Best Digital Marketing Channels in 2024 – Spotlight | DesignRush

Digital marketing channels are various online methods and platforms that companies use to promote their brand, services, or products to potential customers on the Internet. Some great examples of such channels include business websites, search engine optimization (SEO), and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

In this article, we’ll dive deeper into each of the 10 top digital marketing channels and how to choose the right one for your business.

Key Takeaways

  • A business website is a must-have digital marketing channel. It serves as your brand’s professional space where you can highlight your products, services, etc.
  • Instagram is the best social media channel for influencer marketing, with spending expected to surpass $2.21 billion in 2024.
  • Video marketing grabs the most attention across all channels.
  • Email and referral marketing are still some of the best digital marketing channels.

Table of Contents

1. Business Website

One of the best examples of digital marketing channels is a business website. Essentially, your website serves as your brand’s online business card and professional space where you can highlight your brand’s personality, values, products, and services.

Having a website helps you reach more people, collect their feedback, establish credibility, and streamline communication. However, you can’t just jump head-first into

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2. Search Engine Optimization

SEO is another top digital marketing channel for 2024. This comprehensive digital marketing strategy improves your website’s visibility on search engines like Google and Bing, thereby increasing website traffic and subsequently boosting leads and sales.

Moreover, SEO organically connects your business with your target audience when they are actively seeking the services and goods you offer. You can either entrust your SEO marketing to an experienced agency or do it yourself. For the latter, here are three SEO basics you must know:

  • Keyword research: These are the phrases and words people type into search engines to find products, services, or answers. Incorporating the phrases and words your audience searches for in your content and website helps you market your business directly to them.
  • On-page optimization: Optimize other on-page features to make your pages more user-friendly. This includes improving your meta descriptions, headings, title tags, URLs, and content. Doing this helps search engines show your business to those looking for your target keywords.
  • Off-page optimization: This involves optimizing external factors such as getting more backlinks, improving local SEO through local citations, updating your Google My Business Profile, and so on. Similar to on-page optimization, it builds a channel through which you market your business.

3. Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is unarguably one of the best digital marketing channels of 2024. It involves paying for different platforms to display your ads to targeted audiences. This marketing strategy requires you to pay so that it can build a direct channel between you and your audience.

Cost-per-impression (CPI) and PPC advertising are the most common models. Both can be effective, and the cost of this digital marketing channel is relatively low since you only have to pay when someone clicks on the ad.

While paid advertising provides a quicker route to targeted traffic for your pages, it’s also short-term compared to generating traffic through SEO and content marketing. Once the campaign ends, users will no longer see the ads, i.e., the channel shuts down.

4. Content Marketing

Content marketing is a major digital marketing channel in 2024. It involves creating and distributing relevant, engaging, and valuable content across your channels to reach and retain your target audiences. The content forms may include images, videos, infographics, blog posts, podcasts, and more.

Content marketing strategy isn’t solely focused on direct sales, instead its primary aim is to entertain and educate your audience, thereby connecting them with your brand and influencing them to make purchases, follow your brand, or sign up for your newsletter.

Effective content marketing can help strengthen your brand, improve your SEO efforts, and establish your brand as an authoritative figure within your niche. To achieve this, you need to create and optimize your content or hire a content marketing agency to do it for you.

5. Social Media Marketing

Social media ranks high on our list of the best digital marketing channels for 2024. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok are growing by the day, providing spaces where you can promote your brand, services, or products, and even facilitate sales. In 2024 alone, approximately three billion people use Facebook each month — imagine the potential sales if you leverage this channel effectively.

Social media is an essential digital marketing channel because it can help you widen your reach, provide an additional avenue to interact with your audience and existing customers, and enable you to humanize your brand through digital interactions.

Overall, these build trust and social proof and offer insights into competitors’ activities, helping you stay abreast of the latest digital trends.

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6. Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing remains a powerful digital marketing channel in 2024. It involves collaborating with popular social media users who promote your services, brand, or product to their followers. Essentially, they become the channel through which you market your brand.

This approach can be a highly effective way to get in front of potential buyers, especially if you take in the numbers. For example, Instagram influencer marketing spending is expected to surpass $2.21 billion in 2024, with TikTok following closely at over $1.2 billion and YouTube exceeding $1 billion.

A robust influencer marketing channel can engage your target audience, bolster social proof through product reviews, improve visibility, and potentially save time and money. You can achieve all of these simply by leveraging an influencer’s social following and visibility.

7. Video Marketing

Video marketing remains the most engaging content format across all digital marketing channels in 2024, effectively capturing attention and conveying information. Through video content, brands can promote their offerings, engage and educate customers, and speed up the buyer’s decision-making process.

However, similar to traditional content marketing, understanding your target audience and their preferences is essential for creating videos that resonate with them.

8. Email Marketing

Although many believe this digital marketing channel is obsolete, email marketing is experiencing a resurgence, solidifying it as one of the best digital marketing channels in 2024. It involves sending targeted messages to your audience and leads via email.

Email marketing can be a very effective channel as it allows brands to establish a more personalized relationship with clients while saving time and costs. Strong email marketing campaigns not only boost brand awareness and build trust, but as a channel, they also drive traffic, generate more leads and sales, and serve as invaluable tools for gathering feedback on your services and products.

9. Affiliate Marketing

Among the top marketing digital channels for 2024 is affiliate marketing. This channel entails partnering up with other content creators, websites, and influencers, offering them a commission for every action or sale they generate for you.

Affiliate marketing strategies amplify your exposure while compensating affiliates for their successful promotion. It allows you to tap into the existing audience of your partners, boost your brand’s visibility and authority, improve SEO through backlinks, and benefit from a cost-effective marketing approach by utilizing existing platforms and accounts.

10. Referral Marketing

The last one on our list of the best digital marketing channels for 2024 is referral marketing. It capitalizes on the trust and influence existing customers have within their social circles. By leveraging word-of-mouth recommendations, businesses expand their customer base and enhance brand credibility through authentic endorsements.

Referral marketing as a channel relies on identifying and empowering brand enthusiasts willing to advocate for a product or service. This approach reduces customer acquisition costs and cultivates a community of loyal brand ambassadors.

How To Choose the Right Digital Marketing Channel

Not all digital marketing channels are suited for every business. To find the best one for your brand, follow these steps:

  1. Define Your Objectives
  2. Identify Your Audience
  3. Work on the Budget
  4. Analyze the Competition

1. Define Your Objectives

The first step is to figure out what you want to achieve with your chosen digital marketing channel. You must pinpoint your objectives, which must be SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely).

To define the objectives of your company, ask yourself: Do you want to gain more social media followers, or do you want to increase website traffic? Maybe you want a short-term boost of revenue or want to build brand recognition. Finding the answers takes you one step closer to choosing the right digital marketing channel.

2. Identify Your Audience

When you know what you want to achieve, the next step is to know who you’re targeting. For instance, if you’re looking to increase your TikTok following, then there is no point in targeting people over 60 who are less likely to be active on this platform.

Always consider the demographics and location of your audience. Other questions you should ask yourself are:

  • What are they interested in?
  • What kind of content works best with them?
  • Where are they most likely to spend their time online?

3. Work on the Budget

All digital marketing channels require some financial investment. Hence, include your budget in your considerations. If you’re operating on a tighter budget, prioritize channels that are cost-effective or free, such as SEO and social media marketing.

On the other hand, if you have a larger budget, you can explore combining several digital marketing channels. Digital channels like content marketing, social media marketing, and PPC advertising can complement each other effectively.

4. Analyze the Competition

The final step is to check what your competitors are doing. Analyzing which digital marketing channels other businesses in your market are using helps you see whether they work or not. If your competitor uses a channel that isn’t yielding desired results, you’ll know to steer clear of it and opt for a different approach.

Digital Marketing Channels: Final Thoughts

While each discussed channel is effective, it’s unlikely you’ll need to utilize them all. Depending on your goals, budget, and target audience, you can create a shortlist of digital marketing channels that will yield the best returns.

However, don’t focus on sales figures alone. It’s imperative to provide value to your audience and ensure they are engaging with your offerings. If needed, consider consulting a digital marketing agency to devise the optimal approach.

Digital Marketing Channels FAQ

1. What is the best digital marketing channel?

The best digital marketing channel depends on your business needs. Each channel has strengths and weaknesses and will appeal to different businesses. However, most marketers agree that having a website and social media accounts, engaging in content marketing, and investing in SEO are essential for building a solid online presence.

2. Is paid advertising better than SEO?

Both paid advertising and SEO aim to drive more traffic to websites and/or landing pages. Paid advertising can deliver short-term goals faster, while SEO is a long-term investment that exponentially increases traffic over time. Many experts recommend using both methods simultaneously to reach short- and long-term marketing goals effectively.

3. Is social media marketing worth it?

Social media marketing is considered a highly valuable channel due to its vast user base of over five billion social media people. However, some experts argue that rampant misinformation and online user outrages can make it difficult for business owners, marketers, and retailers to remain composed on social media platforms.

Despite these challenges, social media remains a vital channel to create and maintain a flourishing social community.

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