How to Know Which Advertising Channels are the Best for Your Brand

Before you can begin marketing, it’s crucial to decide which marketing channel or channels will best get your brand’s message across. With the massive growth in online media in recent years, there are even more options at your disposal.

How to find the marketing channels with the best ROI for you

In a nutshell, a marketing channel is a platform or method used to communicate your brand’s message to your target audience. The three basic principles of this are:

1. Identifying the customers’ needs and wants
2. Finding a marketing channel that suits the target market
3. Creating and sending the advertising message

Most companies will be able to define a target market with a bit of research. Finding the right marketing channel can be more challenging. You have to consider several factors, including your budget, how often you want to advertise (frequency), and the size of your target audience (reach).

There are different marketing channels with different capabilities. These include:

• Social media marketing
• Content discovery platforms
• Email marketing
• Mobile app stores
• Content marketing
• Word-of-mouth marketing
• Television
• Billboards
• Print advertising

Which channels will suit my brand’s message?

In this article, we’ll explore some of the top marketing channels available today. To figure out which channel or channels will suit your company, take a closer look at the options. As you read through your options, ask yourself questions like:

• Will this channel reach my target market?
• Can I afford it?
• Will it allow me to communicate my message effectively?
• Will it fit with any other channels I am also using?

Here are six marketing channels you could consider for your brand:

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#1. Social Media Marketing

Social media has been dominating the marketing and advertising world for years. It offers valuable community-building opportunities and gives businesses incredible options to engage with their target audience.

People not only use social media to actively search for brands they like and follow them, more and more are using these platforms to research products and services thoroughly before they make buying decisions.

Whether you’re sharing more about how your company operates or only using it for advertising, you should leverage social media for all it’s worth.

Here are a few of the most important things to consider if you choose this channel:

It’s about engagement, not just sales

If someone were only interested in buying something, they’d head to your website and make a purchase. If a potential customer is looking at your social media streams, it means they want to get to know you. It is the perfect opportunity to interact with them and build brand awareness, engagement, and trust!

Be transparent and authentic

You can be professional while still showing your audience the reality of your business. When people see you being open and honest in your business dealings, it builds trust, which is invaluable in any industry.

Pick the right platforms

Consistency is crucial in advertising on social media. If you sign up to every single platform, it may become challenging to keep up with posting consistently. Explore all the channels and decide which ones resonate with your brand.

Some of the options are Facebook advertising and Instagram ads. This article will give you some insight into Instagram ads and a few alternatives. Your best bet is to spend some time on various platforms to see what best suits your message. Pick one or two and run with it; you can always scale later!

#2. Content Discovery Platforms

Using a discovery platform like Taboola will help you deliver the right content to the right person at the right time. Through Taboola’s exclusive partnerships with some of the world’s top publishers, Taboola serves 360 billion content recommendations to over one billion people across the open web each month. You have probably seen the Taboola Feed serving recommendations on websites like Bloomberg, NBC News, and MSN.

Taboola works with a predictive engine powered by deep learning technology to match a user with content accurately. This means that whenever you launch a Taboola campaign, the algorithm analyzes your content and obtains data that will ultimately match your service offering to people who are most likely to engage and take action.

Taboola’s platform is powered by Deep Learning technology that uses Taboola’s unique data about people’s interests and information consumption to help thousands of advertisers reach their audiences with compelling native ads in a brand-safe environment. 

Although we do most of the heavy lifting for you, there are still tips to optimize your content for a content discovery platform:

Use a relevant headline and image

So many ad campaigns rely on misleading headlines to drive traffic. This is not always effective. When there is a strong correlation between the headline and image, and your content, you’re more likely to get conversions, instead of a higher bounce rate.

The Google search engine algorithm does not favor landing pages from which people click away as soon as they land. In the long run, stronger engagement trumps pure traffic when it comes to SEO.

Ensure your landing page delivers on the promise

A landing page should have genuine value-added content that matches the promise of the ad. Promote your products or services with call-to-action buttons on the page, but don’t make that the focus if you’ve promised something else.

Read this handy blog for some tips to become an ads pro with Taboola.

#3. Email Marketing

Email marketing is the best type of direct response marketing out there. When your target audience has opted in to hear from your business, they’re usually happier to open messages from you to learn about what you’re offering.

This marketing channel can get tricky, so we’ve narrowed it down to a few essential best practices:

Make your emails as personal as possible

Use a combination of segmentation practices and triggered autoresponders. This will help you make your emails as relevant as possible to your target audience: relevance = a better conversion rate and improved long-term open rates.

Shorter is sweeter

Nobody wants to spend a lot of time reading promotional emails. Keep your emails short, easy to read, skimmable, and make sure you have at least one prominent call to action (CTA).

Pay attention to your subject line

First impressions last! The first thing your audience will see is your subject line. Your subject line has to make the reader want to click through to your email. Again, short is sweet, but make sure your subject line offers value or creates a sense of urgency (or both!) Your goal is to get the reader to open your email.

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#4. Your Website

Even though you may not think of your website as a marketing channel, it may be one of the most valuable of them all. Your website is like a virtual store – it’s where people visit to learn more about what you offer. Again, first impressions last, so make sure your homepage represents your brand and what you offer.

Here are some tips:

Conduct a site audit

Improve your website’s SEO performance using tools like SEMrush. It will help you to flag errors you can fix.

Test your interface

Your best bet is to do this manually. Ask your colleagues and friends to check out your interface and see if they can find information quickly and easily. Make detailed notes of any observations, and improve them.

Use analytics

Get comfortable with Google Analytics so you can see where drop-offs are happening in your on-site funnel. This is a great way to see where you can make improvements.

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#5. Content Marketing

Content marketing is like a veggie garden. If you plant your carrots and tomatoes and look after them, they’ll keep growing and giving more and more back.

Content marketing just keeps getting more valuable over time. The more evergreen posts you make, the more benefits you’ll reap over the years, especially if your posts provide valuable content your audience can keep referring back to.

High-quality, valuable posts show market authority and go a long way in instilling trust while helping you reach your target audience at various funnel stages of the sales process. With SEO, you’ll hit as many keywords as possible, making this possible. The key to effective content marketing is quality; try these tips:

Your content has to be valuable

If your audience can take action from your content, it makes it valuable. Use visual examples and be clear with step-by-step instructions where needed, links to reference sites, and information that’s understandable.

Be strategic

Don’t just write whatever you feel like writing. Instead, do keyword research and analyze your target audience before you decide on content topics. Include CTAs to contact your brand, so your readers can get in touch.

Shout it from the rooftops!

It’s not enough to create excellent posts; you have to show off your work. Distribute your posts across as many marketing channels as possible. Share links on social media platforms, add sharing buttons, and do your best to get links back to your content through guest posting on other sites.

You could also consider using a content discovery platform like Taboolato get your content to potential customers on websites they trust.

For a more in-depth look at how to get the best out of content marketing, read this helpful article: 8 Great Content Marketing Tips and Best Practices.

#6. Word of Mouth Marketing

Last but not least, word-of-mouth marketing has always been one of the most effective ways to get maximum conversions with minimal effort. If a salesperson tells you that the hiking boots they are selling are the best, you’ll likely not be sold on them. If your best friend tells you that they wouldn’t go hiking without these boots, you’ll be more inclined to buy the brand.

There are two main methods of word-of-mouth marketing: referral programs and online reviews. Here are some ways you can use this:

Run a referral or affiliate program

Offer your target audience incentives like special offers or free products for every referral they send your way that converts. Make sure it’s a valuable incentive! Here’s a comprehensive guide to starting an affiliate program.

Ask!

One of the best ways to get word-of-mouth marketing is as simple as asking for it. Talk to your customers and ask if they’re happy with your product or service. If they are, ask for a review. Showing reviews is one of the quickest ways to prove trust to your target audience!

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What about the other marketing channels?

Just because we only listed six effective channels doesn’t mean the others are not just as useful. Brands use all kinds of marketing channels that work for them, from mobile app stores and influencer marketing to billboards, TV commercials, and even cold calling.

The trick is to choose what suits you and your brand (and your budget!) Once you’ve decided on the right mix of marketing channels, keep your message consistent, and make sure you measure the effectiveness of your efforts. That way, you can tweak your campaign to be more suitable for your target audience.

Just like cultivating that garden, nurturing marketing channels takes time and care but will ultimately be rewarding.