10 timeless marketing tactics that ALWAYS work
Forget growth hacks. These tactics work every, damn, time.
DEEP DIVE
Most people struggle to grow because they're chasing the next “shiny” growth hack. In reality, the best tactics have been working for decades and will work for decades more.
If you're not using at least 2 of the 10 of these timeless marketing tactics, fix it now.
1) Lead magnets - Giveaway short actionable content (or a simple tool) in exchange for contact information
I've talked with countless people who struggle to get more leads or grow their email list, and they’re not using a lead magnet.
Then, most people with lead magnets do it all wrong. They spend weeks creating and promoting a 50+ page ebook or 4+ hour course.
Everyone needs a lead magnet (or multiple) and it should be short and actionable.
The best lead magnets:
Provide immediate value
<15 minutes to read or watch
Solve a narrow problem! Don’t share a comprehensive solution (that’s for your paid products/services)
A great lead magnet should take <30 minutes to create. You should be able to create a new one every month with ease. And most of the time, it should be content you repurpose or pull from your paid product.
Every month there's an opportunity to share a teaser with your audience.
New product launch happening soon? Tell people about what you’re planning! Then ask them to join a waitlist to hear about it.
Developing a new product or service? Share a behind-the-scenes look at what you're building.
Publishing a new newsletter or YouTube video? Tell people about what they'll learn after they subscribe! This is called a pre-CTA.
Just closed enrollment for a product or hit a client cap? Tell people about what they missed — and ask them to join a waitlist to get notified early about the next opportunity.
For example: I’m doing a new live Write, Grow, Sell cohort in ~30 days. This program has helped hundreds of people get their first 1000 newsletter subscribers. Join the waitlist in 1-click here and see 300+ 5-star reviews from customers.
3) The 9 Word Email — Revive dead leads with a simple email you can send in 5 minutes
Do you have a list of leads, prospects, or email subscribers that signed up for something but haven't taken any action?
Try the 9 word email tactic from Dean Jackson:
A) Get all the leads you’ve generated who are at least 90 days old.
B) Send a quick email with something similar to these 9 words: “Are you still looking for a house in Greensboro?” or “Are you still planning a trip to Cancun?” or “Are you still looking to sponsor newsletters?
The question should be open-ended. It feels personal and prompts people to reply. Keep the entire email 9-12 words long.
After you get replies, share the next step: Book a sales call, register for a webinar, go to a sales page, etc.
Pop up newsletters are easy to grow because they are hyper-relevant, timely, and have a hard stop (low commitment).
They attract high-quality readers and leads because people who sign up are deeply passionate about the topic or event you're covering.
Pop up newsletter can run for 1 week, a month, or a quarter. They can be published any time from 1-7x per week and can be as short as 200-400 words each.
Here are topics you can create a pop-up newsletter around:
Do you have an industry event that everyone attends? Create a pop up newsletter to cover it for one week.
Is there a big event in your niche that everyone follows? Like the Super Bowl or an election? Start a pop up newsletter with extra coverage.
Do you serve a personal development audience focused on new year's resolutions? Make a pop up newsletter from Dec to Jan that helps people plan their goals and follow through on them.
Are you an expert, teacher, or coach? Create a 30 day pop up newsletter that challenges readers to achieve an outcome in 1 month.
After your pop up newsletter ends, pitch your product/service, and add these subscribers to your normal weekly or daily newsletter.
5) Challenges — Help people get results and take action with a 5-30 day challenge.
This is a perfect attraction offer for course creators, coaches, and consultants.
Offer a free or paid challenge.
Help X type of people achieve Y in Z days.
The goal should be to help people achieve a short-term goal…
For example: Get your first brand deal, kick start your fitness journey by losing 10 pounds in 30 days, start publishing content on social media, etc
Teach your challenge participants with live sessions and give them homework or an action item after each session (share recordings too).
Paid challenges are generally low-ticket ($49-$99) because the goal of the challenge is to up-sell customers at the end.
At the end of your challenge, pitch your product or service that will help them achieve their long-term goals.
6) Webinars — Teach and pitch a live audience
There’s no better way to sell media products in the $500-$20k price range than a webinar.
Media products = Information and educational products, coaching, content subscriptions, community, memberships, events, and more
Pro tips:
Read the books “Expert Secrets” and “One To Many”. This will teach you 95% of what you need to know about successful webinars.
Sign up and watch other webinars. Reverse engineer their funnels, marketing emails, webinar content, and offers.
Live webinars convert better. Don’t do an automated webinar until you master the live version.
Getting people to show up live is the hard part. You need 6-12+ emails that educate, build hype, and remind people about the event.
60-90 minutes is the best length.
7) Giveaways / Sweepstakes — Randomly giveaway cash, a product, or service to leads that enter to win
Why do you think the world’s largest creator Mr Beast does a giveaway in nearly all of his videos? Because they always work.
That said, there are nuances about giveaways you need to get right:
A) Pick the right thing to giveaway. Most people attract tons of leads with giveaways — but they're not the right people for your newsletter, product, or service.
That's because people give away things that appeal to everyone. Cash, gift cards, vacations, etc.
Instead, only give away something that your ideal audience would want!
That could be a 1-year subscription to a SaaS tool, 1on1 consulting with you, your own product, or something else. Be creative!
When I worked at The Hustle we gave away a credit to buy a small business on Acquire.com because we wanted to attract aspiring entrepreneurs.
B) Gamify the incentive with multiple ways to get entries to win.
Signing up for your newsletter or email list should provide 1 entry to win. But you need more than that!
Tools like Gleam, ViralSweep, and more make it simple to add more entry methods. Like sharing with a friend (10 entries per referral), sharing on social media (5 entries), etc.
DTC brands like Ridge Wallet give entires for every dollar you spend on their products. Spend $100, get 100 entries to win.
C) Pick the right time span
You’ll get most of your leads in the first 48 hours after announcing and 48 hours before the deadline.
A small giveaway ($500-$2k prize value) should have a 3-7 timeline.
Bigger giveaways ($10k+) can run for 14-30 days. But no longer.
8) Referrals — Ask your readers or customers for more readers or customers
Ask your readers to share your newsletter in exchange for something.
Or ask your customers or clients to refer a friend with an incentive.
Morning Brew is famous for their referral giveaways and milestone-based referral program. I wrote a full guide about these here.
There are so many ways you can grow with referrals. The reality is most people are just afraid to ask.
Here’s some ideas:
Give away a 1on1 coaching call to every customer that refers new customers.
Give clients 20%-40% off one month of service if they refer you to a new client.
Guarantee a prize if newsletter subscribers refer 2 friends or more. The Pour Over has used this strategy to reach 1M+ subscribers.
9) Small Events — Dinners, happy hours, cocktail parties, lunch presentations, meet ups, and more
Magic happens when you meet your best readers, prospects, or customers in person.
Events help you build a community, turn your customers and readers into evangelists for your brand, and sell more effectively because of in-person connection.
Most people are intimidated by this, but small events are easier than you think.
Here's my recommendation for successful and profitable small events:
Cap them at 15-50 people
Make them free but invite-only via application.
If you have too much demand for attendees, charge a low ticket price of $50-$100 and still have an application.
You'll succeed with events by curating the right people before the event happens
Free events can be profitable (even if you don't sell anything) by getting a sponsor.
Find sponsors who have a high-ticket product or service and want to get in front of your most loyal readers (but don't have a competitive product).
Charge sponsors 1-2x of what it costs to put on the event.
For example:
40 person happy hour x $25 cost per person = $1000 | Sponsor fee = $1000-$2000
20 person dinner x $80 per person = $1,600 | Sponsor fee = $1600-$3200
Always have a CTA at your events:
Pitch attendees your high-ticket product/service
Ask people to become an ambassador, be an affiliate, or refer you clients
Request testimonials and ask people to share pictures of the event on social media.
10) Customer Gifts — Surprise your best customers
It’s easier to keep existing customers than to get new ones.
Outside of delivering a great product or service, the best way to keep customers is with reciprocity. People feel obliged to give back when they receive something first.
The key is to give something personalized and unexpected.
This could be:
Personalized holiday gifts and cards you send to all clients.
A gift based off of a conversation. Maybe you and a client chatted about coffee, art, restaurants, hobbies, etc — then you send them a gift related to that.
Surprise new customers with a gift or product feature they were not expecting.
Send a personalized gift to a podcast host if you're interested in being on their show — or to an expert that you want to interview.
Again, your creativity and knowledge of your clients is key. There are so many fun, creative, and genuine things you can give.
Is this manipulation? For some people, maybe.
But if you do it with the expectation of getting nothing back, it’s not.
The reality is, reciprocity is a social construct that always works. Even if your customers feel that they are only getting this gift because they pay you — and you want them to keep paying you — they will STILL reciprocate.
The psychological tendency to reciprocate works even if people are aware of it.
Last Thing — Why this matters
I didn’t write this to teach you new tactics. You’ve probably heard of all these things before. This is to remind you what always works.
Some of these tactics won’t be a good fit for your business. But if you’re not doing at least 2 of the 10, I promise, you’re leaving money on the table.
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