In today’s digital world, you need a comprehensive digital marketing strategy to get in front of your target audience. Which digital marketing channels should you use?
In today’s digital world, you need a comprehensive digital marketing strategy to get in front of your target audience.
Research shows that 87% of consumers start their buying journey online, whether they’re checking out your website, reading customer reviews or following your social media accounts.
But before you can create a digital marketing strategy, you need to decide which channels will work best for your brand.
For those that don’t know, a digital marketing channel is simply a way of communicating your marketing content.
Popular channels include email marketing, social media and SEO, but there are many more to choose from.
With so many options available, it can be challenging to figure out which digital marketing channels are the right fit for your business.
In this article we explain what digital marketing is, highlight some of the most effective channels and help you decide which approach best suits your business.
Firstly, What Is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is defined as any type of marketing that uses internet-based technology to help sell a product or service.
Companies use digital marketing to reach customers via their desktop or mobile device, and with over 63% of the global population now able to access the internet, the potential reach is huge.
There are many effective digital marketing channels, such as social media marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) and more.
Digital marketing offers an attractive alternative to traditional marketing channels like adverts in newspapers, on billboards or on TV, and is generally a more effective way to communicate with your ideal customers.
Here are a few reasons why:
It Allows You to Reach a Wider Audience
With digital marketing, the world is your oyster.
Since anyone with an internet connection can potentially view your content, digital marketing allows you to promote your business to a global audience.
This can be great for a SaaS (software as a service) company that wants to sell its products to international customers.
But digital marketing is also a great way for smaller businesses to reach a wider audience within their community.
For example, a local florist could promote their business on Instagram and follow people who live in the area.
This way the business can potentially expose itself to a much wider target audience than by posting an advert in the local newspaper or sending out leaflets.
You Can Promote Different Types of Content
Digital marketing allows you to be experimental with the type of content you produce.
Many large businesses use social media marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing and more to target their customers.
Those operating on a smaller scale may prefer to focus on one or two of these channels depending on what works best for them.
Digital marketing can take the form of social media posts, helpful blog articles, email newsletters and much more.
By creating content to appeal to specific consumer groups and tracking the results, businesses can hone in on the most effective digital marketing channels for their unique brand.
Increase Brand Awareness
Brand awareness is all about how familiar consumers are with your brand. Digital content can help your brand become more recognisable in many different ways.
You might decide to focus on search engine optimization (SEO) to make your website rank higher on Google, or you could use influencer marketing to promote your brand to the followers of a popular influencer in your niche.
By increasing brand awareness within your target market, you increase the likelihood of those consumers eventually purchasing your product or service.
It Gives You Detailed Insight
One of our favourite things about digital marketing is how easy it is to measure results.
Brands can instantly see how well their digital marketing campaign is performing by analysing data on conversion rates, number of website visitors, level of engagement with social media and more.
Tools like Google Analytics can help you to measure this kind of data yourself, or you can enlist the help of a digital marketing agency like us for more detailed insight.
It’s much more difficult to measure the success of a traditional marketing campaign, since broadcasting an advert on TV or handing out leaflets cannot be directly linked to an increase in sales.
8 Effective Digital Marketing Channels for Businesses
Want to boost your digital marketing efforts but not sure where to start?
Check out our list below for an introduction to our favourite digital marketing channels, including:
- How each channel works
- The benefits it can bring to your business
- What types of business it is best suited to
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategy that involves creating and sharing useful content that will appeal to your audience.
Rather than directly promoting a specific product or service and encouraging customers to buy it, content marketing takes a more subtle approach.
A company that sells bespoke furniture could post blog articles on its website about how to create a comfortable living space, or which interior design trends are popular right now.
Although the content is not directly selling a product, it positions the company as an expert in its industry and a source to be trusted.
By increasing brand awareness and creating relevant, engaging articles, content marketing keeps your company top of mind.
Articles can be shared through a variety of digital channels, including on your website, social media, newsletters and more.
You can either write the content yourself, or hire a freelancer or a content marketing agency to help you with the strategy and production.
2. Social Media Marketing
With the average adult spending almost two and a half hours per day on social media, it represents a huge marketing opportunity.
There are multiple social media platforms to choose from, and finding the most effective one will depend on the type of business you have and your audience.
If you have a clothing brand aimed at 18-25 year olds, it might benefit you to have a presence on TikTok.
But if your target audience is of an older age group, you might be more likely to find them on Facebook or Instagram.
Social media marketing is a great way for businesses to engage and build relationships with their audience, as well as a place to find out what really makes them tick.
By creating polls, responding to comments and engaging with your audience in a more informal way, you can get to know your audience while boosting your brand’s reputation.
Social media is also a good place to share links to blog posts and other articles your target audience will find interesting, as well as high-quality images of your product or glowing customer reviews.
