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Social media is an extremely valuable tool for promoting your marketing content.

But with so many social networks providing their own individual content sharing and follow buttons, it’s often difficult to know which social media button to use for what purpose.

To address this, we’ve put together a comprehensive guide to help you understand the differences between the share and follow buttons for six of the biggest social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest), as well as how to implement them on your website, blog, and other content.

Jump to instructions for: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Pinterest | Instagram

The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Creating Social Media Sharing Buttons

Differentiating between social media sharing buttons and social media follow buttons lets you identify which type of button you should be using for what purpose.

It’s first step in understanding the nuances of all the various social media buttons available to you. Let’s clear that up right now.

Social Media Follow Buttons

These buttons serve to promote your business’ presence on various social networks and help you generate fans/followers for those particular accounts. By placing these buttons on your business’ website, you can help to create visibility for your social media accounts and easily extend your reach there.

You can put these buttons anywhere on your website, but we recommend at least placing these buttons on your website’s ‘About Us’ page and your blog’s homepage/sidebar. The Twitter Follow Button, Facebook Follow Button, LinkedIn Company Follow Plugin, and YouTube Subscribe Button (and more) that we’ll cover in this article all serve as social media follow buttons.

Social Media Share Links/Buttons

These links and buttons enable your website visitors and content viewers to easily share your content with their social media connections and networks. Adding these buttons to your content allows you to expand the reach of your content to new audiences and generate new visitors back to your website.

You should add social media sharing links/buttons to every piece of content you create, including landing pages, web pages, individual blog articles, email content, etc. The Tweet/Share Button, Facebook Like and Share Buttons, and LinkedIn Share Button (and more) that we’ll cover in this article all serve as social media sharing buttons.

Now, let’s dive into the most important social media buttons available for each of the top six social networks. (HubSpot customers: Many of these buttons come out of the box with HubSpot’s Social Media Apps.)

Social Media Buttons for Twitter

1) Twitter Follow Button

What It’s For:

The Twitter Follow Button is great for generating new followers for your Twitter account. Users can start following you on Twitter with just one click — without ever having to leave your site.

How to Add a Twitter Follow Button:

Visit https://publish.twitter.com/# and select “Twitter Buttons” to customize your button’s featured account (i.e. the account you want people to follow), size, and language. Then copy and paste the HTML code it generates where you want the button to appear on your website. (Note: For more customization options, such as showing your follower count next to the button, check out Twitter’s documentation here.)

See it in action. Follow HubSpot on Twitter:

2) Twitter Share Button

What It’s For:

Use this button to enable site visitors to easily share content (e.g. blog posts, landing pages, other web pages, etc.) with their networks on Twitter, extending the reach of your content to their connections.

How to Add a Share Button:

Visit https://publish.twitter.com/# to customize the look of the button, the text and URL within the tweet it generates, its language, and the option to add a via attribution, @mention, and hashtag. We recommend adding your company’s Twitter username to increase your account’s reach and generate new followers. Once customized, grab the HTML code for your new button and place it on your site where you want the button to appear. (Note: For more customization options, check out Twitter’s documentation here.)

See it in action. Tweet this blog post:

Tweet

3) Twitter Hashtag Button

What It’s For:

This button is great for encouraging visitors to tweet about certain hashtags you’re promoting, like for events or specific marketing campaigns. Add these buttons to pages for these campaigns or events to spread and promote the event and its hashtag. (For more information about hashtag use, check out this blog post.)

How to Add a Twitter Hashtag Button:

Visit https://publish.twitter.com/# to customize your hashtag button. For example, if you’re promoting an event with a hashtag, you can grab the HTML code and place it your event’s website or registration page.

See it in action. Tweet about HubSpot’s annual marketing and sales event, INBOUND:

Tweet #INBOUND16

4) Twitter Mention Button

What It’s For:

Use this button to encourage website visitors to communicate with you via Twitter. Add this button to pages on your site like your ‘Contact Us,’ ‘About Us,’ or ‘Help’ pages. It’s great for customer support.

How to Add a Twitter Mention Button:

Visit https://publish.twitter.com/# to customize your button. Then grab the HTML code and paste it into your website’s HTML where you want the button to appear.

5) Twitter Message Button

What It’s For:

Use this button to helps users connect with you via a private direct Twitter message. This is another great Twitter button to add to your site’s ‘Contact Us’ or ‘Customer Service’ pages so customers can easily connect with you for problem-solving.

How to Add a Twitter Message Button:

Visit https://publish.twitter.com/# to customize your button. Then grab the HTML code and paste it into your website’s HTML where you want the button to appear.

See it in action. Send a direct message to HubSpot:

Message @HubSpot

6) Pre-populated ‘Tweet This’ Anchor Text Links

What They’re For:

Have you ever wanted to create an anchor text link that pre-populates a specific Twitter message for your visitors to share? We call these links ‘Tweet This’ links, and at HubSpot, we use them in blog articles a lot (click here for a great example).

Usually, these tweet links are used on landing pages to promote offers using specific messaging, and within content itself such as in blog posts. Similar to the official Tweet Button, ‘Tweet This’ links enable marketers to have more control over the message a visitor shares about their content on Twitter.

How to Add a ‘Tweet This’ Anchor Text CTA:

Luckily, there’s a great, free tool to help you easily create ‘Tweet This’ links for your content. Simply visit http://clicktotweet.com, enter the message you want to populate the tweet, and copy/paste the generated URL into your anchor text (e.g., “Tweet This!”).

As a best practice, include a URL in the tweet message to direct people back to the original piece of content you’re trying to promote, and be sure to shorten the URL to save room for the tweet copy. It’s also a great idea to include your business’ @username in the tweet to help increase reach.

See One in Action:

(Remember, you can customize the anchor text however you like.)

Tweet This Blog Article!

6) Twitter Website Widgets

What They’re For:

Twitter also enables you to create dynamic widgets as a way to showcase your Twitter activity on your website. Create a …

• User Timeline Widget to show your most recent Twitter updates.
• Search Widget to show search results in real time. (Tip: Use this to showcase tweets for a hashtag you’re promoting.)
• Favorites Widget to highlight tweets you’ve marked as favorites. (Tip: Favorite only testimonials for your business and add this widget to your website’s case studies or testimonials page.)
• Collections Widget to display hand-picked tweets about a specific topic. (Tip: Create a collection of positive tweets about the annual event you host and embed it on your events page.)
• List Widget to showcase tweets from users on particular Twitter Lists you’ve generated (Tip: Create a Twitter list of your business’ employees and add this widget to your website’s careers page.).

How to Add a Twitter Website Widget:

Visit https://twitter.com/settings/widgets/new, click ‘Create New,’ select the type of widget you’d like to create, and customize your widget’s settings, preferences, appearance, and dimensions. Then grab the HTML code and place it on your website where you want the widget to display.

See One in Action (Example Shown Is the User Timeline Widget):

Social Media Buttons for Facebook

1) Facebook Follow Button (Formerly Called the Subscribe Button)

What It’s For:

Like Twitter’s Follow Button, the Facebook Follow Button enables you to increase your Facebook reach by making it easy for your site visitors to Like your business’ Facebook Page with just one click. The Follow Button displays your page’s number of Likes as well as faces of people who already like your page, using social proof to amplify its effectiveness.

How to Add a Facebook Follow Button:

Visit http://ift.tt/RHsj6F to customize your button. Then generate the code (available in HTML5, XFBML, IFRAME, or a URL), and place it on your website where you want your Follow Button to appear.

How They Look:

See it in action. Follow HubSpot on Facebook:

 

2) Facebook Page Plugin

What It’s For:

The Facebook Page Plugin enables you to promote your business’ Facebook Page on your website/blog, highlight other users who have already Liked your page, display your follower count, and feature recent posts on your page. The box also allows visitors to like your Facebook Business Page with just one click — without leaving your site — enabling you to promote your Facebook presence and easily increase your page’s Likes.

How to Add a Facebook Page Plugin:

To generate a Facebook Like Box for your website, visit http://ift.tt/1HTwNuG. Include the vanity URL for your Facebook Page as well as your customization preferences. Then generate the code (available in HTML5, XFBML, IFRAME, or a URL), and place it on your website where you want it to appear.

See It in Action:

3) Facebook Send Button

What It’s For:

The Facebook Send Button enables users to share your content with specific friends, either via a private Facebook Message, to the group timeline of one of their Facebook Groups, or as an email to any email address. These messages consist of a link to the URL configured in the Send Button, a title, image, and short description of the link.

How to Add a Facebook Send Button:

To generate a Facebook Send Button, visit http://ift.tt/1jaORGY and specify the URL you want people to share as well as the color scheme and font. Then generate the code, and paste it into your site where you want the button to appear. (Note: The send button is only available in HTML5 or XFBML, and it requires the JavaScript SDK.)

See it in action. Send this blog post:

4) Facebook Like Button

What It’s For:

Facebook’s Like Button is a button that enables users to easily give your content a virtual thumbs up. By clicking the Like Button, a story also appears on the user’s Facebook Timeline and in their friends’ News Feeds with a link back to your content, whether it’s a blog post or a specific landing page. Use this button to make it easy for visitors to endorse your content and share it with their Facebook connections, but keep in mind this button doesn’t allow them to add personalized messages to links before sharing them. To allow users to add a personalized message, use the Facebook Share Button (see below).

How to Add a Facebook Like Button:

Visit http://ift.tt/1jGR5ie to customize your Like Button and grab the code (available in HTML5, XFBML, IFRAME, or a URL) to place on your website.

How They Look

 

See it in action. Click to like this blog post!

5) Facebook Share Button

What It’s For:

Facebook’s Share Button acts similarly to the Like Button (sharing your content on their Timeline and in friends’ News Feeds), but it also gives users the option of adding a comment or message to the link when sharing it. This button also allows them to share the content in other ways — in Facebook Groups and in Facebook Messages to specific users.

How to Add a Facebook Share Button:

To generate a Facebook Share Button, visit http://ift.tt/1bXGyrk and specify the URL you want people to share as well as the width. Then generate the code, and paste it into your site where you want the button to appear. (Note: The share button is only available in HTML5 or XFBML, and it requires the JavaScript SDK.)

See it in action. Click to share this blog post!

 

6) Facebook Anchor Text Share Links

What They’re For:

There may be times when you prefer to use an anchor text share link over a button. These links are easy to create and can be added to web pages, blog articles, landing pages, or within content like ebooks and whitepapers.

How to Add Facebook Anchor Text Share Links:

To create your own Facebook share links, replace the orange highlighted URL below with the URL of the content you want to promote. Then link the full URL to the anchor text you want to appear in your content.

http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http://bit.ly/vOKpgC

See One in Action:

Share This Post on Facebook!

More Facebook Buttons: We’ve covered the most commonly used social media buttons for your business here, but to find all of Facebook’s official social media plugins in one place, visit http://ift.tt/sAVUDA.

Social Media Buttons for LinkedIn

1) LinkedIn Follow Company Plugin

What It’s For:

The LinkedIn Follow Company Plugin, similar to Twitter and Facebook’s follow buttons, makes it easy for visitors to follow your Company Page on LinkedIn. This enables you to increase your business’ reach on LinkedIn.

How to Add a LinkedIn Follow Company Plugin:

Visit http://ift.tt/L1UKSe! to configure your button. There are a few different styles to choose from, with options to show your follower count above, to the right, or not at all. Then grab the code for your site.

How They Look

See it in action. Follow HubSpot on LinkedIn:

2) LinkedIn Company Profile Plugin

What It’s For:

If you want something more robust than the Follow Company Plugin, LinkedIn’s Company Profile Plugin is a good alternative. Users will not only be able to follow your company via the plugin, but they’ll also see an at-a-glance overview of your company, which includes your company summary, location, logo, and number of employees.

How to Add a LinkedIn Company Profile Plugin:

Build your Company Profile Plugin by visiting http://ift.tt/y4548A, entering your company name, and selecting your desired display mode. You can choose to display everything in-line (see example below), or go for a hover effect that expands the simple follow button to show more information about your company. You can also choose whether you want visitors to see a list of their LinkedIn connections who work at your company. Then grab the code to embed the plugin on your site.

See It in Action (In-line Display Mode):

Note: For personal brands, LinkedIn’s Member Profile Plugin offers similar functionality. Check it out here.

3) LinkedIn Share Button

What It’s For:

Adding LinkedIn’s Share Button enables visitors to easily share your content with their connections on LinkedIn, whether it be a blog post, a landing page, or another web page. Like Facebook’s Like and Share Buttons and Twitter’s Tweet Button, incorporating this button can help extend the reach of your content to the LinkedIn audience and drive traffic back to your site.

How to Add a LinkedIn Share Button:

To create and install this button, visit http://ift.tt/1A5Z7ob, specify the URL you want to drive traffic to, and choose your button’s style. Similar to LinkedIn’s Follow Company Plugin, you can choose to show the share count above, to the right, or not at all. Then generate your code and add it to your site where you want the button to display.

How They Look:

See it in action. Share this blog post on LinkedIn:

More LinkedIn Buttons: Although we’ve covered the most commonly used buttons above, you can find all of LinkedIn’s official social media buttons and plugins in one place at http://ift.tt/1079Lc1.

Social Media Buttons for YouTube

1) YouTube Subscribe Button

What It’s For:

This button is an easy way for organization to promote their YouTube video channels. You can embed this button on your homepage or ‘Contact Us’ page to increase the reach of the content you promote on your channel and to increase your subscriber base.

How to Add a YouTube Subscribe Button:

To create a YouTube Subscribe Button, visit http://ift.tt/12fOC7t, enter the name of your company’s YouTube channel, select a button size and color theme, decide whether you want to display your logo, and decide whether you want to display your follower count shown or hidden. Then, copy and paste the code onto your website where you’d like the button to appear.

How They Look:

See it in action. Subscribe to HubSpot’s YouTube channel:

Social Media Buttons for Pinterest

1) Pinterest Follow Button

What It’s For:

Just like the other popular social networks, Pinterest also offers a Follow Button to enable you to promote your Pinterest presence and generate new followers for your account.

How to Add a Pinterest Follow Button:

Visit http://ift.tt/2e52qNp, and configure your button by typing in your Pinterest account’s URL and account name. Click ‘Build It’ to generate the code, and paste that into your website.

See it in action. Follow HubSpot on Pinterest:

2) Pin It Button

What It’s For:

This is Pinterest’s share button, enabling users to share your content on Pinterest and expand its reach. The Pin It button is great for visual content. Place these buttons next to images, infographics, and other visual content on your site.

How to Add a Pin It Button:

Visit http://ift.tt/11aISZ2 to create your Pin It Button. Specify the URL where the image lives, the image URL, and select the design specs of the pin. Then, copy the generated embed code to use on your website.

How They Look:

See it in action. Pin this blog post:

More Pinterest Buttons: Other Pinterest widgets include a Profile Widget for showing a preview of your pins, a Board Widget for showing off specific pinboards, and a Pin Widget for showing off specific pins. Build them at http://ift.tt/1uZVyic.

Social Media Buttons for Instagram

1) View on Instagram Badge

What It’s For:

Instagram offers a View on Instagram badge for organizations to promote their accounts on their blogs and websites. The badge also helps organizations promote their social media accounts without web visitors having to navigate using their mobile devices, which was the only means of accessing Instagram until 2013. The badges keep visitors looking at your content and engaging with you on the same web browser.

How to Add an Instagram Badge:

Visit http://ift.tt/Y3p9um and log into your Instagram account. Select the style of badge you want to display on your website or blog, copy the generated embed code, and paste it onto your blog or website. You can also download the Instagram camera icon if you want to design your own custom View on Instagram badge.

How They Look:

See it in action. View HubSpot’s Instagram:

Note to Sharers: Social Media Terms of Service

Before modifying social media buttons on your website, take a look at the Terms of Service for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. Modifying logos and branding could result in your website being penalized, so when in doubt, use the exact logos populated by the widgets we’ve listed above. Happy sharing!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in December 2011 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

SEO can be a funny thing. Part of SEO’s stupendous value is that a well-optimized webpage can keep generating quality traffic to your nonprofit’s online presence years after it was first published. It’s your little worker bee that’s always buzzing along making honey in the background.

It also means your SEO work is never done. Pages can always be better optimized. They also need to be refreshed to reflect changes in your keyword strategy or to adapt to changes in Google’s SERP priorities, which happen constantly.

Your SEO might be awesome right now. That’s terrific. But that doesn’t mean it also can’t get even better.

Upping the Ante in Your On-Page SEO

You have the most control over your on-page SEO, which makes it a great place start. First thing to do is to analyze what you currently have going on.

If it’s been awhile since you took a look at your keyword list, time for a fresh look. Perhaps in the last few years, your constituents were most concerned with improving their professional certification and credentials. But now, they may have greater concerns about their options for health insurance. Who knows? But that’s precisely the point.

Take a close look at what new issues people may be emailing you about. What are your constituents talking about on social media? Find out what new questions and concerns they have. Keep an eye out for whether they’re asking similar questions but in different ways. For example, the credit card space is increasingly competitive with a lot of free comparison tools out there. A credit union may want to look into whether repositioning its credit card content and offers with more relevant keywords could bring in more qualified traffic. 

Brainstorm a new list of keywords based on what you learn. Use it to refresh existing content and build a new topic list. Start publishing content that reflects your potential constituents’ new priorities.

A second way to do some ground analysis is to grade your website’s current SEO status. HubSpot’s Website Grader will point out some quick wins and areas that need further development. If your pages load slowly, or your site isn’t optimized for mobile, the Grader will let you know. It will also provide some direct SEO tips where it thinks a page is falling short.

Google constantly changes its SEO algorithm and tag properties. Google recently pushed organic results further down the page by inserting a fourth paid ad spot. As compensation (of sorts), it expanded the character count for titles and meta descriptions. You may want to rework all (or just some) of your organization’s webpage titles and meta description tags to keep up with the changes.

Also review pages to ensure they’re optimized around one choice keyword, and that all your possible tags and headings are SEO-optimized. Do your blog posts tend to be long stretches of text? Write keyword optimized headers (and tag them appropriately — H1, H2, etc.) for a collection of your most relevant posts. Google reads images – do you have alt-text for all of your images? (BTW – that alt-text for images Is used by voice recognition systems for reading aloud your pages. As hands-free laws are becoming more strictly enforced, this tag will become important as people rely more on “Siri” and her counterparts to read your organization’s webpages to them while driving, etc.)

Getting Those Off-Page Backlinks

You know you need backlinks to validate your website and blog’s authority. You put social sharing icons on all your pages to help that. But if you want to take your backlink SEO strategy to the next level, you need to get pro-active.

Test out including some context-specific sharing CTA by your social icons. If you have a blog post reviewing popular professional resources that members of your trade organization might use, you can add copy at the end of the post specifically encouraging them to share this list with their colleagues. “Share this on Facebook:  Fellow welders – heads up! Get the new Guide to OSHA Certification Standards for Welding Equipment [yourURL]. Will save you tons of $$!”

You can also set up an influencer program. Influencers are people who regularly share content to people who fit your target market. You can start your search for influencers at home by looking at your constituents, board members, and corporate partners to find people with some social media traction.

Don’t overlook people who aren’t yet part of your organization’s family, such as bloggers who write about your industry and relevant online publications. Do some social listening to find bloggers and sites that are also using your keywords or talking about the same issues as your organization.

Reach out to them individually. See if they’ll write a post for you, or interview one of your association’s executives on a hot topic, or write a review on a piece of your organization’s content that would be of particular interest to them. Many online publications are starving for new content. They’re always on the lookout for posts or new content for their sites.

Are you getting into video yet? Video has begun as the next major shift in online consuming habits. Start your YouTube channel with whatever video content you already have: talks at events, constituent testimonials, education videos. Like a blog post, each video has its own set of SEO tags you can use so it gets found. Each video is also another source to link back to your website or blog. Videos are also highly shareable, which means other people will be generating back links for you as well. 

SEO is the Gift that Keeps on Giving

An effective SEO strategy continues to generate traffic and returns that far outpace its low cost long after you first implemented it. Yet to maximize your returns and keep your new content on track, revising your SEO strategy is a wise investment.

Never be content. With the constant changes in your persona preferences and the search quirks of the Google gods, you can always find ways to build on your past SEO success.

 

At a conference in June, a Facebook VP said that in five years time the platform would be “all video.” That’s a bold statement, but it’s not unbelievable if you’ve scrolled through your News Feed lately.

And one of the biggest drivers behind the growing prevalence of video is Facebook Live, which only was introduced in April of this year, but has since become a major distribution channel for both publishers and brands. Mashable has promised to stream 35 hours of live video per month, and The New York Times is streaming four live broadcasts every day, according to Advertising Age. These in-the-moment, authentic videos are capturing the attention of Facebook users, and it’s time to take advantage of the feature for your own brand. 

Going live on Facebook isn’t complicated — the platform has made it so anyone can stream with their mobile device and access to the internet. But there are a few best practices for live streaming, promoting your event, and driving engagement that will ensure your broadcast impresses your audience and drives new fans to your brand. 

Learn how to start broadcasting with our new online guide — The Guide to Facebook Live. In this guide, you’ll get:

• Tips on setting up your next live stream
• Inspiration on the types of content to broadcast
• Strategies for driving viewers to your Live event

Click here to download your copy of The Guide to Facebook Live today.

Your agency cannot survive on referrals alone.

Don’t get me wrong — referrals are great (really great), but your agency’s new business program needs to span a more diverse range of new lead sources in case your referral pipeline ever hits a dry spell.

According to The Agency Pricing & Financials Report conducted by HubSpot Research, a whopping 90% of agencies cite referrals as their top source for new leads.

Data from The Agency Pricing & Financials Report

But while it’s clear referrals represent a big portion of agency new business, it’s not necessarily a safe bet to rely on referrals as the default new business option.

Lee McKnight, vice president of sales at RSW/US, warns that referrals aren’t always as scalable, reliable, or targeted as other new lead sources, and agencies that ignore other inbound and outbound sources do so at their own peril.

“There’s a reason insurance exists,” McKnight writes in The Agency Pricing & Financials Report. “If you’re crushing it on the referral front, look at the outbound/inbound component as your insurance policy; it’s not the easiest part, but it’s absolutely necessary to your success.”

To help your agency start exploring new lead sources, we’ve examined a few underutilized new business channels and explained how agencies can better use them to their advantage. Read on to learn how your agency can start tapping these new lead sources and building up a more sustainable new business program.

6 New Lead Sources Your Agency Should Tap

1) Blogging

“Oh great — Another article with blogging as a marketing tip.”

Look, I hear you. Marketers love to talk about blogging, and it often gets thrown around as a default inbound marketing strategy. But with only 12% of agencies reporting blogging as a top lead source, it seems like agencies still aren’t fully taking advantage of this powerful channel for new business. 

The reason blogging doesn’t work is usually a bandwidth issue, not a talent gap. And we get it: You’re busy, your client work comes first, and everyone on your team is already juggling roughly 10,000 responsibilities on a daily basis.

But many agencies fail to see results from blogging simply because they don’t devote the time and patience to cultivating a meaningful blog presence. They just whip up a few generic posts every now and then, post them to social media, and then decide it isn’t worthwhile. 

If your agency wants to start seriously using blogging as a new business channel, it can’t be seen as a sometimes project. It needs to be a core part of your marketing strategy.

Even if you don’t have a dedicated new business employee, designate a member of your team to manage the blog and produce content that target’s your agency’s desired niche (click here for a free guide on creating an ideal client profile).

Blogging doesn’t have to be their core responsibility (and others can and should help out), but there needs to be someone held accountable for your blog’s performance. Otherwise, you can’t reasonably expect buy-in from the rest of your team.

2) Guest Blogging

Agencies put guest blogging at the very bottom of their priority list, with just 1% of agencies surveyed reporting the tactic as a valuable new business source. But this overlooked marketing strategy can actually be a great way to build authority, get important eyes on your content, and start generating some targeted buzz for your agency.

Start by finding industry publications and media outlets that share the kind of content your ideal prospects are interested in. You want to target the websites where your prospects are most likely to come across your content.

Next, sit down and develop a list of topics you think would bring value to your prospects. Examine the previously published content on the publications you plan to submit to, and try to locate content gaps: topics that haven’t been covered yet, or new angles on topics that you can offer a fresh perspective on.

Once you know what you want to write about, read up on how to pitch your story idea to the editors. Make sure you read up on your desired publication’s guidelines and rules. You can find HubSpot’s agency content submission guidelines here.

3) Webinars

Webinars are an opportunity to offer potential prospects a glimpse at your expertise, and help them get an idea of what you can bring to the table. Only 2% of agencies currently say that webinars serve as a valuable new lead source, but when done right, this tactic can be a powerful component of your lead generation program.

Many agencies balk at the idea of putting on a webinar at first. And while it can seem like a massive undertaking with an uncertain chance of return, hosting a webinar doesn’t have to be complicated or overly time-consuming. In fact, with the right tools, it can be an easy way to start building an online reputation and cultivating meaningful relationships in your industry.

Services like GoToWebinar and WebEx make it simple to plan, broadcast, and record webinars. And if your agency doesn’t currently have the budget for a paid service, consider recording your webinar with Google Hangouts or another free service like Join.me.

4) Paid Online Marketing

Adding a budget for paid or sponsored media to your new business development plan can give your content a much-needed boost with some targeted amplification. Most agencies ignore paid marketing altogether, with only 7% reporting it as a valuable lead generation channel.

But if your agency has gone through the time and effort to produce valuable content offers, introducing paid content can dramatically increase your impressions and ensure your content gets noticed by the right people.

Figure out where your potential clients are most likely to spot you on the web, and devote your funds to these channels. To promote your agency on social media, consider LinkedIn Sponsored Updates, Promoted Tweets on Twitter, and Facebook Ads.

5) Public Relations and Earned Media

It’s pretty simple: If you don’t pitch stories, they won’t get covered.  Only 7% of agencies report public relations as a top lead source. To make earned media part of your agency’s new business plan, you’ll need to focus on finding the right journalists to cover your story.

So how do you craft the perfect pitch? It’s all about targeting the right publications with the right stories, and differentiating yourself. Journalists see 26,000 pitches a year, so it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. But don’t fret — despite what you might think, journalists actually want to find a great story in their inbox. They don’t enjoy sifting through a mass of irrelevant pitches. 

Targeting is key. Don’t pitch anything you think is a stretch. Set up news alerts for topics in your industry and use them to find journalists who are already writing the kind of stories you want to share. If you aren’t sure how to write a stellar pitch, click here for a few free email pitch templates tailored to agencies.

6) Networking Events and Conferences

Old school face-to-face networking isn’t dead yet. In fact, 37% of agencies reported that networking at events and conferences brings in new leads. But that means the majority of agencies still aren’t fully taking advantage of networking and the new business potential it can bring in.

I’ll be the first to tell you that networking in person can be hard, and it doesn’t always come naturally to everyone. But that doesn’t mean your agency can afford to shy away from the conference and event scene altogether.

You shouldn’t feel foolish if you need to brush up on some networking skills and ice breakers. With INBOUND 2016 right around the corner, you can bet that all of us here at HubSpot have been practicing our small talk skills. Unsure where to begin? Try browsing this list of 100 conversation starters for virtually any situation.

What under-utilized lead sources is your agency planning on trying out?