7 digital marketing channels: what you need to know
While it’s true that digital is not enough to carry a brand’s marketing, we also live in a world where it no longer makes any sense to think of our digital lives as separate from the rest of our lives. After all, with about 1.5 billion smartphones having been sold every year since 2016, there are now more than 6 billion smartphone users worldwide, and most of us won’t even use the washrooom without going online.
And the way brands have to market themselves is no exception. So-called traditional marketing channels such as coupons, retail displays, billboards, and TV advertising (to name a few) continue to be important, but to be effective, they also have to sync or align with digital channels. Coupons should also be digital, retail promotions must align with online counterparts, billboards should feature social profiles, and TV ads should always mention your website.
The point is that digital marketing channels are as diverse and nuanced as their analogue counterparts. Each of them has their own advantages and limitations, and the channels that make the most sense for your brand will depend on your audience, brand strategy, and business goals.
Table of contents
1. Content Marketing
Not so much a digital channel as it is a toolset that brands can use to engage users across other channels, content marketing is arguably the foundation of all other forms of digital marketing. Indeed, 81% of marketers view content as a core business strategy.
After all, it’s content that ranks on keywords. Paid ads drive traffic back to product content. And it’s different forms of content (images, videos, memes, etc.) that are shared and engaged with across social media. Insofar as content is a toolset, though, there are also different content tools for different marketing jobs:
Different content assets target users at different levels of the acquisition funnel. What works at the top of the funnel does not necessarily apply to the bottom of the funnel – and vice versa.
So it’s important that brands weigh their investment in content marketing against (1) their goals, (2) the audience they’re trying to reach, (3) the channels they’re trying to reach them through, and(4) the engagement they’re trying to generate.
2. Social Media
According to Statista, the number of global social media users is expected to reach 3.96 billion by the end of 2022, and 4.41 billion by the end of 2025. And their activity isn’t limited to likes, shares, and comments. For instance, in 2020 retail social commerce sales in the USA totalled $26.97 billion. And in Q2 of 2021, the average value of online orders referred through social media was $81.05. And with 97% of Millennials and Gen Z using social media to learn about new products, the growth in social commerce seems likely to persist for some time to come.
credit: Adam Jang
Of course, to think of or approach social media as a single channel would be disastrously reckless. Each social platform is its own unique ecosystem with its own best practices and use cases, and the one best suited for your brand will depend largely on your brand’s goals and target audience.
Just because your audience is present on a platform, it doesn’t mean it’s the right time and place to engage them. And even when it is, your brand’s messaging needs to be tailored to that platform – i.e. packaged into a platform compatible format. Suffice it to say, every social platform is unique, and before investing in any given platform, your brand needs to weigh its goals and target audience against that platform’s ecosystem and user base.
3. Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a digital channel that blends social media platforms with 3rd party content creators and the audiences that follow them. It’s a channel where brands can build trust and recognition while simultaneously outsourcing their content marketing and audience engagement.
It’s estimated that by 2023, brands will spend $4.62 billion per year on influencer-related marketing campaigns – a 25% increase from 2021. And for good reason: “On average, brands can earn $5.78 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing.”
But again, it’s important that a brand’s larger strategy drives its investment in influencer marketing, and not the other way around. With “48% of consumers [distrusting] influencers,” brands must ensure that they’re targeting the right audience with the right message through the right influencers at the right time.
4. Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the oldest (and most proven) digital marketing channels, and for good reason. With an estimated >330 billion emails that will be sent in 2022, email continues to be a primary pillar of most consumers’ digital interactions.
It’s no wonder, then, that brands continue to rely on email marketing. According to Custora E-Commerce Pulse, email marketing produced the 3rd most transactions (19.8%) of all digital channels in 2021 – slightly trailing only organic search (21.8%) and paid search (19.9%). And with an estimated ROI of $36 for every $1 spent, the value of those transactions cannot be understated.
Of course, email marketing is not without its own limitations. For starters, to engage consumers on a meaningful level via email, it’s important that they have opted in. Indeed, many jurisdictions have regulations on how consumers can be marketed to via email. More importantly, the content of those emails need to be both targeted and relevant to those recipients. In other words, it need to feature content (e.g. promotions, products, services, etc.) that reflect users’ needs and interests, or even mirrors their previous interactions or purchases.
5. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Search Engine Optimization (or SEO) is the process of ensuring that your site (and products/services) are discoverable through organic search results – i.e. the search results that are not paid ads. It’s one of the most targeted sources of traffic because it allows you to reach consumers who are already looking for your brand’s products or services – i.e. they are actively searching for them. In other words, organic search users are already one step down the conversion funnel.
credit: NisonCo PR and SEO
SEO offers a number of other advantages. For starters, it allows brands to build equity because content found through organic search is perceived as more valuable and trustworthy by consumers. SEO is the starting point for the majority of online transactions, with 44% of ecommerce sessions starting with a search engine and 23.6% of ecommerce sales tied directly to organic search. Furthermore, as content continues to rank organically over time, it also offer brands a diminishing CPC – i.e. each additional click costs them less than the previous one.
This being said, SEO also has its limitations namely, that it’s a medium- to long-term tactic. It takes time to build equity and trust with search engines (and consumers). And just because SEO is not a pay-to-play ecosystem, brands still need to invest in content and other site optimizations to make sure that they rank competitively over time. So it’s not always suitable for supporting short-term campaigns – unless, of course, the investment in SEO was made well in advance of the campaign’s launch.
6. Paid Search (SEM / PPC)
Also known as SEM (search engine marketing) or PPC (pay per click), paid search offers much of the same intentional targeting as SEO (i.e. reaching consumers who are actively searching for products/services), but with much more immediate results. Indeed, SEM is the ideal complement to any longer-term SEO play because it allows your brand to reach qualified users in the short-term.
And there is also something to be said for the ROI of paid search. According to Google, for “every $1 spent on Google AdWords, businesses earn an average revenue of $2.”
That being said, because paid search is a pay-to-play channel, it also requires a greater upfront investment and higher ongoing management costs, and doesn’t offer the same diminishing CPC over time that SEO does. Furthermore, because your brand will pay for every click, it won’t be building the same kind of digital equity that it would through organic search.
7. Native ads
Similar to how influencer marketing allows brands to outsource their content marketing, native advertising allows brands to use an automated CPC bidding model(similar to paid search) to seamlessly integrate their messaging directly with 3rd party content. And in doing so, brands can engage and retarget users at every level of the conversion funnel. After all, “[n]ative ads support the entire customer lifecycle–from initially attracting and converting sales prospects, to keeping existing customers engaged and/or up selling and cross-selling them.”
In fact, consumers interact with native ads 20-60% more than traditional banner ads. And compared to traditional display ads, native ads increase brand affinity 9%, generate nearly 9 times the CTR, and increase purchase intent by 18%.
That being said, a successful native advertising campaign will depend on a brand fully understanding their target market, the audience of 3rd party content networks, and the action they need those users to take to support their business goals. In other words, native advertising is not a stand-in for brand awareness, but a single pillar that can be used to elevate it further (if used strategically).
A channel for every audience
Every digital channel is unique. Every digital channel represents different opportunities and audiences with different mindsets at different points in the conversion funnel. Every digital channel is more suitable for some purposes over others. And every digital channel has its advantages and limitations.
What’s important for brands is that they don’t put the horse before the cart by committing to (or investing in) any given digital channel without a clear strategy with measurable goals and KPIs. From there, brands can evaluate the digital channels most suited to those goals, and devise an approach that’s designed to leverage those channels towards those goals.
