Marketing Channels: 12 Key Options With Pros and Cons

A marketing channel is the way through which your message reaches your audience. Some of the most popular channels are advertising, email, social media, and search engines like Google.

On the one hand, marketing channels allow you to promote your business so that you can get more customers. On the other, they act as places where people can find you, learn more, and reach out to you.

Marketing channels are of fundamental importance to any business because they enable communication — without that, there can be no sales.

The most valuable brands in the world use multiple channels at the same time. This article will help you follow their strategy and pick a mix of channels that fit your business best.

Types of marketing channels

From a high-level view, the landscape of marketing channels can be divided into a few groups. Some popular categorizations include direct/indirect, free/paid, and traditional/digital. 

Arguably, the most practical way of thinking about marketing channels is in terms of owned, earned, and paid media. It makes you think in terms of costs, balancing different channels and long-term access to your audience without the need to pay for every click to your site.

Channel typeSummaryExamplesOwned mediaThese are the channels you control, and you don’t need to pay a third party each time you want to reach your audience. They’re good for keeping your audience close so that you can contact them directly and frequently.Email, social media, podcasts.Earned mediaAny mentions of you on other sites or platforms that you haven’t paid for. You have little to no control over them, but they typically enjoy higher credibility than other channels and can offer a fast route to broad exposure.Word-of-mouth, press mentions, rankings, unpaid influencer endorsement.Paid mediaYou pay a third party to get access to the audience. These channels offer fast results and are typically easy to work with and scale. However, their effectiveness varies significantly depending on your product and audience.Any kind of advertising, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing.

How to choose marketing channels 

Looking for a place to start? It helps to look at what your competitors are doing first and add channels in stages. 

Study your competitors 

Checking out your direct competitors is a smart move because they’re after the same audience as you. And if they’ve been around for a while, they probably figured out the best channels to connect with that crowd. 

- Find your competitors on social media and see how often they publish and what engagement (likes, comments, retweets, views, etc.) they get. 
- Subscribe to all their content to see how and where they publish (pay attention to content formats, publishing cadence, the choice of topics, and if and how they offer special deals).
- Social media
- Organic search
- Email marketing
- Digital advertising
- Occasional use of events (speaking or small sponsor packages on more affordable conferences) 
- 70% of viewers bought from a brand after seeing it on YouTube (Google).
- 96% of people have watched an explainer video to learn more about a product or service (Wyzowl).
- Taking advantage of a highly engaging content format. Video can make such a difference compared to other formats that focusing on this kind of content has become a distinct type of marketing. 
- 79% of companies say that live chat has had positive results for customer loyalty, sales, and revenue (Kayako).
- 82% of companies that use AI conversational marketing solutions find them to be a valuable asset in their strategy (Drift). 
- Answer basic and frequent questions.
- Qualify leads.
- Schedule a meeting with an agent. 
- Promote specific content. 
- Podcast ad spending in the U.S. is expected to reach $2.56B in 2024, a 16.3 percentage points increase from 2023. (Statista)
- There are more than 850,000 active podcasts today. 
- 72 videos
- 108 podcast episodes
- 138 newsletter issues
- 11 standalone projects and events
- 9 blog articles
- 7 social media campaigns

These numbers refer to small to mid-size influencers with highly relevant audiences. From that point on, we started to regularly invest in this influencer marketing. We also learned that:

You’ll only get the hang of this tactic by diving in and doing it. I mean, your best prospects will probably come through references, which will come to you as you go. Also, a good content creator won’t necessarily make a good partner. You need to do due diligence and invest in those who are willing to invest their time in you. 

Pros and consProsConsDirect access to engaged audiences.Can get expensive quickly.Authentic promotion from trusted personalities.Risk of association with influencer missteps.Challenges in measuring direct ROI from campaigns.

Further reading

Frequently asked questions about marketing channels. 

What is the best marketing channel?

It’s very unlikely for a brand, and definitely not optimal, to use just one marketing channel. Brands usually try to be present in as many channels as possible, as this increases reach and convenience to customers.

That said, it’s common to put more weight on one channel or a small set of channels. For example, at Ahrefs, we focus on organic search and video marketing because those channels can serve the entire marketing funnel at the same time.

What’s the difference between multichannel and omnichannel marketing? 

Omnichannel marketing is about using all available channels to attract and serve customers, providing a seamless experience. For example, Ikea allows you to purchase products in stores, online, through an app, by phone, etc.

Whereas in multichannel marketing, not all channels are utilized or integrated. For example, I bought a wardrobe online recently, and the shop sent me text messages about the status of the order, but I couldn’t use the same channel to respond.

How are marketing channels different in B2B than in B2C?

B2B and B2C brands invest in the same channels (according to HubSpot). However, the way they use the channels may differ. 

B2C brands usually use these channels to offer entertainment and directly impact sales. B2B brands focus more on educating prospects and forming long-lasting relations. 

These types of brands may also find some types of content or platforms more suitable for them. For example, B2C brands typically don’t publish case studies, and B2B brands find LinkedIn more effective. 

What’s the difference between marketing channels and distribution channels?

Distribution channels are the means by which products or services are made available to a consumer (e.g., directly via a brand’s website or through resellers), whereas marketing channels are the means by which products and services are communicated to the consumer. 

Final thoughts 

Multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing seem to be the way to go these days. More channels mean more convenience for your customers, more prospects reached, and more ROI for your company.

To make the best use of your channels, it’s a good idea to keep your brand’s messaging consistent across all media; marketers call it integrated marketing communications. 
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