7 Effective Digital Marketing Channels
( Part 1 )
What is Digital Marketing ?
Digital marketing involves utilizing internet-based technologies to promote and sell products or services. Digital marketers employ a variety of online strategies to connect with audiences, such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, targeted ads, affiliate marketing, and other digital channels.
What Is a Digital Marketing Channel?
Digital marketing channels are the platforms used to distribute digital marketing content. When promoting a new product, you may select one or more channels to communicate your message. Popular digital marketing channels include social media, video marketing, and influencer marketing.
What Is a Digital Marketing Channel?
Digital marketing channels serve as the pathways for executing a digital marketing strategy. The main goal of digital marketing is to harness the internet and other digital technologies to boost brand awareness, drive sales, or improve key performance metrics. Below are some of the reasons why digital marketing channels are essential for businesses today
7 Popular and Effective Digital Marketing Channels
(a) Social Media Marketing
Research shows that 72% of adults use at least one social media platform. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn, social media offers access to a large portion of the global population. This makes it one of the most vital online marketing channels to utilize.
Advantages of Using Social Media as a Marketing Channel
- Humanizes your brand, making it more relatable to your audience.
- Provides powerful, built-in analytics to help track and achieve your social media KPIs.
- Typically free to use, offering cost-effective marketing opportunities.
This Channel Is Ideal For:
Ecommerce businesses, retailers, creative agencies, freelancers, and many other companies that engage directly with the public can reap significant benefits from investing in social media marketing.
How to Start Social Media Marketing
Begin by setting up profiles for your business on all relevant social media platforms. Then, consistently post content to grow your online presence. You have flexibility with what you share, but many social media marketers use a blend of:
- Links to blog posts from your business website
- Links to articles that appeal to your target audience
- Short videos highlighting your products or services
- Customer testimonials or reviews
- Photos that showcase your offerings or content relevant to your audience
Tips for Success
- Develop a simple social media calendar to outline what and when you’ll post. This helps maintain consistency and allows for better planning.
- Be engaging. Social media thrives on interaction, so tag relevant people or businesses, and actively respond to comments on your posts.
(b) SEO ( Search Engine Optimization )
If you’re not actively investing in SEO, you’re likely missing out on a significant portion of your potential audience. That’s because 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, and SEO helps your website appear frequently and in top positions on search engine results pages.
Don’t assume your SEO efforts are complete just because your website appears in Google results. You need to rank well for keywords relevant to your business. Remember, less than 1% of Google users click on websites listed on the second page of search results.
Benefits of SEO as a Marketing Channel
- Helps users find your business organically, boosting trust.
- Provides long-term, compounding benefits as you gain more rankings.
- Enables you to target different stages of the sales funnel with specific keywords.
- Building a strong SEO presence enhances brand recognition.
This Channel Is For
Any business with a website can benefit from SEO since good rankings can expose your brand to thousands or even millions of daily search engine users. However, if you lack the budget for an SEO provider, you may need to take a DIY approach.
How to Get Started With SEO
Getting started is straightforward. Here’s what to do:
- Identify the keywords you want your website to rank for.
- Publish content that incorporates these keywords.
- Track your website’s performance for those keywords using Google Search Console or third-party SEO tools.
Tips for Success
- Start early. SEO is a long-term strategy and can take six months or more for new keyword-optimized content to rank well. Begin now to see results when you need them.
- Choose realistic keywords. Ranking for a broad term like “used cars” may take significant time and resources. Instead, focus on more specific, achievable keywords, like “Chicago used cars,” to improve your chances of ranking faster.
(c) Email Marketing
Benefits of Email Marketing
- Provides direct access to potential customers—just an email address gets you to the top of their inbox.
- Can produce fast results, with more than half of those who open marketing emails doing so within six hours.
- Can be automated using low-cost or free software.
This Channel Is Ideal For
Email marketing works well for businesses that publish blog content, run periodic sales or promotions, or want to announce new product offerings.
How to Get Started With Email Marketing
The first step is building an email list. To ethically gather emails, try the following approaches:
- Include an email signup form prominently on your website.
- For online purchases, ask users to provide their email for updates on products or services.
- Offer valuable content on your site and require an email address for access.
Once you have a list, send regular emails to nurture those contacts. This could be in the form of an email newsletter, or you might send emails when you launch a sale or publish new blog content.
Tips for Success:
- Craft effective subject lines. These can make or break your campaign, so create engaging and clear ones that encourage recipients to open the email. Avoid clickbait, as it often leads to disappointment.
- Good example: “21 Ways to Grow Your Business in 2022.” It makes a clear, deliverable promise.
- Bad example: “You’ll Never Believe How These Businesses Grew Their Sales Last Year.” This sounds like clickbait and sets false expectations.
- Provide a simple way to unsubscribe to avoid being marked as spam. This ensures compliance and builds trust with your audience.
Phillip Johnhera
- October 11, 2024