What digital marketing channels should be your primary focus in 2021 and as we advance? Are you overwhelmed by the many marketing outlets and wondering what the best channels for business growth are?
Digital marketing embraces various online marketing practices, including:
- SEO
- Blogging
- Social media
- Email marketing
- PPC advertising
- Content marketing, and more
For some marketers, especially newbies, choosing the proper channel/channels for your business activities can be challenging. Thus, this article considers why digital marketing channels are essential for your business growth. It also shares the top marketing outlets you should prioritize for marketing your products or services. Additionally, you can take up a digital marketing course to understand the importance of marketing channels and identify the one suited for your business.
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Why are Digital Marketing Channels Important?
Digital marketing assets are vital because it involves the use of multiple digital outlets through various online activities to achieve your business goals. Also, it is a long-term marketing strategy that allows you to meet your audience persona wherever they are on the web.
Unlike traditional marketing, focusing on digital marketing assets is essential as they let you:
- Establish awareness for your products or services
- Build a loyal community around your business
- Build your brand's online reputation, and
- They are cost-effective and measurable
The Top Digital Marketing Channels That Will Boost Your Business Growth
Although there are several online marketing channels, I'm showing you the top five that you can start using right away.
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the most profitable digital marketing channels because it fuels all areas of digital marketing. So, it is never enough to emphasize the importance of marketing content tactics to your online marketing endeavors. Whether it's email, social media, search engine optimization, you name it.
None of these marketing assets can run without content. Otherwise stated, content is the fuel that runs digital marketing. However, just as digital marketing embraces several other assets, many different types of content make up content marketing.
These include:
- Ebooks
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Blog articles
- Infographics
- White papers, among others.
The good news is that content marketing is cost-effective and incredibly practical. According to a study, marketing content is profitable and inexpensive. It costs 62% less than traditional marketing tactics and generates 3x more leads.
That is why 90% of businesses use content to strengthen their marketing strategy. Therefore, prioritize content marketing to scale your business quickly.
Best practices for content marketing:
Create a blog for your business and start publishing applicable blog content. You can develop different types of media content as mentioned above and post them on your blog. However, the materials you post must be helpful to your audience.
For example, if you're creating blog posts, ensure that each article addresses a need. Also, make it entertaining and persuasive enough to convert readers into a loyal community.
2. Email Marketing
Email marketing has been around for the longest and is one of the most efficient digital assets. Although some marketers argue that email marketing is dead, this digital channel is still a formidable force that drives meaningful ROIs.
One of the grounds why email is a vital channel is that it lets you connect with prospects personally. For instance, you can send automated email marketing campaigns to increase sales and revenue. It helps you nurture, qualify leads, and convert them into paying clients.
Emails also help in building awareness for your brand and acquiring leads. Thus, 87% of B2B marketers and almost 80% of B2C marketers use email marketing as a content distribution channel.
Did you know? Although email marketing is not linked directly to SEO, it helps to boost your search results. Research reported that over 50% of online users discover new websites through email campaigns.
And you agree that more website visitors means more web traffic that can increase leads and sales. Email marketing is so effective because a simple automation process will simplify your workflow and improve productivity.
Besides, with email automation, you can start nurturing leads from the first touch-point until you qualify them. Hence, emails should be a part of your digital marketing toolbox.
Email marketing best practices:
- Grow your email subscriber list
- Choose a top email service provider
- Segment your email marketing list according to interest
- Increase your email open rates
- Automated your email marketing campaigns
Types of email campaigns you can send to grow your business:
- Send welcome emails
- Nurture prospects with email series
- Promote your products or services via emails
- Email subscribers special offers, coupons, and more
- Send follow-up emails to re-engage inactive subscribers
- Follow-up on paid clients to get repeat sales/contracts
- Use emails to gather customer feedback
3. Your Online Empire (Blog or Website)
Your blog or website is a fantastic digital marketing channel because that's where interested consumers or clients will look for you. While some potential clients may want to check you out via social media, the bulk of your customers will look at your website or blog to learn more about your business.
It enables them to understand how you can assist with their needs or deliver if they employ your service. Consequently, your blog must be attractive, and the content you publish there should be impressive and valuable to your readers.
In other words, your website should appeal to visitors and make them stick around. But how can you do it? Please, apply the following pointers:
- Use a responsive theme.
- Ensure your site is SEO-friendly
- Showcase your achievements
- Display testimonials
- Keep your content fresh.
- Add clear CTAs where appropriate.
- Improve your site speed
- Improve navigations
- Use quality relevant images.
- Create entertaining blog content frequently.
- Conduct a website audit to guarantee no technical issues (Here are some of the best tools for SEO website audit that you can use). That way, you will find any technical problems, such as crawlerbility and indexing problems, that negatively impact your website performance.
4. Social Media Marketing
Why should you focus on social media marketing? Because like email marketing, a robust social media campaign can increase your brand recognition, generate leads, and boost sales. Using social media gives you a chance to promote your brand and follow prospects and existing clients to serve them better.
For instance, social media analytics provides valuable data that enables you to understand your target market better. You get to know what type of content connects with them and what products or services they prefer.
Such information helps you create informed marketing strategies that get results. Indeed, a survey shows that 73% of marketers believe that social media marketing is an effective channel. That's because over 50% of users use social networking sites to research products or services before making purchases.
Therefore, social media marketing is a viable digital marketing channel for your focus. But how can you maximize social networking platforms?
Here's how:
- Determine which networking sites your audience persona is handing out
- Create and optimize your profiles to boost visibility and engagement
- Create and post helpful content
- Give your followers special offers and the right incentives
- Take advantage of social media advertising
- Customize your content to suit your audience personas
- Use social media analytics to track your campaign performance
5. Influencer Marketing
Another top digital marketing channel to prioritize is influencer marketing. Why? Because working with influencers can quickly grow your brand several folds. Influencers will optimize your brand recognition, improve audience engagement, and boost conversions.
Whatever your marketing goals, collaborating with the right influencers will help you reach your goals faster. Are you wondering why? That's because influencers have the audience you're looking for, and these people will buy from you if recommended by someone they trust.
They create advertising campaigns, including blog articles that relate to your buyer persona. Accordingly, they help improve your marketing performance and increase conversions. Interestingly, 90% of business owners say influencer marketing is better than other digital marketing assets, while 80% of respondents say it's effective.
Remember that the top objectives of influencer marketing are to:
- Boost brand awareness
- Reach a broader audience persona
- Drive web traffic
- Increase conversions
- Maximize sales
With these defined targets, an influencer marketing strategy can generate 8x more ROIs for your business. So, how can you use marketing influencers to reach your goal? Here's a complete guide to growing your business with influencer marketing.
Wrap Up
Online marketing is the way to go as it allows you to reach a global audience and quickly scale your business. Whatever your business niche, using the digital marketing channels above is a worthwhile endeavor.
But for optimal ROIs, you need to develop a marketing strategy for any channels you choose to use. Your strategy is your plan of action. Therefore, consider these digital marketing assets carefully and prioritize them accordingly while testing your results to improve performance.
About the author
Moss Clement is an expert business writer, founder of Moss Media, and blogger at Writers Per Hour. He works closely with B2B marketers, helping small & medium-size businesses build their online presence and brand reputation by consistently delivering quality content that converts. Reach out to him if you need help with content writing!