16 Most Effective Online Marketing Channels Today

Marketing can be an expensive pursuit, so you need to make sure that it delivers a high ROI. 

When you don’t plan out where you place your messaging, you won’t effectively reach your target market. If you spend thousands on advertising to the wrong consumer, the chances of sales increasing from your efforts are slim.

It is a task few marketers feel confident in — finding the right marketing channels for their messaging. For something so intrinsic to your bottom line, you have to find the perfect blend for a multi-channel strategy.

Fortunately, online channels are both expanding and becoming more accessible. Marketers can better fine-tune their approach and precisely target their potential customers. In this growing marketing landscape, which online marketing channels are best for you?

This article will help you understand the function and benefits of today’s most effective marketing channels. With this guide, you will be equipped to formulate your own cost-effective omnichannel strategy.

What Is a Marketing Channel?

A marketing channel is any platform you use for communicating with your audience. Marketers strategically use marketing channels for general advertising to their target audience and generating online leads.

Traditional marketing channels may be familiar. TV advertising, radio time, billboards, and direct mail are just some of the decades-old marketing channels still used today. As effective as these channels are, their costs can be limiting for a lot of small and mid-sized businesses.

The shift in consumption to online channels is beneficial for those with limited marketing means. A wide range of helpful tools, resources, and new platforms are enabling business owners to develop budget-friendly strategies.

The Most Effective Marketing Channels You Should Prioritize Today

Online marketing channels encompass a growing variety of social networks, websites, and communications connecting brands to audiences. As target audiences are unique, the mix of particular channels you use will be equally unique. 

You must understand where you can reach your ideal customers and the value that each channel provides for them. Let’s look at the most effective channels that marketers are using to reach and connect with consumers.

Internet Marketing

Online marketing channels vary in cost but the majority generally deliver a high ROI. Depending on your business goals, you can build a mixed strategy, optimized for reaching customers, building relationships, or selling products. The key is finding where you can provide the best value in a customer-centric approach.

The following are the most productive routes for making your mark online.

Websites

Your website is the hub for much of the customer education and transactional capability every business needs. A well-managed website covers details about products, customers you serve, business contact information, and company values. Users should be able to find the information and solutions they need in easy steps.

Consumers make judgments about a business based on their website appearance and user experience. As a business owner, there are a few immediate steps you can take to start optimizing your brand experience:

  • Make your site mobile-friendly.
  • Keep your domain straightforward and descriptive so users can find it.
  • Provide contact information in an easy-to-find spot on the homepage.
  • Create clean web pages. Only focus on images, texts, and videos that provide relevance and value to make pages navigable.
  • Place a CTA on every page. Offer lead magnets, contact information, or purchase opportunities where users immediately see them.
  • Test your interface and website speed. Have friends audit how easy it is to find certain information and provide feedback prior to launch. Use paid and free online optimization tools like PageSpeed Insights or Screaming Frog to test functionality.
  • Continually track page performance with tools like Google Analytics to measure bounce rates, click-through, and conversion.

Newsletters

Email newsletters keep audiences up-to-date on company and industry news and products. Establishing a recurring newsletter with marketing automation tools is a great way to keep you connected to customers. 

You can promote your brand personality and image with a quality newsletter. This gives you ground to build relationships and customer loyalty. With segmentation and personalized messages and promotions, newsletters are practical ways to drive website traffic and sales.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is similar to influencer marketing, where you partner with a reputable industry figure. These individuals market your products to their (hopefully) large followings for a fee. 

Find a partner whose audience aligns with your target customer to host your advertising and promote your brand. This will help broaden your reach, earn new business leads and strengthen your brand’s authority.

Searching for affiliates is facilitated by a number of specialized forums and communities. Joining networks like Affilorama Community or Clickbank is an inexpensive way to find quality marketing partners. You can even look to customers and business partners for affiliate opportunities.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a primary weapon in the digital marketer’s arsenal. Lists built from lead magnets ensure that your email messaging is going to potential customers. After all, these individuals have already displayed interest in your solutions by opting in to your emails.

There are two keys to an effective email message — personalization and brevity. Using software services that provide autoresponders and segmentation tools is extremely helpful in personalizing emails. Customers who are sent emails based on their actions like abandoning carts are more likely to convert.

Whether you are emailing based on individual users or general email lists, value density is essential. Consumers like messaging that’s catchy and to the point. From the headline through the body, provide valuable information or entertainment to keep readers engaged.

Podcast

Podcast

Podcasts are in high demand, with over half the population over the age of 12 listening in. Audio content is an excellent way to give your brand a real voice. Consumers can view your business in a human light as they learn your values and perspectives.

Airwaves are a perfect place to craft stories around your brand and provide worthwhile information. Customers have more time to connect with podcasts, taking time to listen on drives or during exercise. There’s more space to add content while maintaining engagement than in an email or blog.

SEO

Getting your pages to the top of search rankings is an enormous accomplishment for marketers. Organic search results are trusted by users because they know search engines are returning the most relevant informational content. When Google returns your page as the answer to their query, users are more likely to click and convert.

Search engine optimization can sometimes be done in-house with online tools. Keyword and backlink builders are great places to start, with services like Google Keywords or Ahrefs providing useful insights. For advanced SEO, you may want to partner with specialized marketing or lead generation services to get the most utility.

Retargeting

Retargeting, sometimes referred to as remarketing, is a popular marketing methodology that you likely see several times a day. Marketers deliver ads to users who had previously visited their websites, taking advantage of assumed interest to promote their brand. It is a second chance for marketers to push their brand and convert bounced visitors.

Cookie data is the main manner of identifying individuals for retargeting. When users click a link or perform a certain action on a webpage, their information is stored for retargeting purposes. Marketers can segment messaging by building lists based on user actions, thus making their ads more impactful.

Whitepapers

B2B companies rely on value-laden content to supply to business leads throughout the sales cycle. As consumers progress through the buyer’s journey, they need more differentiated, usable content to consider your solutions. The catchy email or inviting infographic may have sparked attention, but the whitepaper is where you display your authority.

Whitepapers are more than long-form blog posts. These are uniquely valuable assets that lend advanced insight into industry trends and data, solving your reader’s business problems.

As valuable pieces of content, whitepapers can catch consumers further down the funnel and convert them to leads. Using them as gated material helps fill email lists and adds to your collection of SEO-focused content.

Chatbot

Employing a chatbot is a new way that companies across a range of industries are creating better experiences. AI-controlled chatbots are starting to handle essential customer service functions that save customers time. With 24/7 access and more human interaction without a wait time, businesses can easily add value to their websites.

Adding chatbots creates a more streamlined customer service experience and reduces front-end costs. By building chatbots to intelligently escalate questions, live agents will be given more time to address pressing customer issues. Customers will enjoy a smooth, uninterrupted transition to a solution without a lengthy hold time.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

If you want a short route to building brand awareness, PPC campaigns are an excellent choice. Rather than rely on SEO for incredibly competitive rankings, PPC advertising provides the exposure you need for a fee. Google Ads and Facebook Ads are the most popular PPC platforms for quickly generating leads.

Blogging/Guest Blog

Content marketing is a cost-effective method of improving search rankings and creating a following. Blogging, as the centerpiece of many content marketing strategies, bolsters your website with evergreen content. 

Blogging will continue to supply value as customers search for information. When paired with SEO and employing CTAs, blogs can reach a larger audience and push them toward your solutions. Guest blogging, writing for other websites, can help you build a stronger network for SEO through backlink opportunities.

Social Media Marketing

Engaging with consumers on social media is one of the best ways of fostering a community around your business. It gives you a chance to target consumers, engage in dialogue and promote content. Social media platforms are like a lead generation website, a place to draw users into your brand.

Facebook Page/Groups

Supporting your website, Facebook is a popular place to reach and inform customers. It is a great place to promote your content and drive traffic to your website. It also gives users a platform to leave reviews and engage with your brand’s voice. By staying active in conversations and regularly posting content, consumers will be more trusting and appreciative of your concern.

Facebook AdsFacebook Ads

Facebook Ads ties to Instagram, giving you two platforms to advertise. It can retarget ads from user website visits, giving you that second chance to close business. It can also put your brand in front of brand new audiences who were unaware of your brand. With target audience definitions, Facebook Ads make it incredibly efficient to find the lead likely to buy.

LinkedIn Page

One of the best lead generation tips for B2B sales reps is to invest time in your LinkedIn page. LinkedIn can help you find new leads and connect with industry professionals to expand your business. Like Facebook, you can build your professional network by jumping into LinkedIn groups and promoting regular content.

Google My Business (GMB)

For generating local leads, Google My Business is an inexpensive way to get in front of customers. When you get set up on GMB, customers will see your profile when they search for local businesses like yours. With basic SEO, you can take advantage of the limited space to promote your unique services.

Youtube Channels

Like podcasts, Youtube channels, and video marketing in general, is great for your brand personality. Customers stay engaged with video and can take cues from production quality to measure authority. Taking time to create recurring videos for Youtube can supply your social media outreach with value as well.

Contact the Selling Revolution to Build Your Multi-Channel Strategy

Any of these effective online marketing channels can help you generate more small business leads. With these tips, business leaders can be empowered to control how they connect with and earn customers.

Lead generation companies are valuable partners to help consistently draw in new customers. For SMBs, bringing that effort in-house is an even more economical way to create ongoing success. At the Selling Revolution, our sales and marketing experts consult with our clients to establish growth-oriented strategies. For information on how we can help you create a culture of success, contact our team today.