The Complete Marketing Channels List

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing refers to the strategy of manipulating product awareness through network effects. It's an essential form of word-of-mouth marketing, and it happens when a user shares your content or product with others. This method can be direct and intentional or indirect and unintentional: for example, you may create a piece of content (a video, a blog post) that is so compelling that users share it willingly with their friends (direct), or perhaps you design something (a game, a tool) that's so useful that people share it by default just as part of using it (indirect).

In both cases, viral marketing is an incredibly effective way to get new customers. As soon as one person connects with your message or product, they are likely to introduce others to it as well—and soon enough you'll have created an entire network of engaged individuals who will spread the word about what you have to offer.

PR

PR stands for "public relations." It's the intentional marketing of your brand through third-party media. The main goal of PR is to get press mentions and coverage in publications, blogs, websites, and other outlets that your audience pays attention to.

Public relations can be a great way to establish trust, credibility, and authority within your industry or niche. Your brand seems more trustworthy when others are talking about it than if you're just promoting yourself. It can also help drive awareness and interest in what you do as a company—your product or service.

Unconventional PR

While ‘traditional’ PR typically takes the form of press releases, media tours or interviews, unconventional PR strategies have emerged in recent years as a way to get noticed in an overly saturated media environment. Examples of unconventional PR include “stuntvertising” and other guerrilla marketing techniques like flash mobs or pop-up events—methods that catch consumers off guard and allow companies to generate buzz by sparking conversations around the brand.

One emerging technique is known as “controversy marketing,” where brands take a stance on a social issue (usually something polarizing) to get consumers talking and ultimately increase sales. Of course, this strategy can be risky if your brand picks a side that many consumers disagree with, but there are also safe ways to use controversy marketing. Just look at how Nike has positioned itself as a champion of social justice on various issues while keeping its message clear: equality for all.

Search Engine Marketing

Unlike SEO, which is a free way to get more traffic to your website, search engine marketing (SEM) entails using Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords) to display ads in the Google search results page.

If you want to make sure that when someone types something into Google for your industry or product, you'll be one of the first companies they see in the results, then SEM can help. You can target local searches or mobile searches with SEM, as well as use it for product listing ads. It's a great way to promote your business locally because Google will show people who are searching for businesses in their area and include a map so they know where you're located.

Display Ads

Display ads are advertisements you see on the internet. They can appear as text, images, videos, or a combination of these elements. These ads can be static or animated, and some may even have interactive features (drop down menus, embedded forms). Display ads can be purchased on an impression basis ("pay-per-impression"), where you pay for the number of times the ad is shown to users (so if 100 users see your ad 3 times each, that's 300 impressions), or on a click basis ("pay-per-click"), where you pay only when a user clicks on your ad.

Display networks like Google Display Network and Facebook Ads include targeting options based on user demographics and interests. For example, imagine that you're running a floral shop in Seattle. You could target ads to users in Seattle who are between 25 - 55 years old and interested in gardening or home decorating.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a marketing channel that involves sending emails to customers. From welcome emails to promotional emails, these messages can be used to build trust with customers, share news, promote products and more.

Companies that sell directly to consumers as well as companies that sell to other businesses can use email marketing. For example, an ecommerce company would send an email blast each time they release a new product or have a flash sale; whereas a B2B company might send their customers a monthly newsletter with helpful tips and articles on how to better use their products.

Offline Ads

Offline ads are all about getting your message out in the form of a physical presence. They can be anything from flyers and posters to business cards and print advertisements.

Offline ads can be a great way to share your message, but it's important to use them strategically. You need to know who you're targeting and where they'll be, so you can place your ad in that location or produce an ad that appeals specifically to that audience.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

SEO includes both the technical and creative elements required to improve rankings, drive traffic, and increase awareness in search engines. There are many aspects to SEO, from the words on your page to the way other sites link to you on the web. Sometimes SEO is simply a matter of making sure your site is structured in a way that search engines understand.

Content Marketing

Content marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. Content marketing's purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is used to build brand awareness as well as generate leads for your business.

Content marketing should not be confused with content creation; the thing you do when you write a blog post or draw an infographic.

Content creation isn't enough because it doesn't mean you're doing it right. Marketing through content isn't just about making something look good; it’s also about making sure it appears in front of the right people at the right time.

Engineering as Marketing

Engineering as marketing works by leveraging your product to promote itself. If you have a software platform, for example, you can make it easier for users to share their experience with others. You could also make it easy for other people to integrate your product into theirs, enabling them to reach new customers and audiences through your own — while continuing to grow brand awareness and buzz around your own.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is the act of posting a blog post on someone else’s blog.

The goal of guest posting is to drive traffic to your website, increase your reach within your industry, and build relationships with other bloggers. When you guest blog for another company or website, you usually get a link back to your own site in your author bio. This helps increase traffic to your site as well as improve SEO by creating new links back to your site.

Business Development

Business Development is a form of marketing where you find a way to help another company promote their products or services. This could be done through various methods including advertising, referrals, affiliate promotions, and product integration.

The main difference between business development and traditional marketing is that business development is not a one-time thing; you need to constantly be doing it to be successful.

Sales as Marketing

A lot of people don’t realize that sales is marketing.

Sales is the highest form of marketing because it’s where the rubber meets the road in terms of delivering value to your customers.

The people responsible for sales are marketers, too. Through their interactions with customers and prospects, they are able to provide feedback to product teams, conduct market research and identify emerging customer needs. Salespeople are also instrumental in building brand awareness by talking about your products or services with potential customers who haven’t yet heard of you.

It’s a common misconception that marketing is all about building an audience while sales focuses on converting them into customers. While this is true at a very high level, it oversimplifies the relationship between these two departments and belies their interdependence on one another for success.

Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs can be a great marketing channel for your business if you have products that are easy to promote. Affiliate programs are essentially an agreement between you and another website owner, in which the other party will promote your content on their site in exchange for money or free products. For example, Nordstrom allows some of its online influencers to wear its clothes on social media and then link to the product so readers can buy it as well. For each purchase made from a reader clicking through from an influencer’s affiliate link, Nordstrom pays the influencer a percentage of the profits.

Leveraging Existing Platforms

Marketing channels that leverage the platforms that already exist are a part of the marketing mix for most companies. Think about your Twitter and Facebook feeds, for example: you see all kinds of creative content in both locations, including sponsored tweets and ads.

These channels are effective at reaching a large audience and typically have no cost to join. Whether you're sharing your brand's story or telling your customers about a new product, leveraging existing platforms tends to be best when it comes to building brand awareness.

Trade Shows

Trade shows are one of the oldest marketing channels (with the first ever trade show being recorded in 1851), but they are still very relevant today. They provide an opportunity for businesses to meet their target audience face-to-face and educate them on their product or service, plus they're a great way to build brand awareness and network with other businesses or potential partners. However, there are costs involved, including travel and booking fees, so these may not be suitable for everyone

Speaking Engagements

Speaking at events can be an excellent way to establish yourself as a knowledgeable authority and get your message in front of people who are already interested. When you connect with people at events, you can both show them why your product is great and ask for referrals to their friends who might also want it.

While speaking engagements may not generate many sales on the spot, they can open doors for future sales if you provide value and show that you truly care about helping others (and not just marketing to them).

Speaking engagements are one of those channels that take time to cultivate and should be part of your long-term strategy.

Community Building

Community building should be the foundation of what you do as a business. There is no substitute for a loyal fan base.

Building a community is more than just a marketing strategy, it’s also an opportunity to understand your customers better, so you can serve them better. It’s worth doing just for that reason, but the advantages don’t stop there.

A good example of community building done right is Superhuman, the email service started by ex-Google engineer Rahul Vohra. Their product was initially very limited in scope—it did very little compared to other email services like Gmail and Outlook—but it did one thing extremely well: it made email faster than any other application on the market. The company was able to leverage this new-found speed in order to build out their customer base and create an incredibly engaged user community.