for success. 

In this guide, we’ll cover every marketing tactic your business should be using, from general to specific, from old-school to cutting-edge. If we’ve left out any of your go-to marketing moves, shoot us a tweet @nutshell.  

The digital landscape is ever-evolving, and your business should be too, by regularly implementing new marketing tactics. In this complete guide, we cover every marketing tactic your business should be using, from general to specific, from original to unheard of, so buckle in, your business is about to be upgraded. 

Skip ahead:

SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important lead generation tactics you can use for your business online. By optimizing your website for specific keywords and creating content around common questions, buyers will be able to find you when they’re ready to do business.

SEO is important when you are trying to harness the 75,000 Google searches that occur every second. You can’t just half-heartedly optimize though, because according to a study by Databox 67% of all clicks go to the first five organic results. Imagine how much business you could be getting, with those 75,000 searches, and from that 67% of clicks, if you could get your business to rank in the top five search results. 

Related: What is SEO content writing?

SEO has begun to shift, favoring local results, rather than nationally ranked content. This is good for small businesses who find SEO to be intimidating because their pages have to rank against large, national corporations. You might not be able to rank nationally for “donuts” but you have a good shot at ranking locally for “donuts in Springfield, Virginia” or “donuts near me.”

Your content needs to draw attention and clicks on search engine results pages with an eye-catching title and effective metadata so that you’re able to draw attention and clicks when you show up on SERPs.  

To set up your business for success, you need to optimize your title and metadata, complete keyword research, use those keywords throughout your content, and enhance your technical SEO. Technical SEO is a bit different from normal SEO, it has nothing to do with content but rather optimizes the infrastructure of your website for the web crawlers that index sites. 

Original research studies and reports 

One effective way to attract consumer attention (not to mention inbound links) is to publish original research studies on topics that are of value to your industry.

Your original research can take many forms, including surveys, focus groups, observations, and test marketing. The idea is to consistently create authoritative content that promotes your brand as leading experts in your field.

Two ways to collect the information necessary to publish an original research study are surveys and focus groups. Let’s dig into them a little further…

Surveys 

There are several methods of conducting surveys including by mail, over email, on the phone, online, or in-person. 

Your survey must be engaging because American adults are estimated to receive billions of survey requests each year. Consider how often you are emailed about providing feedback on a product, service, business, or issue. What survey requests stand out to you and why?

Make your surveys short, include components that raise the recipient's interest like including exciting questions or being on a topic they are interested in, and give some kind of reward to increase participation. Of course, the reward in no way should encourage people to skew their responses.

Postal surveys tend to have low participation. Telephone surveys garner slightly more replies but answers are generally less informative. Online surveys have high and quick response rates and garner the most detailed responses.

Focus groups

Focus groups require you to gather a small group of individuals together who represent a specific market. They tend to explore consumer preferences and opinions through short answer or close-ended questions, supplying qualitative data on a subject.

Through focus groups, you can gain insight into a certain demographic. However, you should take responses with a grain of salt, recognizing that it is a small group representing a larger demographic. Nevertheless, this is an excellent research study method that is frequently used in the marketing industry.

Video content

Videos are the future of marketing, overtaking blogs and infographics as the most common type of content marketing. That’s because videos get results. 87% of video marketers assert their videos have increased traffic to their website, and 80% of video marketers claim their videos have directly increased sales. 

Videos work. So, how should you create videos to represent your brand?

Optimal video lengths per platform

• Instagram: 26-60 Seconds
• Twitter: < 30 seconds
• Facebook: < 2 Minutes
• YouTube: ~ 2 Minutes

Keeping your videos at these lengths will lead to more consumers watching them all the way through. Keep in mind that you need high audience retention for your video to stay high in the rankings, attracting more consumer attention.

Optimized video content

Your focus shouldn’t just be on optimizing your video’s length, you should also work on optimizing your video’s content. The key to creating good content is including information that is valuable to consumers.

48% of consumers said they prefer company videos to include coverage of specific products and services. This coverage could be reviews, instructional videos, or in-depth informational sessions about the products and services. 95% of video marketers said that they felt like their video content increased their consumer’s understanding of their products.

43% of consumers want interactive videos. They want to be a part of the decision process in what content is being created and want to be able to access the information they want to view when they want to view it. Anticipate what questions consumers will have about your products and services and make video content that addresses those queries.

Effective blog content

Blogs are an important part of the holy trinity of content marketing, being one of the most effective ways to lead consumers to your site. They are so effective because large numbers of people read them, with 77% of internet users reading blogs on a regular basis, making it one of the most popular activities on the internet. 

Not all bogs are created equal though, there are certain things you can do to set your blog apart from the competition. 

Use listicles

Let’s face it, we don’t have the attention spans that we used to. Listicles are easy to skim, making them easy to comprehend, so they appeal to the blog-reading public. In fact, they are twice as popular as other blog forms, receiving 2x more shares than other blog posts 

Update old content

Don’t allow your content to languish on the back end of your blog. Regularly update it so you can fully utilize its marketing potential. 51% of companies say updating old content has proven to be one of their most efficient marketing tactics. 

Use images

Images not only make a blog more visually appealing, they effectively engage viewers and keep them reading. Blog articles with images get 94% more views than those without.  

Social media

Social media allows you to engage with consumers on a platform they feel comfortable with, organically creating a brand presence for your business. Social media is no longer optional. If you are serious about growing your business, you need to get on it.

Facebook is an excellent choice because so many people in a wide range of demographics use it. Facebook is unique in that it’s the social media platform that reaches the most older people, with 70% of adults in the US having Facebook profiles. Not only are people using Facebook, it is also genuinely impacting them, with 43% of US adults choosing to get their news from the site. 

For B2B marketers, the most popular social media platform is LinkedIn with 80% of B2B social media leads coming through the site. This means that it is imperative for B2B businesses to be using LinkedIn, producing content, creating events, and making connections through it.

However, not to be overlooked, the social media platform with the highest ROI overall is Twitter, with Instagram coming in second. Twitter and Instagram are also excellent sites for business-to-customer interactions and for building your business’s brand.

Live broadcasts

Live videos are a new marketing tactic on the rise, to the point that in a recent survey they ranked as the third most-used social media marketing tactic. It’s low-cost, doesn’t require a lot of time, reaches a broad audience, and supplies an opportunity for genuine interactions between consumers and companies. 

There are so many platforms to choose from when it comes to live videos. You can either do Instagram Live, Facebook Live, LinkedIn Live, or Twitter Live. To decide which platform you want to use consider the time limit you are working with and the audience you want to reach. 

Facebook live

Facebook Live videos receive 3x the user interactions of normal Facebook videos. Your video can last for up to four hours, so it’s great for longer events, and you can see reactions and comments while you stream. After you are done recording, the full video is added to your page. 

Instagram live

Instagram Live is great if you are trying to reach a younger audience. The live session you record is accessible for 24 hours by followers appearing at the top of their news feed. You can record a video that lasts for up to one hour. 

LinkedIn live

LinkedIn Live videos receive 7x more reactions and 24x more comments than native videos by the same broadcasters. To use LinkedIn Live, you have to register with one of the third party streaming tools that they partner with. This platform is great for accessing professionals with business and career-related content. 

Twitter live

Twitter live uses Periscope to broadcast real-time events to anyone who follows your feed. Periscope is the premiere live video platform with over 110 years of live videos streamed on the site every day. The live application has been used for brand-building and news in particular. 

Referral programs

An excellent way for your business to establish credibility and build brand awareness is through referral programs. The most trusted information source for consumers is recommendations from people they know. 

After all, 20-50% of purchasing decisions are impacted by word of mouth endorsements. B2B companies that have referral programs have a 70% higher conversion rate and report closing 69% faster. 

How to use referrals

Using referrals, you can leverage existing customers to gain new customers. Consider creating a referral incentive program that encourages existing customers to bring in new ones for benefits from your business.

Reshare and generally promote any content produced by consumers that advocates for your brand. This will not only advance your brand, but it will also encourage other customers to make positive content about you.