What has worked best for your business in terms of bringing in the best ROI based on your data?
Using PPC, Affiliates, SEO, Email Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Content Distribution, Blogger/Influencer Outreach, Press Releases, Joint Ventures, Viral Marketing, Referrals, Giveaways, Etc.?
The list would depend on your business, audience and overall problem you are solving. Many people focus on the tools, then create process around them and only after that do they pursue an audience.
This equation per se is wrong. The "secret sauce" if you want to call it that way is in your ability to start from the people, then create process of engagement and only then look for tools that allow you to execute your processes.
People > Process > Tools
This is the key. Anyone that start with the tools will be giving you the wrong information. Twitter may be a multi million opportunity for some and a complete failure for others. Radio may be the way some people are successful and that may be completely wrong for my audience.
Marketing is a form a communication and the basics of communication is that there is a message and a receiver. If you neglect the receiver your marketing will fail.
There isn't a "best" method...what works for others may not work for you.
The real question to answer is: "Where is your audience, and how do they interact with you?"
In my case, FB ads are pointless as my target market is not on Facebook. They are in their corporate offices, being bothered by staff. I have to reach them another way. So no matter how well FB ads may work for someone else, they're not right for me.
Authority blog posts and trade publication articles have worked best for my situation. But again, that may not apply to your business.
For Me, highly targeted Facebook ads. Also check out the new Facebook Lead Ads option for building your list, and also FB Livestream for more organic traffic and engagement.
Facebook makes it so easy to target your niche, which makes it by far the best ROI for PPC marketing and lead generation.
Email marketing, hands down. And not the 'ooh I hope they won't unsubscribe so I'll only email once a fortnight' - no, I'm talking about emailing every single day, sometimes even twice a day or more.
The trick is to not bother people, but to be helpful, supportive, inspiring, educational, personable, and fun.
Done right, daily emails are massively effective for building relationships with people, turning readers into buyers, and creating brand ambassadors.
You might think once a day is too often, but my open rates are a consistent 30%, and people love reading them. They write to tell me that they really appreciate the emails, and even say things like 'you're a blessing in my life' and 'I have breakfast with you every morning'. And, yes, people buy from me as well.
See http://martinstellar.com/posts to get an idea of the type of email I write, and if you feel it might work for you but you're not sure how to do it, I'd be happy to jump on a call and answer your questions.
I am a big fan of content marketing. Don't sell to your potential clients, become a resource for them. You will gain their trust, and when they are ready to buy, they will be excited to work with/buy from you.
I blog, email and share social media content on a daily basis, and I (almost) never pitch any product or service. I teach people how to do things for themselves. In the process, I help them learn something new, show them that there are things they didn't know they didn't know, and prove myself a valuable part of their community.
It's a longer version of a sales funnel to be sure, but I've found it to be a very successful, and even enjoyable, path to reaching new potential customers.
Doing presentations has been the most successful for me in reaching business owners as clients. Whether it is a 3 hour workshop on Effective Websites or a 1 hour workshop on Email Marketing, the business owners in attendance are convinced that I know what I'm talking about and that they can trust me. So becoming a subject matter expert is the ideal method for me
