14 Marketing Channels To Prioritize In 2022

Table of Contents 

• Understanding Marketing Channels
• Why are Marketing Channels Important? 
• 14 Best Marketing Channels for Small Businesses in 2022 
• Key Takeaways 
• Conclusion
• FAQs

Marketing channels are the different tools and platforms you employ to engage your target audience. Marketing trends keep constantly changing while economic and other multiple factors impact them significantly. Small businesses may only obtain the best outcomes by being careful about these ever-evolving trends and the digital marketing channels they employ to engage their audience.

Regardless of how excellent your product or service is, establishing your brand and generating sales leads for your small business requires the best marketing channels. While your audience insights should show your channel selection, it’s also critical to understand the value of each channel. 

All channels are helpful, but some marketing channels will be more popular this year than others. So, which of the best marketing channels should you employ?

Understanding Marketing Channels

As the name implies, marketing channels are the multiple online and offline mediums available for disseminating your content. You may interact and lead your audience to your product or service by using a series of channels to promote your business.

Using a multi-marketing plan may help you get the attention of a wide range of potential customers and guarantee you capture every prospective consumer as they go through the buyer’s journey.

Why are Marketing Channels Important?

Employing marketing channels is an excellent strategy for your brand to reach its target audience. A company’s marketing channels are frequently integrated to maximize earnings. Furthermore, the fundamental organizational goals may be more easily achieved by employing marketing channels.

People today are linked online more than ever before. Having a marketing plan in place is essential for small businesses because of the proliferation of digital platforms and services. Consumers seek more accessible, customer-centric, and cost-effective solutions, and as a business, you can provide them easily if you use digital marketing channels.

As a small business, you should watch the latest strategies and trends to focus your marketing efforts. The most effective marketing medium demands your full attention and resources to help you make an informed decision in 2022; below are the different marketing channels to concentrate on:

1. Search Engine Optimization Marketing

Marketers that use SEO, or search engine optimization, include specific keywords into their material to boost their visibility on search engines. Though a time-consuming process, SEO is a successful approach for increasing organic search traffic. As one of the most effective forms of advertising, search engine optimization has long been used by major brands and corporations.

To find what they are searching for, customers will use various terms. SEO allows marketers to employ the exact keywords throughout their content so that their company’s website appears at the top of the search results.

As a B2B marketing channel, organic search is one of the most cost-effective ways to increase the overall effectiveness of content.

2. Email Marketing

For small businesses in 2022, email marketing will continue to be a substantial source of income. Email marketing is already used by 64% of small firms to attract clients. As a result, you won’t want to overlook the advantages that email marketing may offer to your company.

Getting leads through email campaigns is possible, but it requires a meticulous methodology and constant improvement to be genuinely effective.

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There should be a definite target audience for cold emails for marketing. It should include appropriate body content and the subject line that piques the reader’s interest and entice them to continue reading. The length and style of email content should also be improved to ensure that emails work well on mobile devices.

When it comes to reaching out to your target audience, email marketing may be a terrific method to do it.

3. Podcast Marketing

Podcasts stand head and shoulders above all other accessible marketing formats. Like social media, podcasts aid marketers by reaching prospects even after regular business hours.

Podcasts help break down complicated issues and have thought-provoking talks in an easy-to-understand manner. It may be boosted by collaborating and/or showcasing industry experts from other respected organizations, increasing the impact and reach. This may lead to fruitful arguments, enhanced legitimacy, and an expanded audience for everyone involved.

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Thought leadership may also be conveyed through podcasts that are ideal for people with busy schedules who prefer auditory material while on the move.

4. Search Marketing

Pay-per-click search advertising is an excellent approach for attracting a businesses’ audience. Even if your page or website does not rank well in organic search results, a PPC plan may help you utilize the organic results. However, using this method might be costly. You must be resourceful and get the aid of a professional to assist you with the technical aspects.

A local PPC plan is a wonderful method to ensure that your company appears high in search results when 97% of customers search online for local companies. Because they appear above organic results in search engine results pages for searches linked to your company, local PPC is a great way to support your local SEO efforts.

5. Influencer Marketing

Even though influencer marketing has been around for a few years, it is equivalent to or even better than other channels. Marketing via the use of influencers isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Using influencer marketing, you may get exposure to a larger audience by having someone else promote your brand on their social media or blog.

Most companies avoid influencer marketing because they imagine a superstar with millions of followers costing hundreds of thousands of dollars for each post, but the scenario is very different. Instead, utilizing micro-influencers with a negligible cost per post and a more focused audience may provide similar, if not superior, results.

6. Referrals

When an audience visits your website after viewing another, it is known as referral traffic. Websites may connect to one another, which aids in generating referral traffic. This assists you in attracting audiences that will choose to remain for a more extended period.

7. OTT Ads

OTT streaming grew by 115% in 2021. Of course, the pandemic did have a lot of influence on this number. OTT ads use a different approach than display or search ads. Thanks to OTT (over-the-top) distribution, your video advertising might display on applications like Hulu, Google Play, and others.

OTT advertisements raise awareness of your brand and encourage future customers to do online searches that might lead to sales. Do note this does not come cheap. You have to pay a hefty amount to advertise your product/service on these platforms.

8. Social Media

In 2022, you’ll have a wide range of alternatives for promoting your products and services using social media. There is no lack of creative methods to sell and engage your customers and prospects. It is possible to advertise your business on social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, and TikTok.

Depending on your needs and budget, your marketing approach might include paid and free methods. On the other hand, social media marketing is far from being straightforward. Marketers who want to broaden their reach and convert their target audience into paying customers should get familiar with the various algorithms used by multiple platforms and other marketing trends.

9. Organic Social Media Marketing

Engaging your audience and establishing a community are critical components of any organic social media marketing plan. With so many numbers and alternatives, you’re sure to find your target audience on social media. To accomplish this, set clear social media marketing objectives.

Plan ahead of time what and where you’ll publish and how you’ll measure success. You may do this by using a social media scheduling tool or hiring a marketing manager.

10. Display Advertisements

Along with sponsored search, display ads are a popular PPC ad format. You may target your audience through display advertising, images, or videos that appear on websites. Create a connection with your audience by placing an image or video advertisement on relevant websites or YouTube.

Using both display and search ads together may help you get new consumers. Using display advertising to generate awareness could lead to consumers seeking your search ads on the search engine results page (SERP). View-through conversions measure how effectively display and search ads function together.

11. Local SEO

Local SEO will continue to be a game-changer for small companies as 46% of Google searches have shown a regional focus in 2021.

SEO refers to making a website more visible to people searching on search engines. This means you are making it easier for them to find your company online. Your website and offsite content must be optimized for local searches.  There’s no excuse not to include local SEO in your marketing strategy if it’s free.

12. Management of Online Reputation and Local Listings

Before buying, 93% of people read internet reviews. Customers are willing to pay even more for products or services from firms with an excellent online reputation. To develop a great internet reputation, you must manage your local listings. Local listings on sites like Yelp, Google Maps, and CitySearch may help you rank in search engines.

Having a Google Business Profile makes it easy for customers to learn about you. For example, a firm description, contact information, and physical address may all be found in one spot. Plus, listing your company in local directories is a free marketing approach.

13. Mobile Marketing

By 2023, there are expected to be 4.3 billion smartphone users globally. According to this forecast, mobile marketing will be a must-have marketing channel for every organization.

Make sure your website is mobile-friendly before you start using mobile marketing. From there, the mobile world is your oyster as you engage with your audience in a fashionable new manner.

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14. Assistive Technology/Artificial Intelligence

A slew of AI marketing tools has been widely available to all firms in the previous year alone. When it comes to marketing, AI (artificial intelligence) employs machine learning to automate operations like creating and curating content, recommending products or sources of information, implementing website chatbots, and marketing automation.

In addition, between 2020 and 2027, AI is expected to increase at a pace of 33.2%. Using AI marketing might help your firm stand out by allowing you to communicate with your consumers effectively.

Key Takeaways

• Marketing channels connect with a bigger pool of potential clients and business partners.
• Marketing channels generate quality leads faster, allowing small businesses to start testing and tweaking much quicker.
• More quality leads may be generated using digital marketing channels loaded with audience data instead of conventional techniques with a more comprehensive emphasis.
• Integrated technologies like Google Analytics make it simple to track the success of online marketing campaigns. This method makes tracking metrics like visitors, time spent on sites, and conversion rates possible.
• While developing strategies takes time, marketing channels are frequently more cost-effective since many assets can be recycled and changed with little to no extra expense.

Conclusion

Marketing channels are an effective way of ensuring that products reach their intended customer. Identifying and prioritizing the best marketing channels across all accessible platforms plays a vital role for businesses in informing and influencing behavior.

Effective communication requires selecting the best marketing channels to get your message out effectively to accomplish your fundamental business goals.

FAQs