If you are looking for the most effective digital marketing channels for your business, you may be coming in with gaps in your knowledge. For example, do you know which digital marketing avenues are currently most utilised by New Zealand businesses? Do you understand the difference between organic and paid marketing?

You may have some idea, or it may be that the last time you did marketing involved photocopying flyers and handing them out. Either way, it may feel like you’re heading up a steep learning curve. Our first tip? It’s always better to outsource your digital marketing to the experts so you can focus on what you do best.

Here, we will explore a few different types of digital marketing channels to help you determine which one is best suited to your situation, breaking down the top five avenues that we know will yield short and long-term measurable results with a consistent approach.

Read on to explore SEO, SEM, Google Ads, the importance of knowing your audience, how to layer up your approach and much more.

Do I Need To Use Digital Marketing Mediums?

Short answer, yes. While you may have great word of mouth driving your established business or a strong foundation of regular clients, you still need to future-proof your business by reaching people in your area who require your goods and services. If you want to stay ahead of your competitors, you need to start by evaluating the channels they are using. You should identify your goals and create a realistic budget to ensure you can secure or maintain your market share by utilising these and other relevant channels.

Effective Digital Marketing for Start-Ups

If you have a new business launch on the horizon, digital outreach will be intrinsic to your success. When it comes to finding the things we need, most people reach for their phones first, so this is vital. The businesses that do it well connect customers with what they want in streamlined, effortless ways.

Whether you have been in the game for decades or are looking to launch a start-up, it’s crucial to use a digital marketing agency that can guide you through the different mediums. You need to be able to test different channels and effectively analyse the collected data so you can pivot when necessary.

The 5 Crucial Types Of Digital Marketing

It may feel overwhelming and confusing to wade through thousands of articles to pinpoint the best marketing approach for your business. Don’t worry, you’ve come to the right place. Here we will outline the five options that will be most beneficial, no matter what growth stage your business is at.

1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

You may have heard of organic traffic generation, but do you understand what creates this traffic? Good SEO works as a multipronged strategy, with on-page and off-site SEO both holding weight and working together to produce organic results.

What is On-Page SEO?

On-page SEO incorporates your marketing content, URL and page structure, meta descriptions and title tags. It involves optimising your images and alt-text, creating logical internal linking, organising your headings and subheadings to boost rankings and ensuring that your site has relevant keyword-rich content updated frequently. If you want to build brand authority and long-term visibility, all of these items must be addressed, including specific Local SEO, International SEO and E Commerce SEO where relevant.

What is Off-Page SEO?

Alongside on-page optimisation, you will need a strategy to address your off-page optimisation, which starts with a well-optimised Google Business Profile (GBP). This SEO approach includes monitoring and managing your brand by getting mentioned on other reputable sites and collating and sharing great reviews. It means updating valuable content on social media platforms, nailing down high-quality backlinks from other websites, and ensuring you monitor and audit these regularly with tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Search Console.

Best Applications for SEO

SEO on-page and off-page marketing is a no-brainer when you have a website. If you want to lay a strong foundation for all your other marketing tools, start with SEO. Businesses that want a viable digital presence that ranks high enough for customers to find them on the first page of search engines must start here as a non-negotiable.

2. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

While SEO concentrates on organic traffic, SEM utilises paid opportunities to market your business online. You can enhance the visibility of your website on search engine results pages (SERPS) by using Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertisements, and you can use paid search marketing to have your site appear as a high ranking—it will be marked Sponsored.

How does PPC work?

PPC works by having your marketing team bid on a specific keyword (KW) and build ad copy around that keyword. When someone searches for that keyword, your ad will pop up. PPC campaigns help you target your audience precisely, and, done right, they can produce immediate results in leads, conversions, and sales.

Best Applications for SEM

PPC is the way to go if you want to boost your visibility and ensure potential customers know about your specialist services, new product, seasonal specials, or anything else you think will generate sales.

3. Google Ads

Google Ads are PPCs, and this platform can garner exceptional conversion rates as part of a multichannel approach to digital marketing. However, if you don’t understand how to accurately harness its power, it will be hard to maximise your return on investment. There are various types of campaigns to choose from, depending on your goals, and each will deliver vital engagement data—it’s important to understand how to translate this to get your money’s worth. These Ads can include shopping ads, app campaigns, display ads and search ads—among others.

Best Applications for Google Ads

Pairing your Google Ads with Google Analytics creates measurable data that can help you to really hone in on your audience. These Ads also allow you to customise campaigns to specific goals, including increased visits to your brick-and-mortar store, you can escalate the number of phone calls you receive, drive engagement with specific landing pages and forms on your website, and more. Using GA, you can connect with people in a wide range of online spaces, including Google Maps, YouTube, search results pages, and Google Play.

4. Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing (SMM) is a fantastic marketing tool for building brand awareness and engagement for your business. Creating a short-term/mid-term and long-term strategy is vital to ensure consistency and maximise every opportunity. You need to focus on the platforms most relevant to your audience, which will require research. Your social media marketing can also incorporate targeted paid marketing campaigns to drive users to your website or purchase goods and services within particular platforms.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

If you approach SMM as an expert, you may be surprised by the level of engagement you can achieve. SMM done right can help with:

Engagement & Community Building

Most commonly used social media platforms have a worldwide reach, so with the right strategy, the sky is the limit.

Paid Advertising Reach

Incorporating your paid advertising strategy into your SMM is a great example of how a layered approach to using marketing channels can work. If you have the right data, you can target specific audiences and demographics on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X platforms.

Your Brand Identity

Building and sharing content, including stories, reels, posts, text updates, and videos, allows you to authenticate and solidify your brand. Finding a niche helps you to create a clear identity, which is good for business.

5. Email Marketing

Email marketing (eDM) is a clever tool for maintaining a connection with your established customer base and building on that base. If you want to use your website to its full advantage, you can add a subscriber option to open up your potential customer base by building your email list.

H5: Types of Email Marketing

EDMs can be used to announce special campaigns or offers, or provide a seasonal, weekly, or monthly update about company news and new products and services. You can showcase your team, remind customers you understand their needs, and open discussions that foster enhanced engagement.

Analytics & Measurement

Alongside getting professional help to choose which combination of digital marketing channels will produce the most effective results for your business, you will need an expert to collect, measure and translate your analytics so you can make smart decisions about where your marketing money is best spent. Each channel has key metrics most relevant to what you are trying to achieve.

Without the knowledge and experience to properly analyse the results of your attempts, your chances of successfully beating out your competitors for that all-important online visibility and connection will plummet. If you want to maximise your return on investment (ROI) when it comes to your digital marketing spend, you need a team that keeps up with the latest developments. They must be technically proficient at the highest level and confident to advise you to pivot when necessary to keep you ahead of the game.

Setting Your Digital Marketing Goals

Now that you have a better idea of the top five avenues you can commandeer to meet your business goals, choosing the right digital marketing team to help you navigate implementing a strategic plan is essential. At The Web Guys, we start by assessing where you are now. Once we have a clear picture of the blockers that are holding you back and where you are already making inroads, we can make a plan of attack to get your website ranking and your customers excited to connect with your products and services.

Contact The Web Guys Now

We can optimise your website and ad spend, assess your campaign performance, analyse and understand your customer behaviour and personalise your content to build authenticity and authority. We have all the tools and technical and creative skills you need combined under one roof to create a powerful force for good that will reveal visible results. We love what we do, and we are ready to do it for you now.

Get in touch to book a free website audit or chat about your future goals with New Zealand’s leading digital marketing agency.