Marketing has been around as long as humans have been selling things. Marketing channels have been around for almost as long. Technically defined, a marketing channel is the transfer of goods from the point of production to the point of consumption. Simply defined: a marketing channel is a process of selling something to someone else.
Egyptians used papyrus to make sales messages and wall posters. The ancient Chinese used calligraphic signboards and ink paper. The British used posters and town criers. These were the standard marketing services before the advent of mass media.
In the United States, the most effective marketing channels were print, radio, television, billboards, and direct mail – right up to the birth of the internet.
Today, the most effective marketing channels are websites, email, targeted digital advertising, and events (in-person or digital).
Most Effective Marketing Channels
Here are the most effective marketing channels for your business in 2023 – and how to use them to your advantage.
Search engine optimization (SEO)
SEO is all about improving your website’s search engine ranking. Why? 62% of consumers use a search engine when they are researching a new business, product, or service, according to HubSpot. And 41% of consumers use a search engine when they are ready to buy. So, it’s easy to see why optimizing your website is so important.
There are many ways you can optimize your website for better search results; like setting up a Google Analytics account, utilizing keywords, analyzing backlinks, and publishing optimized content. Click here for some more ways to optimize your website.
Email marketing
Email marketing is still the dominant marketing channel. It continues to be the best way to engage subscribers and drive traffic. Email marketing has an ROI of 3,800%. That means for every $1 spent on email marketing, businesses make an average of $38 back in return.
How is this possible? Email marketing has a number of key advantages that make it one of the most effective marketing channels available:
- It’s highly targeted. You can segment your email list to send highly personalized and relevant messages to each subscriber. This increases the likelihood that they’ll engage with your content and makes them more likely to convert into customers or clients.
- It’s inexpensive. Even if you’re paying for an email service provider, the cost of sending an email is typically much lower than other marketing channels like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
- It’s easy to track ROI. With email marketing, you can track how many people open and click through your messages. This makes it easy to see how well your campaigns are performing and make necessary adjustments to improve results.Content marketing
Content marketing
focuses on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It is used to attract attention and generate leads, expand the customer base, generate, or increase online sales, increase brand awareness, and engage an online community of users.
Content marketing attracts new customers by creating and sharing valuable free content. It helps companies create sustainable brand loyalty, provides valuable information to users, and creates a desire to purchase products from the business in the future.
Social media marketing
Social media marketing is one of the most powerful and cost-effective ways to sell your product or service online. It builds loyalty, drives leads and sales, and increases traffic on your website. Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, and YouTube are wildly popular among advertisers. 93% of marketers worldwide used social media in 2022, and although email marketing still reigns supreme, social media marketing ranks right up there. Here are some of the benefits of social media marketing when you do it right:
- Increase Traffic
- Humanize your business.
- Increase Brand Awareness and Brand Loyalty
- Increase your visibility
Influencer marketing
Influencer marketing is a relationship between a trusted figure on social media (the Influencer) and a product or service. The influencer promotes the product through different media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. An influencer typically has a large audience of 10,000 or more followers and has knowledge or appears to have knowledge of what they are promoting. The only requirement for an influencer is “trust.”
Influencer marketing is like word-of-mouth advertising going viral. 92% of buyers turn to their peers for advice and word-of-mouth advertising accounts for a big percentage of all purchases – so you can see the “influence” that influencer marketing can generate. It is like a recommendation from a friend.
Today, influencer marketing is huge. What started out as a novelty 15 years ago on Facebook and YouTube is now a surging, thriving industry. It has grown from a $1.7 billion business in 2016 to $13.8 billion in 2022, and this year it is expected to hit $16.4 billion. There are anywhere between 5 million to 20 million influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Pay-per-click (PPC) Advertising
PPC or pay-per-click is a type of internet marketing that involves advertisers paying a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. You only pay for advertising if your ad is actually clicked on. PPC is a very effective marketing channel, but the cost can be prohibitive if you are a small business. On a monthly basis, the average small and medium-sized businesses spend between $9,000 and $10,000 on PPC. That adds up to about $108,000 to $120,000 per year. Learn more about PPC here.
These are some of the most effective marketing channels for 2023. There are more – and we will list them in an upcoming article. If you don’t want to wait and want to know what they are now, contact us today and we’ll be happy to share them with you.
