Chapter 23

Ten Powerful Lead-Generation Tactics

In This Chapter

Creating an impact with guerilla marketing

Engaging with thought leaders through influencer marketing

Making an impact with a jingle or a song

Using visuals like infographics and photo memes in your content strategy

I've talked about many innovative lead-generation strategies in this book, but there are a few more that I wanted to draw your attention to. If you integrate these additional tactics into your holistic lead-generation plan, you can give your campaigns that extra oomph they need to stand out.

Going Guerilla

Guerilla marketing is a strategy that uses unconventional methods, at often low cost, to get your message across. This could be as simple as putting stickers or posters up around your neighborhood, or could be something more robust like organizing a flash mob. In my experience, guerilla marketing techniques work particularly well around an event.

For instance, at Salesforce’s Dreamforce 2013 conference, a competitor, SugarCRM, created a guerilla campaign called Escape Dreamforce. Outside of the conference, they gave attendees a chance to win a trip to Hawaii by putting on a SugarCRM T-shirt and taking a “selfie” photo and tweeting the picture with the hashtag #DF13 #SugarSelfie. Because guerilla marketing is disruptive, this campaign got a ton of discussion among attendees and journalists alike.

Making Viral Videos

In a similar vein as a guerilla campaign, a viral video generates a lot of buzz. You can either create a viral video on your own, or consider newsjacking a video that is already popular. Obviously of the two, creating your own viral video can be trickier because you never really know what people will latch on to. However, many companies have great success by using a video that is already viral and creating a parody. HubSpot does a great job with this. They have created videos that emulate viral sensations such as Gangnam Style or The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?), and geared them towards marketers.

After you have created a video, use it in your lead-generation campaigns, particularly on your social channels.

Delving into Influencer Marketing

I didn’t include a chapter on this, and honestly it could be a whole For Dummies book in and of itself. Influencer marketing is akin to relationship marketing. Every industry has a set of people who are deemed influential: Maybe they are the CEO of a leading company, an author, a blogger, or a speaker. Create a list of at least ten people (sometimes there can be hundreds) you would love to have on your side. Then create relationships and network with those people. Swap blogs, links, and invite them to speak on a webinar.

Generally, if you help them with additional exposure to your audience, they will also help you.

Using Memes

Marketo uses memes all of the time in social campaigns to generate additional engagement. What is a meme? Simply put, an internet meme is an idea that spreads virally online. Memes are often funny, include a simple statement or popular phrase, and can take the form of a video, photo, image, microsite, or hashtag. For example, you can use memes in the form of photographs with funny phrases or quotes. You can be super-creative with memes. Using a pop culture icon and creating copy that relates to who that person is often results in a ton of engagement on Facebook and Twitter.

Creating Campaigns Around Current Events

A technique I love to use is newsjacking. Basically, newsjacking is taking a popular current event and creating a marketing campaign, blog, or ebook that speaks directly to that event. Consider using a television show or movie as inspiration for your next infographic. In fact, I'm working right now on an infographic that references the popular show The Walking Dead. I'll relate this to marketing and launch it during the television show's mid-season finale for extra lift. I'll post the infographic on Twitter using the show’s hashtag so that everyone who follows that hashtag will see the infographic. That is just one example, but there are tons of ways to use current events or pop culture as part of your marketing strategy.

Engaging with Infographics

An infographic is a piece of content that conveys a story or data in a highly visual way. This could be your product story or usage stats, or maybe even an infographic focusing on something hot in your industry.

At Marketo, I try to create two infographics per month, and I work with a design team at Column Five to make sure that each infographic not only speaks to our audience, but is also buzzworthy for the press. Your infographic design firm should also do media outreach for you to pitch the infographic so that it can be seen on other industry sites. Sites like Mashable and TechCrunch have picked up our infographics.

Trying a Jingle or a Song

Another fun tactic is to create a jingle or a song to go along with a product launch or new content asset. These can be pretty simple to create if you contact the right people. I’ve seen people hire vendors from the website Fiverr (www.fiverr.com) to create short jingles about new content pieces or products. Typically, you can give the songwriter some messaging bullet points and she comes up with a song. Consider putting some animation behind it, if possible. When it's finished, you have a catchy tune to put on social media, in emails, and in other lead-generation campaigns.

Introducing a Google Hangout Series

Google+ is great for SEO, and another standout feature is the Google Hangout. Basically, a Google Hangout is similar to video conferencing. Have a Google Hangout with an influencer in your space or a thought leader at your company. Just as with a webinar, send email invitations and post on social channels. Invitees can go to your Google+ page to view the hangout, which you can also record for later viewing sessions. The pros of Google Hangout are that is pretty easy to set one up, it has a simple interface, and audience members can ask questions directly on your G+ account. The con is that as of this writing, you can't collect lead information for who attended your hangout. Therefore, although it can be a good TOFU (top-of-funnel) lead-generation channel, you might want to hold off on a hangout if you are trying to promote mid-funnel content.

Creating “Chocolate Cake” Content Pieces

Every company should have a mix of content that they are creating. Your mix should range from the more serious industry reports to the fun stuff. Marketo thinks of the fun stuff as chocolate cake content. This could be a fun infographic, a visual slide deck, or simply a few fun blog posts.

For instance, Marketo often creates infographics that are created as “link bait” and for social sharing. These infographics are meant to appeal to the masses and are generally fun in nature. We recently published an infographic called Kittens and Bacon, where we compared how often bacon was referenced on social sites compared to how often kittens were mentioned. This obviously has nothing to do with marketing automation specifically, but it was about digital culture and social media in general, which works for our audience. It was fun and viral, and we got a ton of shares.

Using an Automated Voicemail in a Campaign

Many services, such as Boxpilot, specialize in automated voicemails. These are fantastic to use before events to ramp up attendance, and you won’t be wasting the time of your inside sales reps calling to promote your event. Automated voicemail services allow you to create your own script and use your own voice talent. Think of using your CEO’s voice, or even that of a famous person, if you can afford it! The service calls your potential registrants during off-hours and leaves your voicemail on their machine. Voilà! While you're asleep, you get tons of new registrants for your event.