In this article, we’ll explore eight powerful marketing channels and guide through how to pick the ones that best align with your business and goals.
What is a marketing channel?
A marketing channel describes any medium that companies use to attract new customers and promote their products.
Marketing channels can be digital platforms, such as social media and search engines, which enable brands to reach online customers. Or, they could be offline channels, such as magazines, radio, billboards, and direct mail.
So, why use marketing channels?
Think of them as the bridge that connects your brand to customers and sales. Different types of marketing channels can be integrated at every stage of your funnel to attract and engage new customers, promote products/services, and provide customer support.
They’re key to expanding your brand’s reach, generating leads, and driving conversions and loyalty.
8 effective marketing channels to consider
Let’s dive into 8 of the most effective distribution channels worth focusing your marketing efforts on.
1. Email marketing
Email marketing communicates with customers via email. You can use it to send various kinds of promotional material.
For example, you might send personalized product recommendations, time-sensitive alerts about upcoming sales, or abandoned cart reminders. You might even create an automated email series to welcome new subscribers and nurture them into making a purchase with an exclusive discount.
You can also leverage emails to send informative content, such as educational newsletters, event invitations, and upcoming launches.
Email marketing is one of the most reliable digital marketing channels for B2B and B2C companies alike.
That said, it isn’t without its challenges. With marketing emails flooding customer inboxes, you need to know how to stand out from the crowd with a captivating subject line and compelling copy. Email personalization and segmentation are also common best practices for increasing engagement and open rates.
2. Content marketing
Content marketing is the popular strategy of creating and distributing original content across a variety of channels — for example, blog posts, ebooks, videos, and podcasts. The aim is to provide value to your audience by educating, engaging, and entertaining them, ultimately building trust and driving action.
For example, let’s say you sell wealth management services. You might create a series of blog posts on relevant topics, such as how to budget on a high income or best practices for investing in the stock market.
3. SMS marketing
SMS is a direct channel that allows for immediate, individualized communication with customers in a way that’s more reliable and personal than some other channels. In fact, Klaviyo revealed in a recent study that promotional SMS messages have a click-through rate of 36% — 8x higher than email.
But again, SMS marketing can be tricky to get right.
Customer phone numbers are notoriously hard to obtain and typically require a sign-up incentive. What’s more, you have to carefully consider message types and frequency.
Klaviyo found most customers only want to hear from brands once a week or a few times a week. They don’t want to receive irrelevant, impersonal messages like articles or event announcements, either —- they want personalized texts containing tailored discounts, offers, and product/service info.
So, if you have an outbound call center, consider integrating SMS marketing to increase your reach and boost engagement.
4. Paid ads
Paid ads are a rather traditional type of marketing. But beyond paying to show ads on traditional channels such as TV and billboards, you can also run paid ads on social media and search engines.
Paid ads are an effective way to drive traffic to your website by placing your brand or product front and center of your audience’s attention. For example, a paid ad could place you in the top spot of search engine results pages or in your target audience’s social media feeds. Platforms like ZeroPark can help businesses maximize their paid ad strategies by offering real-time bidding on targeted traffic, which includes pop, redirect, and domain traffic, allowing businesses to reach a broader audience quickly and efficiently.
Paid ads are capable of driving significant visibility, traffic, and potential customers. But, it comes at a cost. So, you’ll have to create a strict budget and pay close attention to your ROI.
5. SEO marketing
Search engine optimization (SEO) marketing involves optimizing your website and digital content for search engines like Google, DuckDuckGo, and Ecosia. The goal is to rank highly on search engine results pages (SERPs) for the specific keywords your target audience uses.
So, if you were a B2B brand selling team collaboration solutions, you might optimize your website to rank highly for keywords like “small business team collaboration software”.
What makes search engine marketing one of the best channels is its ability to drive consistent organic traffic. The internet is often a customer’s first port of call when researching products, services, and companies..On Google, the top three results get 54% of all clicks. And, the #1 result has an impressive click-through rate of 27.6% — almost double the #2 results. So, if your website is in a top spot, it’s likely to drive significant traffic and potential customers your way
6. Social media marketing
As another driver of organic traffic, social media has become a key marketing channel for increasing awareness, building relationships, and fostering a community around your brand.
Social media is particularly useful in a go-to-market sales strategy, as it can be used to conduct research into new markets, maximize brand visibility, and drive demand generation through viral-worthy content.
You can use platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook to share your brand’s story and promotional messages through posts, images, and videos.
As for which social media channel is best for marketing — it entirely depends on where your target audience exists online. B2B customers tend to frequent channels like LinkedIn and Facebook, while today’s B2C customers prefer platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. But it could be different for you, so do your research.
7. Event marketing
Hosting and attending in-person events, such as trade shows, conferences, and launch parties, is a traditional marketing channel that can yield big results. Not only can it increase exposure among potential customers, but it can build the type of authentic relationships that other marketing campaigns and channels can’t.
Bear in mind, though, that event marketing is one of the most expensive options on this list. Hosting a local or virtual event, such as a webinar or panel, might be better for smaller businesses with tighter budgets.
8. Word-of-mouth marketing
Word-of-mouth marketing refers to when your current customers tell other people — their friends, family, colleagues, and social media followers, for instance — about their exceptional experience with your brand.
Curious, potential customers will then become aware of and interested in your brand. More importantly, they’re also more likely to make a purchase for the simple reason that personal and authentic recommendations are more trustworthy than branded marketing.
You can use this marketing channel to your advantage by curating customer-centric experiences at every touchpoint. Remember, it’s not just about the quality of your product — your entire customer journey matters.
Let’s say a customer calls your company to make a complaint. Using a virtual call center, you can leverage automatic call distribution (ACD) to quickly route their call to the most suitable agent.
You can also use additional features that empower agents to personalize these customer service interactions, such as call transcriptions, sentiment analysis, and CRM integration.
As a result, the customer’s complaint is promptly resolved, and they’re so satisfied with the experience that they spread the word about your brand. Maybe they rave about your great service to their friends, post a positive review online, or mention you in a post on their socials.
How to choose the best marketing channels for your brand
Now that we’ve shared our list of marketing channels, the question is, how do you know which is best for you?
Should you focus on digital advertising? Or put all of your marketing budget into SEO efforts?
Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to help you decide.
- Define your goals and metrics: Are you trying to boost brand awareness? Increase engagement? Drive more conversions? By clearly defining your goals and pinpointing the aligning success metrics, you can better assess each channel’s suitability.
- Identify your target audience: What channels are your target audience active on? What devices do they use? What types of marketing messages do they prefer? Conduct market research to understand your target audience on a deeper level and align the channels you use with their preferences.
- Build a customer journey map: A customer journey map helps you visualize all touchpoints in the buyer journey, allowing you to integrate the right channels to meet different needs.
Consider the cost: Do you have the budget for higher-cost channels like events and paid ads? Do you have a cloud contact center solution in place to deliver SMS marketing? Weigh up your budget and potential ROI when making a decision.
Key takeaways
Every marketing channel has unique benefits and limitations, which is why most marketers leverage various channels.
So, considering your goals, target audience, budget, and customer journey, evaluate the different options we’ve explored above to gauge which ones are the best fit for you, your customers, and your business.
Frequently asked questions
What are the major marketing channel types?
There are four types of marketing channels: free, paid, traditional, and digital.
- Free marketing channels allow you to upload and share content for free (e.g., social media platforms, SEO, and email).
- Paid channels incur a fee for displaying your ad (e.g., Google ads, social media ads, and print ads).
- Traditional channels use offline media to advertise to audiences (e.g., TV, radio, billboards, and magazines).
- Digital channels use online platforms to reach customers on the internet (e.g., content marketing, video, and social media).
Why should I use marketing channels?
Marketing channels support a variety of key activities that generate leads, engagement, conversions, and loyalty. These include:
- Collecting market research data.
- Reaching new customers.
- Promoting products and services.
- Building relationships through seamless information-sharing and engagement.
- Providing customer support.
Originally published Sep 04, 2024, updated Oct 02, 2024
