12 Key Digital Marketing Channels (& How to Use Them)

Jun 3, 2022|Read time: 14 min.

Patrick Lane Marketing Manager

Key Points

There’s been a seismic displacement successful caller years successful the mode radical devour contented and spell shopping. Approximately 87% of consumers present commencement their buying travel online.

It’s a integer world.

If your institution wants to get successful beforehand of your people audience, past you request to make a broad selling strategy that includes aggregate integer selling channels.

There is inactive a spot for accepted marketing. This signifier of selling is often utilized for marque consciousness oregon to thrust traffic. It’s typically not effective, though, astatine driving leads and conversions. In addition, tangible metrics tin beryllium hard to measurement done accepted marketing.

By contrast, a goal-oriented integer selling strategy deployed crossed a premix of integer channels tin make important selling results aligned with measurable KPIs. You tin way clicks, customer touchpoints, web traffic, pb generation, caller customer acquisition, instrumentality connected concern (ROI)…the database goes connected and on.

Digital selling channels are platforms, pathways, and vehicles to scope your people audience. With galore varieties of integer marketing, the possibilities for much effectual marque selling are seemingly endless.

What is integer marketing?

Here’s the elemental definition:

Digital marketing, oregon online marketing, refers to each selling efforts that instrumentality spot connected the internet. Companies usage assorted integer selling channels to link with existent and prospective customers. These integer channels whitethorn see contented marketing, SEO, email marketing, oregon others.

Digital selling empowers brands to not lone prosecute with audiences, but to besides way and negociate their selling results. Brands tin find what to create, wherever it should beryllium shown online (websites, societal media, etc.), erstwhile it should beryllium shown, who the marque should target, and what metrics to way (i.e., website traffic, integrated traffic, ROI).

The types of integer selling vary. Each should beryllium utilized successful alignment with circumstantial selling goals, arsenic each transmission has antithetic strengths and weaknesses.

Let’s dive successful and research 12 effectual integer selling channels to assistance you execute much with your marketing.

12 integer selling channels

There are galore antithetic channels nether the umbrella of integer marketing, including hunt motor selling (SEM), societal networks, mobile apps, and more. I won’t screen each integer selling channels. Instead, I’ll explicate the astir important ones you request to see erstwhile gathering your strategy.

1. Content marketing

Content selling is the strategical planning, creation, publication, and organisation of invaluable contented to your people audience. Unlike ads, which interrupt the idiosyncratic successful bid to effort to merchantability something, contented selling delivers VALUE passim the customer journey.

There are galore benefits to a well-thought-out contented selling strategy. It is effectual astatine the top, middle, and bottommost of the funnel (TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU).

With applicable content, you prosecute successful deeper communications, allowing you to showcase your marque property and to commencement a narration with your audience. Content is unsocial successful that it helps you to physique curiosity, spark emotions, and substance marque love.

In addition, high-quality contented complements different integer selling channels specified arsenic SEO, email marketing, societal media, and influencer marketing. The effect is stronger wide selling that ensures higher ROI from each contented piece.

When your selling squad prioritizes contented marketing, it tin easy go 1 of the biggest drivers of concern maturation among your online selling channels.

2. Search motor optimization (SEO)

Search motor optimization, oregon SEO, is the process of expanding integrated hunt motor rankings to physique awareness, seizure demand, and thrust qualified postulation to your website.

To triumph astatine integrated search, you request to recognize galore analyzable concepts, including keyword research, backlinks, and however Google’s algorithms dainty leafage acquisition and spot signals. Search motor optimization is 1 of the astir analyzable channels you tin leverage. But it’s besides the astir powerful.

SEO helps you scope your assemblage erstwhile they’re actively seeking answers, solutions, oregon products. In different words, you tin power your assemblage erstwhile they’re astir receptive to your message.

Search motor optimization besides ensures your marque is authentically contiguous passim the full lawsuit journey, not conscionable astatine the bottom. As a result, you’ll amplify marque consciousness and physique spot portion delivering exceptional value.

The benefits of SEO spell acold beyond traffic.

You tin usage integrated hunt to summation conversions, make leads, support marque reputation, summation marketplace share, amplify word-of-mouth, boost ecommerce sales, and deepen lawsuit relationships. Furthermore, integrated hunt is 1 of the astir cost-effective selling channels for postulation and caller lawsuit acquisition.

Google states that the mean ROI connected integrated hunt is 5.3X versus conscionable 2X from paid search. Plus, it’s the ONLY transmission that accrues worth implicit time.

Put it each together, and you tin spot wherefore SEO is 1 of the astir effectual integer selling channels for producing exceptional selling ROI.

3. Email marketing

Email selling is 1 of the easiest ways to link with your audience. On average, email selling boasts a precocious ROI, delivering $36 for each dollar spent. Other benefits of email selling are that it offers you a nonstop transportation with your assemblage members arsenic good arsenic extended segmentation options.

Once you’ve compiled your email lists, you tin conception them into antithetic categories. You whitethorn person a VIP list, a database that includes lone qualified leads, a database that includes assemblage members successful a circumstantial geographic location, a database for those who responded to your past offer, and truthful on. From there, acceptable up customized email selling campaigns for your selected email list.

A payment of email selling is that it allows you to tailor your connection to a circumstantial assemblage astatine a circumstantial time. Plus, you tin nurture your audiences implicit clip done automation, deepening the narration and fostering marque love.

Social media selling is often utilized for marque awareness, branding, assemblage engagement, narration building, and website traffic.

Marketing connected societal media is indispensable to gathering relationships. The societal media level is simply a spot wherever your institution tin actively perceive to the wants and desires of your audience. Many companies emotion societal media due to the fact that it allows them to person constructive dialog (sometimes successful real-time) with their customers, oregon imaginable customers. Social media tin beryllium a large mode to link with your audience.

Remember, the assemblage you’d similar to scope mostly depends connected which societal media level you choose. Should you beryllium investing successful Instagram? Or Pinterest? What astir Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn oregon different platforms? Do your homework. Each societal media level has its demographics, types of media (images, video, etc.), and antithetic absorption (i.e., conversations and sharing, imagery-focused, UGC-focused, video, etc.).

5. Video marketing

Approximately 86% of businesses contiguous usage video marketing, up sharply from 63% successful 2017. And successful parallel, much and much radical are turning to video contented for information. There are astir 1.86 billion YouTube users worldwide successful 2021, compared with 1.47 billion successful 2017. Today, astir 720,000 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube each day.

To capitalize connected this monolithic opportunity, determination are a assortment of video selling formats for you to take from, including:

Video selling besides includes video ads. Viewers are interacting with video ads successful ways they are incapable to with static images. Video ads let marketers to see much dynamic content. Companies tin besides get incredibly originative with these ads.

When done right, video selling tin beryllium an effectual portion of your integer selling strategy. Wyzowl probe indicates that 78% of marketers utilizing video study that video has straight accrued their sales. And according to the aforesaid Wyzowl research, 87% of marketers accidental video has helped them wide affirmative ROI.

6. Pay-per-click advertizing (PPC)

Pay-per-click advertising, oregon PPC advertising, is the process of buying visibility connected hunt motor results pages (SERPs).

With paid integer channels, advertisers bid successful an auction with the purpose of capturing a click. Paid hunt strategies typically impact campaigns, keywords, advertisement groupings, advertisement messaging, pricing bids, advertisement timing selections (e.g., time of week and clip of day), and landing leafage development.

PPC is highly data-driven, truthful it’s casual to way performance.

Paid ads are utile erstwhile you request to spot contiguous results. Whereas contented selling and SEO whitethorn instrumentality time, paid media campaigns tin beryllium launched quickly. With this successful mind, PPC is simply a bully enactment for a caller merchandise motorboat oregon a short-term campaign. It’s besides utile for investigating purposes, arsenic you tin validate ideas quickly. However, owed to the cost, PPC ads are a mediocre enactment erstwhile it comes to the apical oregon mediate of the acquisition funnel.

Combine your PPC strategy with your SEO strategy, and you tin predominate the existent property of the Google — oregon Bing — SERPs.

7. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate selling is the process of paying 3rd parties, specified arsenic bloggers, publishers, influencers, entrepreneurs, and different website owners, to beforehand your products. It’s fundamentally a pay-for-performance selling programme done which you outsource income promotions to a web of affiliates.

With affiliate marketing, an affiliate promotes your merchandise to their assemblage typically done an affiliate nexus successful a website, blog, email, oregon connected societal media. When idiosyncratic clicks done and completes a purchase, the affiliate earns a outgo from the marque based connected an agreed-upon percentage. No payments are made unless existent transactions are completed. As such, affiliate selling has tremendous upside for brands with lone a constricted downside.

Affiliate selling is an effectual mode to grow your scope by getting successful beforehand of others’ audiences. Because the affiliates bash the enactment of attracting their ain audience, it’s a highly businesslike mode to summation sales. Plus, you get to debar the associated selling costs of the sale. (You will, though, person the after-sale outgo of the affiliate payment.)

Affiliate selling is not without risks. Some affiliate marketers embed your program’s affiliate links successful spammy websites. This tin evidently harm your reputation. And immoderate hits to estimation and marque cognition tin person important ripple effects crossed your business.

However, if you are highly selective astir partnering with the close affiliates, past affiliate selling tin beryllium a highly profitable way for your brand.

8. Influencer marketing

In its basal form, influencer selling is erstwhile a marque builds consciousness and spot for a merchandise among an influencer’s followers (or fans) by leveraging the influencer’s clout.

For brands, gathering spot with your assemblage is critical. With definite integer selling channels similar paid media, though, consumers tin beryllium distrustful of the ads. Influencer selling overcomes this challenge. Getting your merchandise oregon work into the hands of an influencer they already spot builds invaluable marque equity among a targeted community.

Take Mercedes Benz for example:

Mercedes Benz wanted to skew younger. To bash this, they knew they had to drawback the attraction of a younger demographic. They chose Instagram arsenic their societal media platform. Why? Because astir 31% of planetary Instagram audiences are aged betwixt 25 and 34 years old.

Mercedes hired 5 apical Instagram photographers. They gave each 1 a caller Mercedes CLA. These photographers were to thrust the cars astir for a bit. Whoever got the astir likes got to support the car.

The results included:

• 87,000,000 integrated Instagram impressions
• 2,000,000 Instagram likes
• 150 caller selling assets (photos)

Clearly, influencer selling tin beryllium precise effective.

In the lawsuit that you enactment with personage influencers with millions of followers, though, influencer selling tin go pricey. With this successful mind, it’s important to comparison the costs to the imaginable value.

Another enactment is micro-influencer marketing. This utilizes lesser-known celebrities that are underutilized yet tin beryllium effectual done profoundly loyal communities.

Whether you usage macro-or micro-influencers, influencer selling is an ROI-generating integer selling channel. On average, brands gain $5.78 for each dollar spent.

9. Partnership marketing

Partnership selling is 2 businesses moving unneurotic to make a mutually beneficial selling campaign.

With concern marketing, it’s captious to prime partners who complement your merchandise oregon services. Perhaps you some person parallel people audiences but supply antithetic products oregon services. Each merchandise oregon work is needed by the imaginable customer. They are some related. Yet they each whitethorn beryllium needed astatine antithetic points oregon for antithetic purposes successful the customer’s experience.

An illustration of concern selling is erstwhile a moving footwear marque partners with a marque that sells headphones. People similar to perceive to euphony erstwhile they run. They travel up with a woody offering escaped headphones with the acquisition of moving shoes, and vice versa. Their people assemblage whitethorn person immoderate overlap, but each whitethorn besides pat into an assemblage neither had entree to before.

In essence, concern selling enables you to rapidly treble your reach.

When considering concern marketing, marque definite you take the close partner. Both brands’ goals, values, and audiences should beryllium aligned.

10. Referral marketing

Referral selling is simply a highly invaluable integer selling channel. People perceive to their friends, family, and online peers. The immense bulk of consumers (93%) accidental online reviews interaction their purchasing decisions. On average, referral selling generates 3X–5X higher conversion rates than different channels. Consumers are 71% much apt to marque a acquisition erstwhile they archetypal spot a societal media recommendation.

Referral selling often comes successful the signifier of online reviews, comments connected merchandise listings, and societal media discussions.

An effectual mode to prosecute successful referral selling is to inquire for referrals! You tin commencement gathering these referrals utilizing a fig of lawsuit selling oregon referral apps that assistance you physique an service of advocates.

11. Mobile marketing

Mobile selling is simply a maneuver that is designed to link companies with radical connected their mobile devices.

More radical are acquiring their accusation from smartphones present than ever before. Mobile is presently at astir 58% of each instrumentality usage globally, portion desktop usage is astir 39%. There are astir 4.67 billion mobile net users worldwide. Individuals are spending adjacent to 24 hours each period connected the YouTube mobile app.

This means that companies request to commencement creating and adapting contented with mobile usage successful mind. Ignore this advice, and hazard being near behind. Mobile advertizing spending worldwide reached a whopping $288 billion successful 2021.

Follow these mobile selling champion practices erstwhile considering contented instauration specifically for mobile:

• Your messaging should beryllium concise and relevant

• Utilize geofencing
• Use QR codes
• Align your selling with what they are doing (Are they connected their mode to work? Then nonstop them a QR codification for a discount connected coffee.)
• Use reminders and notifications

Mobile selling is utilized to conscionable radical astatine the infinitesimal they whitethorn request your institution and connection applicable solutions.

12. Display advertising

Display advertizing is an fantabulous mode to physique marque consciousness — particularly astatine the apical of the funnel.

They are a blend of images, text, and calls to action. They person an highly debased click-through rate, owed to banner blindness. However, utilized connected the close websites, astatine the close times, to the close audience, they tin person a affirmative effect.

This is wherefore programmatic advertizing has exploded successful usage done the years. By 2023, U.S. programmatic integer advertizing expenditures are expected to summation to $142 billion.

To maximize effectiveness, show advertizing should beryllium utilized successful tandem with paid hunt (PPC), video ads, and societal media advertising.

Choosing the champion integer selling channels

Each manufacture is different. So however bash you take the champion integer selling channels for your business? I’ll interruption down the apical considerations.

Campaign goals

What are your selling goals? As we discussed earlier, this is the astir important origin to see erstwhile you marque a database of your apical integer selling channels to leverage. Would you similar greater marque awareness? Are you seeking to summation pb generation? Are you aiming to grow marketplace share? Your goals should align with the selling channels you choose.

Audience demographics

Who are you trying to reach? Each integer transmission resonates otherwise with antithetic demographics.

Do your research. Older generations whitethorn thin to usage email acold much than different integer channels, portion younger generations look to texting oregon Slack. Older generations whitethorn usage Facebook arsenic their societal media level of choice, portion younger generations whitethorn opt for Snapchat oregon WhatsApp.

Align connected the integer channels that your assemblage uses.

Campaign budget

Make definite you fund appropriately! Each integer transmission has costs associated with it. It’s adjuvant to recognize each channel’s idiosyncratic costs truthful that your selling tin beryllium managed arsenic an effectual portfolio.

One transmission whitethorn complaint for the fig of impressions, different whitethorn complaint based connected the fig of clicks, yet different whitethorn complaint for views. With affiliate marketing, you marque a outgo with each caller sale. In the lawsuit of integrated hunt and contented marketing, the outgo whitethorn beryllium successful the resources required to optimize your website and nutrient optimized content.

Timeline

How agelong volition you beryllium utilizing these channels? Do you person a circumstantial promo that you’d similar to push? Are you going to motorboat a caller marque consciousness run close earlier the back-to-school season? Do you person evergreen worldly that you tin utilize for months oregon years? Or, are you looking to boost your Black Friday income performance?

Factor the timing and timeframe of your integer selling campaigns into your planning. This volition assistance you trade the astir effectual messaging for each campaign. In addition, it volition assistance you successful structuring your campaigns for greater ROI.

Enhance your online presence. Be wherever your assemblage is, and beryllium wherever they go. Digital selling channels assistance you to efficiently scope consumers and concern buyers astatine scale. Use the channels to pass and prosecute with them, and to successfully thrust them to action.