10 Marketing Strategies to generate more leads (and how to use them)

Content Marketing Strategy

A content marketing strategy is a plan for creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. It involves the use of a content calendar to plan, execute, and publish various types of content that support the overall marketing goals. A content calendar is a schedule that helps marketers keep track of the status, stakeholders, audiences, and final publish link for each piece of content. It is often organised by month and may include a variety of content types such as blog articles, videos, product webpages, and more. An editorial calendar is similar to a content calendar, but typically focuses specifically on content that will be published in a media outlet, such as a newspaper or magazine.

Here are a few examples of a content marketing strategy:

1. Developing an editorial calendar (tip – you can skip to end if you’re in a hurry) which outlines the topics and themes you will cover in your content over a specific period of time (e.g., a month, a quarter). This calendar can include a mix of blog posts, social media updates, email newsletters, and other types of content.

2. Identifying the types of content that will be most effective for achieving your marketing goals. For example, if you want to increase brand awareness, you may want to focus on creating videos and infographics that are visually appealing and easy to share.

3. Creating personas for your target audience, which can help you understand their needs and preferences. This will allow you to create content that speaks directly to these individuals and addresses their pain points.

4. Establishing a distribution plan to ensure that your content reaches as many people as possible. This can involve sharing your content on your own website and social media channels, as well as leveraging third-party websites and influencers to help spread the word.

5. Setting up analytics tracking to measure the success of your content marketing efforts. This can include tracking metrics such as website traffic, conversions, and engagement on social media. Not only would Google Analytics be essential but you should also be tracking your search terms and pages on Google Console.

Blogging Marketing Strategy

A blogging marketing strategy is a plan for using your blog to promote and market your business or organization. 

There are many different tactics that you can use as part of your blogging marketing strategy, but some common ones include:

1. Creating valuable, informative content that resonates with your target audience
2. Promoting your blog posts on social media and other channels
3. Using email marketing to promote your blog and engage with subscribers
4. Optimising your blog for search engines so that it ranks well in search results
5. Collaborating with other bloggers and influencers to promote your blog and reach a wider audience

To develop a successful blogging marketing strategy, it’s important to first identify your goals and target audience. From there, you can brainstorm ideas for content that will be useful and interesting to your audience, and come up with a plan for promoting and distributing that content. As you implement your strategy, be sure to track your progress and adjust your tactics as needed to ensure that you’re meeting your goals.

Video Marketing Strategy

A video marketing strategy is a plan for using video content to achieve specific business goals. These goals could include things like increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or promoting a product or service. To create a video marketing strategy, you will need to identify your target audience, define your goals, and determine which types of videos will be most effective in helping you achieve those goals. You will also need to decide on a distribution plan for your videos, including where and how you will publish them.

Here are some steps you can follow to create a video marketing strategy:

1. Identify your target audience: Who do you want to reach with your video content? Understanding your target audience will help you create videos that resonates with them.

2. Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with your video marketing efforts? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or promote a product or service?

3. Determine which types of videos will be most effective: There are many different types of videos you can create, including explainer videos, demo videos, testimonial videos, and more. Choose the types of videos that will be most effective in helping you achieve your goals.

4. Create a content calendar: Plan out the types of videos you will create and when you will publish them.

5. Decide on a distribution plan: Determine where you will publish your videos. Will you use your own website, social media channels, or other platforms?

6. Create and publish your videos: Use a video editing tool to create your videos and publish them according to your content calendar and distribution plan.

7. Track and analyse your results: Use analytics tools to track the performance of your videos and see how they are helping you achieve your goals. Use this data to adjust your strategy as needed.

Social Media Marketing Strategy

A social media marketing strategy is a plan for using social media platforms to achieve specific business goals. These goals could include things like increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or promoting a product or service. To create a social media marketing strategy, you will need to identify your target audience, define your goals, and determine which social media platforms will be most effective in helping you achieve those goals. You will also need to decide on a content plan for your social media channels, including what types of posts you will publish and how often.

Here are some steps you can follow to create a social media marketing strategy:

1. Identify which social platforms your target audience is actively using: Who do you want to reach with your social media efforts? Understanding your target audience will help you create content that resonates with them.

2. Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with your social media marketing efforts? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or promote a product or service?

3. Narrow down which social media platforms will be most effective: Not all social media platforms are right for every business. Choose the platforms that will be most effective in helping you achieve your goals and where your target audience is most active.

4. Create a content plan: Plan out the types of posts you will publish and how often you will publish them. Foxdog recommends that you use a social media scheduler which allows you to post to multiple social platforms from a central point.

5. Publish and promote your content: Use your chosen social media platforms to publish your content and promote it to your target audience.

6. Track and analyse your results: Use analytics tools to track the performance of your social media efforts and see how they are helping you achieve your goals. Use this data to adjust your strategy as needed.

Product Marketing Strategy

Product marketing is the process of promoting and selling a product to a target market. It involves researching the target market to understand their needs and preferences, and then developing marketing campaigns and materials to effectively communicate the value of the product to this market. The important thing here is that the product or what the product provides the user should be the focus.

Here are some steps you can follow to do product marketing:

1. Research the target market: Identify the specific group of people you are trying to sell the product to, and research their needs, preferences, and behaviour.

2. Understand the product: Become an expert on the product you are marketing, including its features, benefits, and target market.

3. Develop a positioning strategy: Determine how you want to position the product in the market, based on its unique selling points and the needs of the target market.

4. Create marketing materials: Develop marketing materials that effectively communicate the value of the product to the target market, including things like sales collateral, product sheets, and website content.

5. Launch the product: Use your marketing materials and channels to introduce the product to the market and make it available for purchase.

6. Analyse and optimise: Use data and feedback from the market to optimize your product marketing efforts and improve the product if necessary.

Email Marketing Strategy

An email marketing strategy is a plan for using email to achieve specific business goals. These goals could include things like increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or promoting a product or service. To create an email marketing strategy, you will need to identify your target audience, define your goals, and determine which types of emails will be most effective in helping you achieve those goals. You will also need to decide on a distribution plan for your emails, including how often you will send them and to which lists or segments of your email database.

Here are some steps you can follow to implement an email marketing strategy:

1. Identify what messages resonate with your target audience: Who do you want to reach with your emails? Understanding your target audience will help you create emails that resonates with them.

2. Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with your email marketing efforts? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or promote a product or service?

3. Perform A/B Testing: There are many different types of emails you can send, including newsletters, promotional emails, drip campaigns, and more. Choose the types of emails that will be most effective in helping you achieve your goals by comparing the results against one another. 

4. Create an email list or database: Gather the email addresses of people who have expressed interest in your business and want to receive emails from you.

5. Figure out your subject lines: Plan out the types of emails you will send and try to have a subject line that will elicit some kind of interest or curiosity. Remember, your plan here is just to get them to read your email and not another call to action like ‘buy this product’ or ‘can we discuss on a call’.

6. Use an email marketing service: Use a service like Mailchimp or Constant Contact to manage your email list, create and send your emails, and track the results of your campaigns.

7. Track and analyse your results: Use the analytics provided by your email marketing service to track the performance of your emails and see how they are helping you achieve your goals. Use this data to adjust your strategy – see A/B testing in point 5.

Event Marketing Strategy

An event marketing strategy is a plan for using events to achieve specific business goals. These goals could include things like increasing brand awareness, generating leads, or promoting a product or service. To create an event marketing strategy, you will need to identify your target audience, define your goals, and determine which types of events will be most effective in helping you achieve those goals. You will also need to decide on a plan for promoting and executing the events, including budgeting, logistics, and marketing efforts. One of the down sides here is that it can get pretty expensive depending on the types of events and if you choose to exhibit with your own stand.

Here are some steps you can follow to create an event marketing strategy:

1. Decide what you want to convey to your target audience: Who do you want to reach with your events? Understanding your target audience will help you create events that resonates with them.

2. Define your goals: What do you want to achieve with your event marketing efforts? Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or promote a product or service? Due to the brick and mortar nature of events, sometimes this can be difficult to quantify (but more on this later).

3. Determine which types of events you want to attend: There are many different types of events you can host, including trade shows, conferences, workshops, and more. Choose the types of events that will be most effective in helping you achieve your goals. It seems that there is an exhibition for everything and every industry seems to have at least one blockbuster event with all the key players – so choose wisely.

4. Create a budget and plan: Determine how much you are willing to spend on your events and create a plan for how you will use that budget to execute the events, including things like venue rental, marketing efforts, and logistics. As mentioned earlier, if you want a stand – it’s not cheap. One way you could have face to face interactions with prospects without spending a fortune could be to attend networking events such as a ‘Meet the Buyer’ event.

5. Promote the events: Use a variety of marketing channels to promote your events to your target audience and encourage them to attend. Tip – Save some of that precious budget for promoting the event itself and your participation. 

6. Execute the events: Plan and execute the events according to your budget and plan, making sure to provide a high-quality experience for attendees. The reality is with one or two-day events is that something always goes wrong but often it’s completely out of your control and cant be helped.

7. Analyse and optimize: Use data and feedback from the events to optimise your event marketing strategy and improve your future events. Tip – Although you cant measure traffic and impressions like you can with digital marketing but you can still work out the cost of lead acquisition. Simply divide the number of leads you gained by the total amount spent.

PR Marketing Strategy

A PR (public relations) strategy is a plan of action that helps a company or organization communicate with the public and media in order to shape and maintain its reputation. A PR strategy can include activities such as building relationships with key media outlets, crafting and sharing press releases, managing social media accounts, organizing events, and responding to customer or stakeholder inquiries.

Here are some steps you can take to develop a PR strategy:

1. Identify your target audience: Who do you want to reach with your PR efforts? Be specific about the demographics, interests, and values of your target audience.

2. Determine your key message: What do you want your target audience to know or think about your company or organization? Your key message should be clear, concise, and consistent.

3. Set your PR goals: What do you want to achieve with your PR efforts? Your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

4. Choose your PR tactics: What tactics will you use to reach your target audience and achieve your goals? Options might include press releases, media interviews, social media posts, events, or partnerships.

5. Create a timeline: When will you implement your PR tactics? A timeline can help you stay on track and ensure that your efforts are consistent and coordinated.

6. Monitor and evaluate your PR efforts: How effective were your PR tactics in reaching your target audience and achieving your goals? Use metrics and feedback to assess the impact of your PR strategy and make adjustments.

 SEO Marketing Strategy

An SEO (search engine optimization) strategy is a plan of action designed to improve a website’s ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). The goal of an SEO strategy is to increase the quantity and quality of traffic to a website from search engines like Google. This can be achieved in a variety of ways but one clear aim should be to optimise the likelihood of appearing in organic searches with relevant keywords.