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Digital marketing channels are quite broad and diverse because, in an era where technology plays a role in every second of human life, consumer demands inevitably change. Naturally, this also affects the work of marketers.

That group of customers might not like watching videos, while another group does, or another group might prefer reading more than the others. And this is why there are so many diverse marketing channels in the digital world.

After the last two articles, we have introduced everyone to the meaning of Digital Marketing, what it entails, as well as some benefits and limitations that all marketers should know.

Whether you work in a company, an agency, or go solo as a Blogger or Vlogger, you should learn about the world of Digital Marketing. This introduction has already touched on some methods and channels for this type of marketing.

But in this article, we will delve deeper into the various channels of Digital Marketing, exploring what they are, their functions, benefits, and limitations. Additionally, this article will introduce some promising and worth-studying marketing channels as options.

What is included in Digital Marketing?

  1. What is included in Digital Marketing?
  2. Website (Website Marketing)
  3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
  4. Email (Email Marketing)
  5. Marketing en redes sociales (SMM)
  6. Social Media Ads
  7. Video (Online Video)
  8. Content (Content Marketing)

Let’s go into the details of each channel.

1. Website Marketing: A Stable Marketing Channel

If we are going to talk about marketing channels, we must first mention this, because a website is a stable address on the map known as a search engine, such as Google, which is considered a channel for customers.

You can find our store as soon as possible, where the store in question is the media we produce to disseminate and sell our information, products, and services.

The main role of Website Marketing is to serve as a source of information for customers who visit or get to know our brand, and it also acts as a storefront for selling products. The way to attract people to the store relies on SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.

But where does the term SEO come from?

SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization. It is a process that works within the Search Engine system to rank a website’s pages among the top results of searches by using relevant keywords. The factors for SEO are not limited to just keywords; they also include creating and designing a website to be user-friendly, which impacts Digital Marketing through this channel.

“Content is King” 

Website Marketing channels rely on the mechanisms of Search Engine Optimization to increase the number of visitors or leads on our website. For a website to attract leads, it is necessary to create valuable content that is worth visiting.

The content, in reality, is not just blog posts but encompasses all the material on our website designed to attract what customers need, such as articles, products, or services, or even information that helps them get to know the brand better.

And what makes “Content is King” is whether we have met the needs of our customers or not, or whether it aligns with the purpose of our business.

The advantages of website marketing channels

Doing Digital Marketing on this stable platform has many advantages. Even though many people think that in the era of Digital Marketing, it favors marketing on Social Media more, don’t forget that Social Media Platforms also have their limitations. Wouldn’t it be better if we could gather everything in one ‘address’?

  • Creating a website will give us no limitations like other media formats. We can design it however we want, according to our preferences.
  • Because of the advantages mentioned above, we can do many things on the website, such as sharing good information while the main page is selling products. We can sell products immediately.
  • Having our own storefront means that customer information won’t fall into anyone else’s hands. We will own all the data that comes into our website.
  • We are doing something that meets people’s needs because today’s consumer behavior is to search for what they are interested in. Therefore, the website will help customers find us online.

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อ่านเพิ่มเติม: กรณีศึกษาการวาง Design System ให้เว็บไซต์ 

The challenges of website marketing channels

The biggest challenge as a marketer in building your own “home” is to see what you have to face.

  • SEO is a free method to increase traffic, and anyone can do it. Therefore, there are many competing websites in the search engine system, making competition and maintaining search rankings not easy.
  • Websites always need maintenance. It would be better if your company or agency has someone who can handle Website Development.
  • We need quite a bit of technical knowledge because we need to integrate other tools to analyze data on the website and assist in marketing.

And this is the indicator of who can better understand the customers, including knowing how to take care of them and being more familiar with Website Marketing. However, we can turn a crisis into an opportunity by relying on tools like Martech.

Recommend MarTech

Examples of MarTech that I would like to recommend for developing Website Marketing channels.

  • KW Finder for checking interesting keywords
  • SERPwatcher that can track our website based on different keywords
  • Websites used to create websites, such as Wordpress and its plugins, which help us analyze and improve SEO.

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2. Search Engine Marketing and Paid Search Marketing Channels

What is Search Engine Marketing? Why is the name so long? If we call it SEM, many people might immediately go, “Ah!” Because it is an online marketing channel that requires ‘money’. Of course, everyone wants to push their house to the front of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) village.

Using a free method naturally requires time and skills to learn both SEO and understand customer needs, plus you have to compete with other houses as well.

For some people, they think it’s just not fast enough. Why don’t we use paid ads to buy prime locations in front of villages to set up our homes? And this is the reason for the existence of SEM on search engines like Google and Yahoo.

The difference between SEO and SEM

The names are quite similar, which might cause confusion because both are platforms for creating websites.

Marketing in both cases differs in terms of cost and duration.

To explain briefly, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of working with search engine systems like Google to push our website to the top pages of Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). This increases the number of organic traffic leads coming from keywords they are interested in. Search engines rank our website based on the number of visitors and clicks without us having to pay, but we need to continuously analyze and improve the quality of our website.

Shifu Recommends

If you want to learn what SEO is and how it can boost online sales, read more details at

Conversely, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) works similarly to Search Engines. However, we need to spend money to buy advertisements for our website to appear on the first page of Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) based on the keywords that our target customers have searched for. The way to identify SEM is that on the results page after a search, there will be the word “Ad” or advertisement in front of the page title.

Google will charge us based on the number of clicks that visit us, also known as Pay Per Click or PPC.

The advantages of SEM marketing channels

Of course, targeting customers through keyword research is the most effective marketing strategy.

  • SEM is truly marketing based on customer needs. Imagine if you were the customer and found a website that provides content that perfectly meets your needs. How great would that be?
  • SEM works quite specifically, targeting customers with clear interests. Because they are interested in something, they search for it. Therefore, doing SEM can help us sell our products more easily.
  • In one day, there are more than 4 billion Google searches. That is an opportunity or a location with high traffic, which increases the chances of people stopping by and becoming our customers.

The challenges of Paid Search

It’s not just about paying for clicks with specific keywords; there are many other factors to consider.

  • Paid Search inevitably has limitations because the word “Ad” prominently displayed is not something everyone will pay attention to. Not everyone is interested in the advertisements in the gray box of the Search Engine.
  • Say no to long-term marketing because it has high costs, and whenever you stop paying, the results will disappear in an instant.
  • SEM is not just about budgeting for PPC; it requires effort in development and analysis of the results obtained.
  • The budget might be high, but whether it is more or less depends on the needs.


3. -mail Marketing: A marketing channel that sounds old but is surprisingly cool

Speaking of marketing channels that might not seem to work in this era, but surprisingly do and are still effective, this is Email Marketing. It is a marketing strategy where we collect customer data, mostly from 1st party data that we gather ourselves, and send messages that can be for public relations, new product advertisements, or various promotions via email from our database.

The collection of this data for E-mail Marketing comes primarily from customers who are willing to exchange information with us on our Website Marketing. We can modify or design the website to include a feature called Sign up for accessing free articles on the website or to allow customers to receive information and various newsletters related to the brand in the future. Of course, not all customers will agree to exchange information, so we need to use a Call-To-Action (CTA) strategy to encourage them to feel motivated to sign up on our website.

Which asks whether after customers sign up, they will receive an exchange of emails or some information, such as Demographic Bio, in return for receiving emails from the brand, which may include advertisements or useful information. They then become part of our Leads Generation and may turn into customers in the future.

The advantages of the incredibly stylish marketing channels

  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the interdependent relationship between Website Marketing and Email Marketing, using the data we collect to work with Email Marketing. This data consists of customers who are genuinely interested in our brand and can be further utilized for marketing.
  • All information will remain in the message box forever. Another advantage is that whether it rains, shines, or birds make nests in the mailbox in front of the house, this online letter will never turn into scraps of paper over time.
  • Support B2B or Business-to-Business because email is another channel for communication.
  • The final advantage is that email is another channel where we can embed other media such as our Official Website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or applications directly within the email.

The challenges of email marketing channels

There are so many advantages to email marketing that indicate it may be old but still effective. However…

  • No matter how well we adapt or personalize the information at hand, if the customer doesn’t click to view it or chooses to ignore our message… we still won’t succeed. The challenge is how we can get the email recipients to “click” and view the message we are communicating.
  • Some businesses focus solely on selling products without providing useful knowledge or articles to their customers. Those who follow the emails might unsubscribe or mark our emails as spam.

Shifu แนะนำ

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4. Social Media Marketing: The Marketing Channel of the 4.0 Era

And now it’s time for Social Media, which is a popular marketing method because everyone with a smartphone can access Social Media on any application, whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

Of course, no matter where we are—on the subway, in a private car, in public places, or even at home—we still have to pick up our phones to unlock them, open this app, and close that app. Even though it only takes a short time, if we add up the time spent on each application, it becomes quite significant. This is an opportunity for brands to use channels that can attract the most customer attention and also increase the number of new customers.

The reason that makes Social Media Marketing the true channel of the era is that it is a two-way communication where customers can respond to brands immediately. No one can match this speed, whether it’s a website or email.

But there are still other factors that make social media a very strong marketing channel at this time. Let’s take a look at the strengths of SMM.

The strategy that is SMM’s strong point, unmatched by anyone.

As we know, every social media application has different usage methods and is suitable for different types of content. The duration of time people can focus on a post also varies. This is another charm of SMM marketing channels because everyone has different preferences. This diversity compels us to be more creative and selective about the content we convey to them, as well as to implement other ‘special’ strategies to elevate our own marketing efforts.

The first strategy is to hire influencers who can make a louder impact than anyone else on all social media platforms. We can categorize influencers into five types based on their follower count: Nano Influencer, Micro Influencer, Midtier Influencer, Macro Influencer, and Mega Influencer. The compensation depends on the number of followers and the agreement made. The more followers they have, the higher the compensation.

Asking whether the first strategy really works, spending tens of thousands of baht to have them talk about our products, is it worth it? Don’t forget that they have a large follower base. Of course, not everyone will become interested in our products and services, but not everyone will reject them either because the people they admire are talking about them. And this is one of the reasons why we call them influencers. Influencer or opinion leader

Or for brands that are growing and looking for cost-free promotional methods, we also have another strategy called Peer-to-peer (P2P) or word-of-mouth between friends. This is a method that many brands use to attract customers. A clear example is offering free or discounted products and services in exchange for customers liking, sharing, tagging friends on Social Media, and making the posts public for verification. This is a way to increase engagement, albeit not significantly, but at least it definitely gets a lot more eyeballs.

Another strategy that no one else can replicate is giving our customers the opportunity to create content themselves, also known as User Generated Content (UGC). This method is quite difficult to implement on other platforms because it takes weeks for people to access that content. In contrast, on social media, once content is released, it can quickly create awareness for others through something called the Timeline. Additionally, by allowing customers to create content themselves, there may be more responses from their friends or people around them. The UGC we see involves customers becoming advocates for the brand by using hashtags and sharing stories about our products across all social media platforms.

The challenges of SMM marketing channels

With so many strengths in the strategy, using social media for marketing still has considerations to keep in mind.

  • The first thing is that it takes a very long time to see results. Even with the help of influencers, it still takes a long time to see an increase in numbers, especially since we are not running ads. Using organic reach to help is quite time-consuming for the numbers to go up.
  • Easy to have your account hacked is a challenge that is commonly seen.
  • When we are not the owners of the social media platform, of course, when the homeowners change the rules, the tenants must comply, such as The character limit on Twitter or the frequent changes in the display format on Facebook
  • Calculating ROI (Return on Investment) is very difficult. Because most of the time, SMM is used for marketing during the “Awareness” phase, it is difficult to measure whether it actually leads to sales.

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5. Social Media Ads: A channel for running ads through social media

Jumping from doing SMM according to the above method to relying on the excellent features of Social Media that they have prepared for us to run ads without needing external programs. This means that every time we run an ad, we can control the costs and do Audience Targeting directly from the application, including immediate result analysis.

The importance of writing separately from regular Social Media Marketing is because this is considered a highly effective form of advertising. Each platform has its own unique features, and the creators know best how to market their application to meet the needs.

The main Social Media Ads consist of 7 platforms, which are, of course, features from the giants of Social Media that we all use, namely Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, Twitter Ads, YouTube Ads, TikTok Ads, Pinterest Ads, and LinkedIn Ads.

However, We cannot definitively say which advertisement to create because the working format, appropriate content, and app users vary greatly. We need to consider the brand’s purpose and goals, and importantly, where the brand’s audience is located on the platform.

The advantages of using Social Media Ads

We need to talk about the overall benefits of paying for ads on Social Media, because if we were to discuss the advantages of each one, it would definitely take a long time. So, let’s get started.

  • Convenient because the application has features that we can easily click on. Just set the customer group, set the budget, and run the advertisement.
  • We can connect with our customers almost every hour because the ads pop up to our target audience almost every time they start using the application.
  • You can immediately track the performance of the ads because all the tools are ready, especially Facebook Ads, which are quite professional in advertising.
  • We can leverage every platform for advertising, where we might take content from one source and use it for advertising on another platform to attract more customers (Transmedia).

The challenges of social media advertising channels

The drawbacks are quite similar to Social Media Marketing, but let’s focus specifically on the ad feature.

  • Advertising on social media may increase your reach, but it doesn’t guarantee that you will make sales. Running ads to actually get customers and encourage real purchases requires strategy and there is still much to learn.
  • People might not come in, because as mentioned, the advantage is that we might be able to connect with our customers all the time. Which could be a double-edged sword. Because the ads pop up on the feed almost every time, it can be quite annoying.

6. Online Video: A marketing channel that takes just a few seconds to win over viewers.

We have arrived at the marketing channel that can attract the most viewers at this time, which is Online Video. To be honest, at this time, whether we scroll through our phone or computer screens, we will see these animated hosts almost all the time. So, do we click to watch them? Of course, because the moving images with sound naturally attract human senses.

Online video is another method that people are increasingly using nowadays because it can create awareness among viewers. The types of videos are very diverse, not just educational videos. For example, there are entertainment videos, series, or even short videos to prevent viewers from getting bored, aligning with the consumer side that prefers video content.

Asking what type of video will attract customers’ attention, brands need to know who their audience is and what their preferences are, so they can determine the length and format of the video.

Popular areas where we often encounter Online Video Ads

  • Google GDN (Google Display Network) is the advertising on website spaces that are not just Google Search Engine. It involves placing ads on all websites that partner with Google. Just think about how many there are. The videos on GDN will start playing automatically.
  • Youtube is clearly the giant platform for video creators and the most popular space that anyone has to click on and watch. Additionally, you can place ads on other videos that customers are currently watching. It is a space that creates awareness very effectively.
  • Tiktok is another platform for creators that can be used for advertising like YouTube, but it’s much easier to digest because the clip duration on Tiktok is much shorter. This allows us to still capture the audience’s attention. If we can tell the brand’s story within the given time, I can tell you that we might get more leads or customers.
  • LINE Ads is a new feature that might not be as famous as its older siblings, but it is another area worth advertising because LINE is an application that almost everyone in Thailand uses to communicate. Since people access the app daily, there is a chance that leads will come across our advertisements.

The advantages of making online videos

  • Videos can tell certain stories better than other types of content, such as how-to tutorials or reviews, because they communicate through moving images, which are definitely more interesting than still images (like the Martech tutorials by Content Shifu, for example).
  • No need to spend a lot of money because production costs are not as high and expensive as before. Technology is being used to reduce labor in production.
  • Watch anywhere, anytime. Because almost everyone uses a smartphone, and it can connect to the internet. Some people might even use devices that connect to their phones, such as a notebook or tablet.
  • You can immediately collect results after publication because every platform has features for measuring traffic.

The challenges of making online videos

  • It takes a lot of time. If you count the time from the pre-production phase, the filming phase, and the post-production phase, creating a good video might take longer than producing other types of content.
  • People might get annoyed, like with YouTube, which launched a new application called YouTube Premium that removes ads based on feedback from viewers.

7. Content Marketing: A marketing channel that truly meets customer needs

From all the methods of Digital Marketing mentioned, they are all platform-dependent channels. However, after this topic, we will focus more on the content of Digital Marketing. Speaking of this, it would be hard to overlook the phrase “Content is King,” because every advertisement relies on content.

The content in question is long-term marketing through the production of valuable and relevant content for our customers to attract and build relationships between customers and our brand. As mentioned, it doesn’t necessarily have to be writing; it could be other forms of content. However, whether the content succeeds or fails depends on whether our content meets the needs or desires of people, the timing or context of releasing the content, and the choice of appropriate communication channels.

Creating content suitable for different platforms

Digital platforms all have their differences and purposes. What marketers should consider is consumer behavior and the format of each platform. Let’s take a brief look at their differences.

  • Written post – For content packed with text that conveys interesting stories and is ready to create engagement with customers through sharing or commenting. This type of content is suitable for platforms that provide unlimited posting space, such as Facebook, Website, or LinkedIn, or even Twitter where we can tweet continuously.
  • Photos – In this context, photos can be single images or albums, and they don’t necessarily have to be photographs; they can also be infographics or easily readable graphics. Of course, this type of content is suitable for platforms that focus on posting images, such as Instagram and Pinterest.
  • Video – In this context, photos can be single images or albums, and they don’t necessarily have to be photographs; they can also be infographics or easily readable graphics. Of course, this type of content is suitable for platforms that focus on posting images, such as Instagram and Pinterest.
  • Video Stories – Short animated clips are content that can attract people in a short period of time because just swiping through the screen allows them to grasp the message the brand wants to convey. This is a new type of content that is only available on certain platforms like Facebook or Instagram.
  • Live Video – Real-time moving content that users mostly focus on interviewing people or live streaming important events that everyone wants to join. To create this type of content, we need to consider whether the platforms support the necessary features and how popular they are among users, which inevitably leads us to Facebook and Instagram.

All of these are recommended and still practical channels for Digital Marketing today. We might apply every channel for advertising or focus specifically on our target group and study those channels to enhance our advertising and deliver good content to our customers.

Chapter 4: What frameworks can be used for marketing planning?