How Are You Generating Sales Leads?

Marketing Sherpa recently published a new Marketing Research Chart: Most Widely Used Lead Gen Tactics which polled organizations on what lead generation tactics they were using. With 81% of organizations polled using email marketing,  75% using search engine optimization (SEO) , and 72% using social media for lead generation is seems that the promise of inbound marketing is being realized and embraced.

But greater acceptance of inbound marketing tactics can be a double edged sword. As more organizations embrace the marketing potential of the internet, more consumers are becoming familiar with inbound marketing tactics, and so the bar of excellence is pushed ever higher. Consumers are less and less satisfied with minimal effort and have come to expect truly valuable content, useful offers, and user friendly website design.  As consumers and organizations get more comfortable with the idea of using the internet as a marketing tool, the more the margin of error is going to shrink.

So, what is the take away?

It's time to step  up your game. That old offer you've had on your homepage for the last two years? It's time to retire it. Are you only updating your social media twice a week? Step it up to twice a day. It's not enough to just show up in a Google search anymore, you need the page viewers click on to be as close to the top of the search as possible and you need that page to draw viewers in, and keep them on your site.

How about tieing your traditional marketing like trade shows in with inbound tactics like content marketing to make your overall efforts more effective?  

As we approach the end of the 2012, take this time to really evaluate your online presence and develop a plan for rising to the challenge in 2013. Don't just focus on what you're already doing, only 15% of responders said they were using mobile marketing as a lead generation tactic! Mobile marketing is very similar to social media a few years ago; everyone knows about it, most admit there is a lot of potential, but most organizations aren't focusing on it. What if your business New Year's resolution is a mobile marketing lead generation campaign? Get the ball rolling now and you can start 2013 out on the right foot.