The Best Marketing Channels For Reaching Your Customers
The dream of every brand is to attract the best customers. From no budget to big budget, there’s always some channel to get that one customer.
Consumers are now demanding more innovative interactions with their favorite brands, and if you don’t start delivering on their favorite channels, somebody else will.
It’s crucial to understand the marketing channels available and which ones you should use to leverage your content marketing goals.
The decision to use specific channels can come from your audience’s insights; understanding each channel’s value is of importance.
What’s essential is not focusing on every channel. Focus on the proper channels.
That way, you maximize the growth of your business. And in this section, you’ll discover where you should be directing your effort and attention to make the most impact.
Maximized Return on Investment is always the goal for any campaign, after all. Right?
Straight to it then, here are 35 Channels to reach those customers:
1) Local marketing
Local marketing involves marketing your business to a nearby audience or the community that you operate in.
This is usually preferred by small businesses such as stores and restaurants.
Contact with consumers via local town events, educational, or sports team sponsorship.
That allows businesses to develop a consumer base in the immediate surrounding area of the business’ location.
When people search online for a product related to your field, their results are usually focused on their location.
Local marketing helps you get closer to the community around you.
2) Budget
The budget you set out plays a vital role in choosing the proper marketing channels for your company.
Each channel will need you to invest some money. Whether it is paid or organic.
Once you identify your budget, you will need to prioritize marketing channels based on your budget.
Don’t make the common mistake of thinking organic traction is free. Whether it is social media or search engines, you are paying someone to manage these activities.
These should never be excluded from marketing estimates.
3) Radio
Radios are not just news and music; they have a live or recorded Q&A-style interview using professional audio pieces of equipment.
That will help amplify your professional and personal brand.
Where to start?
To get airtime, make sure you’re familiar with the themes the radio station covers.
Next, find their email address on their website (most times, it’s there). Email them a wow pitch.
You could also search for the radio hosts on social media and see if their email address is listed.
4) Content and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Marketing
Make sure that your content is actionable. That makes it valuable.
If you’re writing about fixing an engine, for example, you don’t want to say, “open it up and look for anything odd.”
You could give a visual and text tutorial for how to open the unit, problems to look for, and what they indicate, how to fix the issues with other step-by-step instructions, and let people know when it’s time to call a technician.
SEO
Search engines are arguably one of the best marketing channels for gaining attention.
According to Google, people make over 89,000 searches per second.
The fact is, search engines remain the primary source of discovery for new products among all Internet users.
This has an immense significance for businesses using the channel for advertising.
When people want to know about a business’s products, they go online.
They find from their search shapes their image of the company and influences their decision to purchase your product or service.
According to Google, 81% of online shoppers use search engines to know more about new products and services.
When a person is out there searching for something related to your business, you want your website to be on the top search results and easily found by the consumer.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a measurable, trusted process used to send data to search engines that your website is worth showing in their index.
You will get the best from this marketing channel by having good SEO for your website resulting in a respected, well-known brand and high sales.
5) Facebook and Facebook Ads
Facebook is not just free or easy to use. It offers an excellent way for small businesses to reach customers.
Create a business page on Facebook and post relevant content to build awareness of your brand.
While being active on Facebook, take advantage of Facebook advertising.
Over two million SBEs advertise on Facebook, which is an inexpensive marketing channel for startups.
6) Twitter
It wouldn’t be wise for startups the power of Twitter as a great marketing tool.
Set up a Twitter account and start attracting followers and ultimately customers by publishing engaging tweets.
With 280-character posts, you sure can say a lot.
7) Pinterest
Pinterest is excellent for posting inspiring images and visual content to generate interest in your brand and reach out to customers.
Being an image-based social network service, promote your business and draw traffic to your website with quality content.
8) Word of mouth
People tend to trust other consumers over marketers. Customers only rave about a product or service if it truly benefits them. Marketers worry about sales.
Consider this:
- 9 out of 10 consumers read reviews when making purchasing decisions.
- 92% of consumers take suggestions from family and friends more than they do advertising.
To generate word-of-mouth marketing, you must provide the best product or service possible accompanied by quality customer service.
You can make a lot of profit from selling your services and products to your customers, but there is much more than you can earn from them through referrals.
9) TV Ads
If your budget can take it, why not market your products and services on a TV ad?
Television adverts are still one of the most effective ways to help brands and businesses sell their products and services.
10) Newspaper Ads
Placing an advert in a national or local newspaper is an effective marketing channel for drawing attention to your brand and reaching out to customers.
If you’re good at writing, regular columns in a newspaper can do your brand’s image a great deal of good.
Readers of your columns could quickly turn into paying customers.
11) Build a website
Many businesses don’t think of their website as a marketing channel. In reality, it probably is the most important one.
This is where users will come when they’re interested in learning more about your business, and if they can’t find answers to their questions quickly, they’ll leave, won’t they?
A website can also serve as an online store where customers can make purchases.
There are things you should do to increase its effectiveness quickly:
- Conduct a Site Audit
Tools like SEMrush can be used to audit your site’s SEO performance. They’ll flag errors that can be fixed, including crawlability issues.
- Test Out Your Interface
Here, the manual is best. A few people you know and trust can check out your site and see if they’re able to find essential information and pages quickly and easily. If not, upgrade.
- Use Your Analytics
Are you noticing drop-offs somewhere in your on-site funnel? Google Analytics can help you know where the drop-offs are happening and assess why the funnel is not working and how you can improve it.
12) Flyers
Design colorful and eye-catching flyer of your business, brace for calls and texts! People rarely resist reading flyers once it’s in hand.
13) Editorial Calendar
Make use of an editorial calendar to plan for the future.
Add your ideas and plans to a year-long calendar that coordinates your marketing efforts and keeps your team on track.
14) Start a Blog
Blogs have become powerful marketing channels.
A business blog is a stand-alone page or part of a business website specifically writing about materials relating to the business’ industry.
A good business blog should have well-researched, thought-provoking blog posts.
While owning a blog is excellent, It’s also essential to have your business featured on other blogs with backlinks to your blog or website.
Every entrepreneur should know how to blog.
15) FAQ page
Have a page of questions commonly asked by customers with topics ranging from shipping fees to business hours.
Audience-focused FAQ pages are valued by Google, as they provide essential information that helps users make informed buying decisions.
FAQ pages reduce the time for employees to address the same questions repeatedly and bring awareness back to products and services when relevant.
16) Trade Show Displays and Attendance
If your marketing budget allows, displaying your products and services at trade shows will help build your brand and customer base.
If you can’t afford it, make sure you attend them. Get many business cards in your pocket.
Trade shows give you an excellent opportunity to mix with other peers and potential clients.
17) Networking
Do a quick check of any networking events in your area. Do one better and go there.
Besides, networking is an effective way to put your business across to like-minded professionals and potentially reach new customers.
18) Review Sites
Customer reviews on these websites help similar businesses and consumers make informed decisions when buying a product or service.
You sell authentically and build confidence in high-intent prospects while taking notes on customers’ comments.
19) Email Marketing
91% of American Internet users in 2019 used email, and Statista predicts that global email usage will grow to 4.48 billion users in 2024, a 580 million increase from 2018.
Email marketing is the most direct, most effective way of connecting with potential customers and low cost.
You can nurture them and convert them into customers.
Email marketing helps build and sustain a relationship with the customers by regular sharing of valuable info.
It also acts as a communication channel between the customer and the business to share information relating to the product or service.
Encourage users to subscribe to your online publications as a way to keep them up-to-date with your latest news and stories.
While associating email marketing with newsletters is familiar, you can always promote relevant content like product launches and sales.
20) YouTube
There’s no channel quite like YouTube to post insightful videos related to your products and services.
Expand your customer base by posting video content on YouTube.
YouTube has dedicated business channels that your business can use to reach customers.
Fun Fact
Did you know? YouTube is the world’s second-largest search engine.
Think about this, watch a video to learn how to perform a task or read an extensive piece of content on the same topic?
21) Case Studies
This requires an in-depth look at how you help clients solve their problems after they work with you.
Customers love to read case studies about a business that reassures them about using a specific brand or company.
Create and publish case studies about your happy customers to help attract new ones!
22) Podcast Marketing
The demand for audio content is enormous, so it’s worth considering podcasts to meet your audience where they already are.
Podcasts and their hosts can help you develop a unique relationship with your audience as episodes feel conversational and share a more human side of your brand.
Podcasts also create more room for interaction, as customers are not restricted to listening while staring at their phone screen.
For example, listeners can play an episode in their car during their morning commute while walking their dog or busy cleaning the house.
Research word
According to researchers in neuroscience, storytelling is one of the best ways to capture attention and resonate with customer emotions.
The human brain is programmed to seek well-crafted narratives, and podcasts can deliver in spades.
Many podcasts are funded through ads and sponsorships.
You can reach a whole new demographic by placing ads on general interest podcasts or hone your focus on industry-specific podcasts.
23) Google+
Google+ is another marketing channel businesses can take advantage of.
When you create a Google+ account, small businesses increase their chances of receiving highly targeted visitors from Google searches.
24) Pay-Per-Click Marketing
As far as marketing channels go, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is still very reliable, especially with the diverse options available to brands.
Organic traffic is terrific for building a list of valid customers. But paid advertising works well (or better) for improving direct conversions.
Why? Because consumers clicking ads are often ready to make a purchase
Google Ads and Facebook/Instagram Ads pretty much dominate the PPC arena these days.
Google search ads can help you connect with users who are searching for products or services like yours.
If you can afford to hire an agency to handle your campaigns for you, go for it.
25) Host Your Networking Event
Look up networking events in your local area. Or better still, host industry contacts.
Go ahead to publicize the event to get as many people there as possible and give your optimum business publicity.
26) Hashtags
What are they?
A keyword with the “#” symbol before it will promote your messages. It also makes it easier for social media users to find related content.
Hashtags serve as a reference point to acquaint customers(new and old) to your brand and products.
Also, to attract new followers and increase engagement.
27) WhatsApp
WhatsApp is another marketing channel that often goes unnoticed.
This mobile messaging app allows you to create groups and communicate with other members via voice, text, or video.
Quick response
Some marketers have used chatbots to interact with users. These programs deliver pre-set responses based on the content of the user’s messages.
Other businesses use live operators or connect users with experts who can answer their questions in real-time.
28) Billboard Advertising
How about having a large picture of a product, service, or event placed in specific locations to attract a massive volume of visibility and repeated exposures within a particular area?
Place your company on a billboard in a busy area, and don’t be surprised if you get an influx of new customers knocking at your door.
29) Go Where Your Audience Is
I admit this long list of marketing channels may be a little intimidating.
So water down the list by first eliminating the platforms you know won’t connect with your target audience.
If your ideal customers are not social media savvy, for example, don’t spend time on Twitter and Pinterest.
Do remember that choosing marketing channels isn’t a decision to be rushed.
Understand your buyer’s demographics, know their preferences, where they spend time, etc., to find the answers to your questions.
The ultimate choice only depends on the taste of your buyers.
30) Repurpose Content When You Can
Don’t feel like you need to create content from scratch for each of these marketing channels.
Improvise ways to reuse and repost content, such as using a video you made for TV and as a Facebook ad and YouTube Video.
Repurposing stretches your resources and relaxes some of the stress of content creation.
31) Create a Content Library
Organize your plans and past work to make the best use of content.
Create a content library that lists all copy, video, graphics, and long-form content you have created.
Then, go ahead to use the library to identify opportunities for repurposing and prevent your team from creating duplicate or redundant content.
32) Face to face
I’d say this right here is the most important. Delivering a good pitch in person is the best channel to building a customer base.
Here is where customers get to know you and what your brand culture is.
Interact with your customers enthusiastically, and don’t treat them like they are nothing more than an open wallet.
They are more likely to make a referral.
33) Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing will place your product in the hands of highly followed or famous media personalities.
Some of them are celebrities, business moguls, and entrepreneurs.
You can give free giveaways to podcasters, bloggers, and other individuals with big social followings.
In return, they can promote your business to their followers or invite you as a guest on their show (for podcasters).
Having well-respected people acknowledge they use your product and make posts about your business is a great way to circulate your brand into new spaces.
34) Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is very similar to Influencer marketing(discussed above).
Here you pay other businesses or people to market your brand, and they receive a percentage per sale associated with their marketing efforts.
There are colossal brands out there that specifically do this for other companies.
There’re several ways to pay for this kind of marketing.
For instance, you can have your business advertised for free and only pay when an action occurs, i.e., pay-per-click (PPC) or pay-per-sale (PPS).
35) Free trials
It’s not a secret that everybody appreciates free giveaways. These include gifts, free trials, discounts, and promotional sales. Once it’s free, bring it on.
Sure, offering free stuff to your customers is great for grooming relationships and turning them into brand loyalists; it also gives you a great chance to improve your marketing reach.
The How?
Create a condition where each customer or visitor must spread the news on one or more social channels before receiving the giveaway, instead of giving out freebies to everyone.
For every customer who takes up your offer, you’re sure that their followers and friends are getting to know your brand.
And if their interests align with your customers, it’s a guarantee that you’ll get new customers for your business.
Research shows that promotional products draw as many as 500% more referrals from satisfied customers than appeal letters alone.
As such, offering your current audience a promotional product might be all you need to double, triple, or even quadruple your current customer reach.
Conclusion
We admit that there are many marketing channels. Not all of these platforms or strategies will be right or work for your business.
You need to test the pulse around your business and target audience.
There is no reason why your business should struggle with coming up with ideas for your marketing plans.
There are numerous marketing channels your business can tap into.
Once you’ve established which ones are the best fit for your business, you can quickly maximize their reach with your intended audience.
