The six main channels of digital media include search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, display advertising, public relations, and partner marketing. These channels can be further broken down into paid, owned and earned media. Content marketing is a popular form of digital media that encompasses many types of content such as blogs, videos, social media posts, e-books, brochures, infographics, case studies and templates. An effective content marketing strategy is to create content that your audience wants to see with the aim of influencing their buying decisions in the future.
Email is a versatile channel that offers a medium to high return on investment (ROI) for businesses. It allows you to apply the latest trends in content marketing such as personalization and automation without hurting your budget. According to B2B marketers, email is their primary tool for generating leads (73%) and driving revenue (63%). Social media marketing has grown from being a channel used to establish personal connections to something bigger and better than originally imagined.
It allows you to reach potential buyers by engaging them in a more personal and authentic way. Organic social media marketing is preferred as the platform was initially designed to encourage interactions rather than sell products. Investing time in cultivating relationships with your target market while trying to understand their needs and interests can help you generate highly qualified leads on LinkedIn (80%), Twitter (13%) and Facebook (7%). Pay-per-click (PPC) results have also been found to get 150% more conversions than organic visitors.
Display ads allow you to use images, audio and video to better communicate your advertising message. These are displayed on websites, email platforms, social media and many other digital channels that offer ad placements usually in the form of a banner. Social media marketing should be a good starting point for traditional companies that want to rebrand. Digital marketing is a general term that covers all types of online marketing such as video marketing, email marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, SEO, PPC, display advertising and mobile marketing among others.
All digital marketing channels play a role in the solution for a business and play harmoniously with each other. Video marketing is one of the most dominant digital marketing trends today and probably for the next 5 to 10 years as it has been proven to not only create brand awareness but also increase traffic and conversions. Content marketing is another effective digital marketing channel for producing ROI as it can generate three times more leads which is 62 percent less than traditional marketing. Prospects are people who are very likely to buy your product and become loyal customers since you foster that relationship which is different from website traffic.
Social media statistics show that 73 percent of marketers believe that social media has been “something effective” or “very effective” for their business while 54 percent of social browsers use social media to research products. Seventy-one percent of consumers who have had a positive experience with a brand on social media are likely to recommend the brand to their friends and family. Through continuous analysis, businesses can recognize what is not working and make changes quickly to get a positive result which can lead to an increase in traffic of more than 30 percent. To determine the digital channels that best fit your particular business consider your objectives, audience and budget.
If you have a large budget and a young tech-savvy audience it's probably best to advertise on multiple channels but if your budget is limited or your audience doesn't spend much time online it's best to do research on where your customers spend most of their time when they connect.
