DIGITAL
MARKETING

What are the different digital marketing channels?

From conversational voice search to email marketing and everything in-between, there is no lack of options to consider in engaging with your customers. Here is a high-level list of several channels, linked to additional resources:

Social media: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.

• Questions to ask before jumping in
• Company social media policy
• Sample post topics
• Using social media to grow your business
• Components of successful social media campaigns
• Social selling via LinkedIn video
•  

Email: Are you regularly delivering valuable information to current and/or prospective customers?

• Email-driven content marketing
• Optimized email marketing
•  

Search engines: What are you doing (paid and unpaid) to gain traffic and prominent ranking from search engines?

• Search marketing overview
• Designing a search marketing strategy

Company website: Have you established a place online where your customers are motivated to interact with you, respond to your offers and put their trust in you?

• The need for a great website
• Website design inspiration
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Company blog: Are you using your unique insight to distinguish your brand as a go-to authority in your industry?

• Blogging stats and trends
• Blog topic generator
•  

Display advertising: Could your brand benefit from running a targeted website banner, search engine or social network ad?

• Boosting bids on Google Ads
• Paid social media guide
•  

What channels are best for my business?

We have an opportunity to build solid relationships with all our customers, and the best strategy we have for building those relationships is well-deployed, on-point communication. But how do we know where and how to communicate with our customers? The short answer: There is no “standard mix.”

Our messages are best deployed when we’re using the channels our customers prefer and respond to.

 

Just like our relationships, your business is unique in the channel mix that works for you and your customers (in both the digital and traditional marketing spaces). There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and like anything worth doing right, it takes time and hard work to find the formula that works for you. A great question to guide this search is:

Where are my customers most willing to interact with my message?

 

Here’s a tip – the answer to the above is not everywhere. Don’t feel like you need to be in every space, right away. It’s better to ease in and be impactful in fewer places than irrelevant everywhere. Ultimately, the value is found in developing a sound strategy and purpose for each channel, with a solid implementation plan that includes the necessary resources to give that channel a fair shot at success.