Digital marketing is no longer a choice but an imperative for businesses. Whether a small startup or a giant corporation, one needs to employ digital marketing in order to be competitive, connect with their audience, and achieve sales. But with this multitude of channels, it can be hard to identify which one to focus time, energy, and budget on if you are a new entrant.
To get you started, we’ve broken down the top 6 digital marketing channels you must know about, why they’re important, and how to get started with each of them. These six channels are the backbone of any successful digital marketing strategy and mastering them can ensure that you will achieve long-term success in the digital world.
1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
What is SEO?
It means making your website to be on top of search engines when their users look for specific information through these machines. SEO is all about being accessible, relevant, and trustworthy in the eyes of a search engine. In simple words, SEO ensures proper traffic flow to the website that leads to generating more leads, customers, and sales.
Why is SEO Important
- Free Traffic: The greatest attraction of SEO is that it brings free traffic to your website, and you don’t need to pay for ads. Once your site ranks well for your target keywords, it can continue to generate visitors without any further investment.
- Establishes Trust: People trust sites when they are on the first page of Google. Ranking well not only increases your chances of being seen, but it also builds credibility and trust with your audience.
- Long-Term Strategy: SEO is long-term. You might not see immediate results, but good SEO practices can generate consistent traffic and leads over months or even years to come.
How to Get Started
- Conduct Keyword Research: Using Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs, try to find the keywords people are searching for.
- Optimize On-Page Elements: Ensure your website is structured well. Be sure to optimize title tags, meta descriptions, headers, and URLs. In your content, use the target keyword naturally.
- Quality Content: Google loves fresh, relevant, and engaging content. Start a blog or produce valuable resources that solve your audience’s problems.
- Backlinks: Google considers backlinks from reputable websites as a sign of authority. Focus on building high-quality backlinks from related, trusted websites.
- Monitor and Adjust: Make use of tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to track performance and make adjustments accordingly.
- Social Media Marketing (SMM)
2. What is Social Media Marketing?
Social media marketing is the usage of social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok, to promote the brand, engage with its audience, and drive website traffic. It allows companies to connect with their audiences in a more personal, interactive way.
Why Social Media Marketing is Important
- Audience Engagement: The social media sites allow direct interaction with you and your audience. It is through such an interaction with customers via comments, DMs, and polls that you build relationships that create brand loyalty.
- Brand Awareness: Social media can help boost the presence of your brand on the web. Good content, consistently created, helps increase reach and make your business known to a larger number of people.
- Targeted Ads: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn all provide platforms that allow businesses to run targeted ads based on demographics, interests, behavior, and so much more. As a result, paid social is a very effective channel to drive conversions.
How to Get Started
- Right Channels: Not all the social media will be suited to your business. For example, LinkedIn is ideal for B2B, Instagram, and TikTok is suited for B2C. Focus on the places your audience spends most time.
- Develop a Content Strategy: Plan what type of content you’ll create—images, videos, blog posts, infographics, etc. Your content should align with your audience’s interests and provide value.
- Engage with Your Audience: Social media is not just about posting content but also about interacting with your followers. Respond to comments, ask questions, and be part of the conversation.
- Track Metrics: Use social media analytics tools such as Facebook Insights or Twitter Analytics to monitor your engagement rates, follower growth, and content performance.
3. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
What is PPC?
PPC advertising involves the payment for advertisements running on search engines or through social media sites. If someone clicks on your ad, you pay for it: hence the name “pay-per-click.” The biggest player in PPC advertising remains Google Ads, but ads can also run on other social media sites, like Facebook and Instagram.
Why PPC Matters
- Instant Traffic: Unlike SEO, which takes time, PPC can drive instant traffic to your site. This is particularly useful when launching a new business or product.
- Highly Targeted: With PPC, you can target users based on their search intent, demographics, location, and even browsing behavior. This makes it highly effective in attracting qualified leads.
- Measurable Results: You can track every aspect of a PPC campaign, from click-through rates to conversions. This makes it easier to calculate ROI and optimize your campaigns over time.
How to Get Started
- Choose Your Platform: Start with Google Ads, as it’s one of the most popular PPC platforms. Alternatively, you can explore paid ads on social platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn.
- Select Keywords: Select keywords relevant to your business and target audience. Utilize Google’s Keyword Planner tool to identify popular and cost-effective keywords.
- Compelling Ad Copy: Develop clear, concise ad copy that describes your unique value proposition. Make sure that the ad is relevant to the keyword and offers a strong call to action (CTA).
- Set Budget: Determine how much you are going to spend per click. Create a daily or a monthly budget and begin working on a small scale until the results are achieved.
- Monitor and Optimize: Google ads and analytics can be very useful in tracking the progress of your ads. To understand which ads and keyword combination is working the best for you, try variation, i.e., you must do A/B Testing.
4. What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a form of promotion that directly sends messages into your audience’s inbox about your products, news, or special deals. In short, it is the most inexpensive way to remain in contact with customers and develop long-term relationships.
Why Email Marketing is Important
- High ROI: Email marketing offers one of the highest returns on investment among digital marketing channels. A study by Litmus reported that for every $1 spent on email marketing, the average return is $42.
- Personalization: You can segment your email list and send highly personalized messages based on user behavior. Personalized emails tend to perform better than generic ones.
- Nurture Leads: Email is an excellent tool for nurturing leads over time. Whether it’s sending a welcome email or re-engaging dormant customers, email keeps your brand top of mind.
Getting Started
- Build an Email List: Offer incentives like discounts or free resources to encourage website visitors to sign up for your email list.
- Design Attractive Emails: Design attractive emails with clear, concise copy. Ensure that every email has a purpose, such as promoting a product, offering a discount, or sharing a blog post.
- Automation: Use email automations like welcome series, cart abandonment emails, and re-engagement campaigns to nurture leads without additional effort.
- Track and Optimize: Use the email marketing tools Mailchimp or ConvertKit, for example, to track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. Keep testing your subject lines, content, and calls-to-action and see what works best.
5. Content Marketing
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a strategy that involves creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and engage a target audience. The content could be in the form of blog posts, videos, podcasts, infographics, eBooks, and more. It aims to educate, entertain, or inform your audience to build trust and drive sales.
Why Content Marketing is Important
- Builds Authority: Consistently creating high-quality content positions your business as an expert in your industry.
- Improves SEO: Great content helps your website rank higher in search engines, bringing in organic traffic.
- Long-Term Benefits: While content marketing requires an investment of time and effort upfront, it pays off long-term by building a loyal audience that trusts your brand.
How to Get Started
- Know what your target audience wants and produce content which would answer their questions, solve their problems, or make them laugh.
- Create a Content Calendar: Plan out the next three months of content to be published. Include all of the blog posts, videos, social media, and more.
- Content Quality: Write in-depth, well-researched, and engaging content. Avoid fluff and provide real value to your audience.
- Promote Your Content: Share your content across your social media channels and email newsletters to maximize its reach.
6. Affiliate Marketing
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where businesses reward affiliates (partners) for driving
They drive traffic or sales to your website through their own marketing efforts. Most affiliates drive sales for your business using individual referral links and earn commissions for each sale or lead.
Why Affiliate Marketing Matters
- Risk-Free: As you are only paying for actual sales or leads, affiliate marketing is a risk-free marketing expansion.
- Extended Reach: Affiliates can help promote your business to a wider audience, often in markets you otherwise wouldn’t reach.
- Scalable: As your business expands, you can recruit even more affiliates to help in promoting your products.
Getting Started
- Select the Right Affiliate Platform: Sign up on an affiliate marketing network, such as ShareASale, ClickBank, or Amazon Associates, to look for affiliates.
- Affiliate Program: Establish a commission structure that encourages affiliates to promote your products.
- Marketing Materials: Provide affiliates with high-quality banners, links, and promotional content to help them market your products effectively.
- Performance Tracking: Use affiliate tracking software to monitor how well your affiliates are performing and adjust your program as needed.
Each of these digital marketing channels does play a role in developing an effective presence online. Understanding the fundamentals of SEO, social media marketing, PPC, email marketing, content marketing, and affiliate marketing can create a complete strategy that drives traffic, builds relationships, and grows your business. Master one or two first, then grow from there. With consistency and the right strategy, you’ll see tangible results in no time!