At this point, it isn’t a question of if you’re doing digital marketing but how. That said, all the available channels and considerations can bewilder even experienced professionals and business owners.
Consider these questions on your digital marketing strategies:
- How do you know you’ve selected the right channels for your needs and goals?
- Would an increase in marketing budget be better spent on expanding your current footprint on a current channel or trying out a new one?
- If your campaign is under-performing, is it due to changes in the market or because the message isn’t getting to the right audiences?
If you’d hesitate to answer any of the above, we’re here to help with a breakdown of the most frequently used channels, including: who should use them, what goals they help achieve, what other channels they synergize with, and what issues to look out for with that channel.
For quick, customized guidance, you can jump right to the good stuff with our Digital Marketing Mix quiz! It’s designed to recommend a personalized list of channels based on your specific needs with only a few easy questions.
Essential Digital Marketing Channels
Here’s a list of digital marketing channels we’ll be exploring:
- Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Onsite/General Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Paid Search (PPC)
- Paid Social Media Advertising
- Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
- Web Development
- Content Development
- Organic Social Media Marketing
Other channels to consider that we won’t be covering in depth here include:
- Email Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Video Marketing
Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Ongoing Local SEO is vital for brick-and-mortar and proximity-based businesses. It can also scale down to less frequent, lighter-touch maintenance for businesses where physical location isn’t a primary driver for customers.
Types of businesses best served: Local or service-area businesses (HVAC, professional services, brick-and-mortar retail), franchises with multiple locations.
Objectives to achieve: Organic discovery within a geographic radius, reputation management, and consistent local visibility across map and directory results.
Speed to results: Medium (weeks to months) — citation and profile work shows up fairly fast; ranking movement for competitive local terms takes longer.
Website issues to resolve: Mostly handled offsite, though location-specific landing pages tie in on the website side; local keyword optimizations.
Specific elements this can cover:
- Local keyword research: identifying and targeting search terms specific to a given service area
- Google Business Profile optimization: ensuring that GBP’s representation of the site is present and accurate
- Location-based content development: creating dedicated city or state landing pages (see also: Content Development)
- NAP – or Name, Address, Phone number – review: establishing consistency across directories and citation sources
- Ongoing rank tracking by geography: benchmarking and reporting on local visibility over time
Key synergies: Onsite/General SEO, Content Development
Potential issues:
- Getting bogged down: Getting your GBP listing approved can mean jumping through hoops, as can some reputation management tasks, and it can be frustrating having your fate in Google’s hands.
- Lacking appropriate landing pages: Connecting the most appropriate landing page to your profile is important, especially for multi-location businesses. Not doing so can put more steps between the user and a conversion.
Onsite/General Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This is a foundational channel that content development and other website work build on top of. SEO is still a key component for ensuring that sites are found. The depth of engagement should scale with a business’s marketing maturity and the surrounding competitive landscape.
Types of businesses best served: Most businesses, but especially B2B/SaaS, ecommerce, nonprofits — any business where organic search and AI answer engines (not just local proximity) drive discovery.
Objectives to achieve: Organic discovery, brand authority, thought leadership, and visibility within AI-powered search experiences (AI Overviews, AI Mode, Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity).
Speed to results: Medium to long (months) — While technical fixes can show results more quickly, content- and authority-driven gains compound over 3 to 12+ months.
Website issues to resolve: Thin or outdated content, lack of overall optimization for relevant search terms and topics, poor navigability, technical debt (site speed, crawlability, mobile responsiveness, site structure).
Specific elements this can cover:
- On-page optimization: keyword research, content optimization, meta data/title tag/header optimization, image optimization
- Off-page optimization: link building, directory listings, social promotion that supports backlink generation (also see: Local SEO)
- Technical SEO: site speed, mobile responsiveness, crawlability, and site structure
- AI SEO/GEO: content optimization and entity signals to keep the site legible and citable to AI-powered search tools, in addition to traditional rankings; ongoing monitoring of keyword rankings, traffic, and engagement
Key synergies: Local SEO, Content Development, CRO, PPC, Organic Social Media Marketing
Potential issues:
- Siloing: It’s possible to ignore benefits and valuable information from other platforms when making SEO decisions.
- Lacking prioritization: With so many potential avenues, it’s possible to get bogged down improving elements that won’t move the needle much overall.
PPC (Paid Search)
This option can include advertising on Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, etc., and requires a sustained budget and a cohesive strategy — not just campaign setup — to keep results up over time. While it is positioned as the fast, measurable counterpart to SEO’s slower, compounding approach, the two often work best together.
Types of businesses best served: Any business with an ad budget, especially those needing to fill the sales pipeline quickly or compete in a crowded results page. It’s also helpful to build visibility and awareness for niche products or solutions that audiences aren’t familiar with.
Objectives to achieve: Quick leads/sales, immediate visibility, and sustaining a sales pipeline while organic efforts mature.
Speed to results: Fast (days to a couple of weeks) — the most nimble channel, provided creative/landing assets are ready.
Website issues to resolve: Mostly handled offsite (campaign build, targeting, bidding), though landing page design and messaging affect efficiency and ad quality scores.
Specific elements this can cover:
- Campaign strategy and setup on Google Ads/Microsoft Ads
- Keyword research (including negative keywords) and audience/demographic targeting
- Ad copy creation
- Ongoing performance monitoring, budget pacing, and continuous optimization
- Using PPC keyword performance data to inform SEO strategy, and vice versa
- Programmatic advertising (automated, data-driven ad buying across display and video networks for precision targeting at scale)
Key synergies: Onsite/General SEO, CRO (landing pages)
Potential issues:
- Setting and forgetting: Letting campaigns coast without checking in to test new angles or to review areas for improvement is an easy trap to fall into.
- Casting too wide a net: Paid search ads can get a lot of eyes on them, but making sure they’re the right audiences can be difficult, depending on the business, products, and services. It’s especially important that companies offering more niche or industrial products use caution when choosing the terms they bid on.
Paid Social Media Advertising
Platform choice is critical for paid social advertising, and the selection should match audience type — LinkedIn for B2B decision-makers, Facebook/Instagram for broader consumer reach, and so on. This approach pairs well with organic brand-authority work for longer-term compounding awareness rather than one-off campaign bursts.
Types of businesses best served: B2C/ecommerce, B2B/SaaS, and other businesses whose audiences are addressable on social platforms rather than (or in addition to) traditional and AI search.
Objectives to achieve: Brand awareness, engagement, and lead/sales generation by reaching people where they’re already spending time on social platforms.
Speed to results: Fast to medium (weeks) — slightly slower to launch than search PPC when creative assets and audience definitions need development.
Website issues to resolve: Mostly handled offsite, but landing pages and creative assets need to be conversion-ready to capture traffic.
Specific elements this can cover:
- Facebook Ads: demographic/interest/behavior targeting; image, video, and carousel ad formats
- Instagram Ads: visually driven creative built for engagement and community-building
- LinkedIn Ads: campaigns aimed at professionals and decision-makers, including sponsored posts, positioned toward brand visibility with a professional audience
- Reddit Ads: targeted to specific communities and topics associated with business-appropriate audiences, especially useful for raising awareness of solutions to existing problems
Key synergies: Content Development (landing pages), CRO (landing pages)
Potential issues:
- Choosing the wrong platform(s): Finding your audience can be difficult, and a mismatch can mean wasting time and money.
- Ignoring rocky conversion pathways: Converting should be relatively frictionless, and any impediments – like your landing page not matching your campaign direction – can bog down performance.
Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
CRO is most valuable when paired with an active-traffic, effective channel (such as SEO or paid media). The other channel drives the traffic, and this work captures more value from it.
Types of businesses best served: Any business with meaningful existing traffic that’s underperforming on leads/sales — a common occurrence for ecommerce and lead-generation sites — and anyone running active paid campaigns.
Objectives to achieve: Reduce on-site friction, increase the percentage of visitors who convert, getting more value out of traffic that’s already being earned or paid for.
Speed to results: Medium (weeks to months) — technical/UX fixes can show impact quickly; testing and iteration take longer to fully validate.
Website issues to resolve: Lack of conversions despite traffic, poor navigability, slow load speed, and weak or missing calls-to-action.
Specific elements this can cover:
- Core Web Vitals performance (load speed, interactivity, layout stability) improvements: a technical foundation for conversion
- Call-to-action reconfiguration: applying single, focused CTAs on landing pages rather than multiple competing endpoints
- UX-driven design: checking that core principles are built into the site design process and aren’t working against other efforts
- Performance tracking: benchmarking and monitoring metrics like organic traffic, engagement rate, and conversion behavior
Key synergies: Onsite/General SEO, PPC (landing pages), Paid Social Advertising (landing pages)
Potential issues:
- Making decisions without proper data: It’s tempting to roll out changes without getting enough data to back up the decision – and sometimes, it’s necessary. But not establishing a baseline for performance can hamper CRO as a true data-driven marketing element.
- Optimizing when a larger site redesign is needed: Although not an issue with CRO itself, it’s often tempting to leverage CRO changes as quick fixes to cover up massive, system-wide issues on a website. In these situations, a full revamp may be in order (if not in the budget).
Web Development
The involvement of web development is present across many of these approaches, but it’s important to acknowledge it on its own. More drastic involvement is often triggered by a rebrand or site revamp. It should be scoped and sequenced carefully with SEO so a new site’s structure doesn’t undo existing rankings. Web designers can also be tagged in to help with landing page optimizations, CRO improvements, etc.
Types of businesses best served: Businesses building or rebuilding a site, going through a rebrand, or being held back by site speed, navigability, or technical debt.
Objectives to achieve: A site that looks distinct, functions well on any device, and is built with SEO and conversion in mind from the outset rather than retrofitted later.
Speed to results: Long (months) — discovery, design, build, and QA cycles take longer than other channels.
Website issues to resolve: Slow load speeds, poor navigability, outdated design, structural limitations, and systemic issues that other channels can’t fix on their own.
Specific elements this can cover:
- Strategy-led design process: includes research to inform design decisions before building
- Development on established, client-manageable platforms: moving to WordPress, Shopify, etc. can be huge but beneficial undertakings
- Performance-focused build practices: aiming for clean code, caching, and other speed-oriented techniques
- Accessible and inclusive design: building sites to standards such as WCAG
- SEO-informed site structure: building this in from the start helps preserve existing rankings and better futureproof the site’s SEO
- Hosting and maintenance: offered as a related, ongoing service once a site is live
Key synergies: Onsite/General SEO, CRO, Content Development (page templates), PPC (landing pages), Paid Social Advertising (landing pages)
Potential issues:
- Disregarding marketing channels: Web development workflows are often siloed away from marketing channel discussions. Making big changes to a site without checking on search performance, technical SEO guidance, and paid channel landing pages can do serious damage to marketing efforts.
Content Development
This option best fits businesses with in-house writers or subject matter experts but no strategic direction, or vice versa. Both are good candidates because the gap is usually in strategy and execution capacity, not in knowledge, experience, and data themselves.
Types of businesses best served: B2B/SaaS (for differentiation and thought leadership), nonprofits (for trust-building), and any business with thin or outdated content.
Objectives to achieve: Brand authority, organic discovery, filling content gaps that block conversions, and visibility within AI answer engines.
Speed to results: Medium (weeks to months) — value compounds over time as a content library and citation/backlink profile grow.
Website issues to resolve: Thin or outdated content, lack of traffic, or conversions tied to missing or weak content.
Specific elements this can cover:
- Keyword-rich content optimization: tying into on-page SEO work (see: Onsite/General SEO)
- Thoughtfully built content: establishing expertise and resonating with a defined audience
- Content structured for extractability and trust signals relevant to AI-powered search: providing clear entity signals, well-organized information, and demonstrated expertise
- Foundation for link-building efforts: starting with solid content allows for natural and assisted link-building approaches to work to their fullest potential
Key synergies: Onsite/General SEO, PPC (landing pages), Paid Social Advertising (landing pages)
Potential issues:
- Siloing: Content writing shouldn’t be its own little island without access to information gained through paid campaigns and SEO optimization.
- Thinking too “inside the box”: Times have changed, and writing another version of information already readily available in search engines is a race to the bottom for all but the most established brands. Successful approaches involve incorporating something only you have – experience, specific knowledge, inside information on products, etc.
Organic Social Media Marketing
This option offers a vector for content marketing and building brand awareness where your target audience already is. While typically not the most effective marketing channel for driving leads or making sales, it can still be a powerful piece of the puzzle — especially if you have a unique point of view and subject matter experts to help back it up.
Types of businesses best served: Most, from local service providers to large international organizations, particularly those with audiences who are already on social media platforms (similar to paid social campaigns). It’s especially valuable to niche B2B organizations that face specific challenges in their SEO and PPC strategies.
Objectives to achieve: Trust-building, thought leadership, and establishing a foothold in the wider traditional and AI search landscapes beyond the brand website(s).
Speed to results: Medium (weeks to months) — similar to general content development, it can take a bit to cultivate your posts and media to gain the biggest benefits.
Website issues to resolve: Minimal — although it may warrant a review and update of relevant landing pages.
Specific elements this can cover:
- Team/leadership posting: providing perspectives on industry trends, opinions on best practices, etc.
- Company posts: updating users on changes, new product launches, and overall company culture
- Online events: hosting webinars, AMAs (Ask Me Anything sessions), etc.
- Resources or information sharing: releasing white papers, sharing new blog posts from the website, and providing how-tos on your areas of expertise
- Community building: cultivating a following over time through consistency, storytelling, and providing community members with value
Key synergies: Onsite/General SEO, PPC (landing pages), Content Development, Paid Social Advertising
Potential issues:
- Phoning it in: Organic social media marketing can be a big time sink, and making sure you’re not diluting your voice to keep things moving is a constant temptation to avoid.
Start Finding Your Most Effective Marketing Channels Now
We know that’s a lot to digest! If you’re feeling inspired but still a little hazy on the specifics, check out our Digital Marketing Mix quiz – it’ll get you a personalized channel mix recommendation based on a few short questions. And, if you’re ready to move from talk into action, reach out to our marketing professionals to get started.
