Top 3 marketing channels to grow your business, according to 15 experts

Imagine being able to focus your marketing efforts on just three powerful distribution channels to skyrocket your business growth. According to top insights from experienced founders and senior digital marketers, this is not only possible but also highly effective. So, to uncover the best practices, we dove into why one expert might advocate for email marketing, SEO, and paid social, while another highlights the importance of Google Ads, LinkedIn, and influencers. 

These 15 expert opinions will help you make informed decisions on which channels to prioritise for maximum impact.

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1. Focus on email marketing, SEO, and paid social

A strategic focus on a limited number of distribution channels can be beneficial, provided they offer the most impact for your target audience, business model, and goals.

Three notable distribution channels that I would go "all in on" are email marketing, organic search (SEO), and paid social media ads.

Email marketing is a high-return-on-investment (ROI) channel for most businesses, primarily due to the ownership of the audience and the ability to build long-term relationships through personalized and segmented campaigns. I have seen clients double the average order value thanks to a strong email strategy. Using it effectively is another kettle of fish, but businesses should focus on providing value through automated tracks, drip campaigns, and exclusive offers. Then, pair them with lead magnets like free guides or webinars to grow their list.

Organic search is another effective channel, as I have found it drives consistent and highly targeted traffic over time. But the key there is the words "over time." It's something you get a huge payback on later. People actively searching for solutions are already in the consideration or decision stage of the buyer's journey, making it an ideal channel for businesses that have the patience and have a long-term vision. To use it effectively, businesses should create niche specific, keyword-optimized content that addresses their audience's pain points and invest in technical SEO to ensure their site performs well and ranks higher.

Paid social media ads are my third pick. It's a highly powerful channel and offers targeting capabilities that enable businesses to reach highly specific audiences based on demographics, interests, and behavior. We literally doubled our audience on socials thanks to evergreen ad content. To use it effectively, I'd recommend testing creative and copy via the A/B testing feature, then leverage a pixel to get high performing retargeting ads.

Combining these three channels—email building trust and retention, SEO generating inbound traffic at scale, and paid social filling the gap with targeted reach and speed—creates a balanced marketing ecosystem that allows for both immediate wins and long-term growth.

Brayden Beavis, Founder, Your Salon Support

2. Use organic search, partnerships, and LinkedIn

Here are the three most effective distribution channels I've found for sustainable business growth:

Optimized organic search remains our cornerstone channel. By focusing on creating high-quality, solution-focused content, we've increased our monthly organic traffic by 437%. For example, our in-depth guides on website optimization for local businesses consistently bring qualified leads who understand our value proposition.

Strategic partnerships with complementary businesses amplify our reach. We've built relationships with local business associations and marketing agencies that don't offer web development services. These partnerships generate 35% of our new clients through warm referrals, resulting in higher conversion rates and longer client retention.

LinkedIn organic content has been transformative for B2B lead generation. By sharing detailed case studies and practical insights from our client success stories, we've built credibility in our niche. This approach generates consistent inbound inquiries from decision-makers who've already seen proof of our expertise.

These channels work synergistically—our SEO content feeds our LinkedIn strategy, while partnerships boost our local search visibility. The key is consistency and integration rather than treating each channel in isolation.

Harmanjit Singh, Founder and CEO, Origin Web Studios

3. Leverage public speaking, LinkedIn, and podcasts

We grew our agency from $0 to seven figures in revenue in three years by leveraging three channels: public speaking, content creation on LinkedIn, and podcast guesting. These are also the three channels we help our clients leverage successfully to grow their own businesses. 

The reason public speaking, LinkedIn, and podcasts are our top three is that they leverage thought leadership as a marketing strategy and allow us to position ourselves as experts in our industry. Besides, this is a lot less costly than investing in paid ads, for example—and let's face it, most of our marketing budgets shrank during the pandemic and into the financial crisis. 

As a result of this strategy, we reached page 1 of Google search (securing the second spot) without any investment and expanded our business to serve clients in 12 countries across the globe.

Marina Byezhanova, Co-Founder, Brand of a Leader

4. Research audience preferences and choose channels wisely

If I were to limit myself to three distribution channels for a new company, my first step would be to identify where my target audience already exists and who is successfully reaching them. I would look for opportunities to piggyback on those audiences and determine where I can gain the most traction.

During this critical research phase, we utilize tools like SparkToro, Reddit, and industry newsletters while also exploring various distribution options such as Facebook groups. Additionally, I would conduct market research and engage with both existing and lost customers to gather valuable insights.

Once I have a clear understanding of my audience's preferences and behaviors, I would select the three channels that best align with their needs. These might include:

1. Guest content: If I discover that my audience values information from trusted sources, I would seek partnership opportunities to contribute guest content on relevant platforms.

2. Niche social media groups: If my research indicates that decision-makers in my target market are active in specific Facebook groups or similar platforms, I would leverage these spaces to connect, share valuable content, and engage in meaningful discussions.

3. Email marketing: If I find that my audience prefers direct communication, I would prioritize partnering with existing email lists while simultaneously building and nurturing my own. This approach allows me to provide tailored insights and personalized offers effectively.

By first understanding where my audience is and which channels they engage with, I can make informed decisions about which distribution channels to prioritize, ensuring a more effective strategy for driving growth.

Casey Whitcher, Business Owner / Consultant, CWdynamic

5. Prioritize email marketing, SEO, and partnerships

If limited to just three distribution channels, I'd focus on:

1. Email marketing: This remains the highest ROI channel with $36-42 returned for every $1 spent according to recent studies. Unlike social platforms, you own your email list and have direct access to your audience. Email lets you segment, personalize, and nurture relationships at scale while gathering valuable data on engagement. It's also platform-agnostic and not subject to algorithm changes.

2. SEO-optimized content marketing: While this requires patience, quality content that ranks well becomes a compounding asset driving organic traffic for years. The key is creating genuinely helpful content that answers your target audience's questions while naturally incorporating relevant keywords. This builds authority, creates shareworthy resources, and captures high-intent traffic. Plus, you're building valuable owned media rather than renting attention.

3. Strategic partnerships: Whether through co-marketing, affiliate programs, or complementary service providers, partnerships let you tap into established audiences that already trust your partner's brand. The key is finding partners with overlapping but non-competing audiences where there's clear mutual benefit. This amplifies reach while lending credibility through association.

The power of these three channels comes from their synergy: your content feeds your email list, your partnerships expand your content's reach, and your email nurtures relationships from both sources. They're also largely owned channels giving you more control and data.

While other channels like paid ads or social media can work well, they often require constant spending or are subject to platform changes. These three provide a foundation of sustainable, owned growth assets you can build upon.

That said, the best channels always depend on your specific business, audience, and goals. The key is picking channels you can execute consistently and measuring what works for your unique situation. Sometimes a less popular channel that perfectly fits your niche beats a "best practice" that isn't ideal for your context.

Sai Sathish, B2B marketing leader, ConsaInsights

6. Utilize LinkedIn, YouTube, and niche podcasts

Spreading yourself too thin is a one-way ticket to nowhere. As someone focused on the B2B space, my first choice would be LinkedIn. This is the platform where your decision-makers and deals are made. It's a great platform to build your brand, but it's not great at helping with discoverability. 

The second choice that helps with this is YouTube. This is the platform people can use to find answers, and the bonus is you can have a long shelf life for your content. 

The third option I would go with is a niche business podcast. The key is that it is entirely focused on being of service to your ideal clients. This positions your business as the leading authority and builds loyalty often unavailable with other channels. The upside is that the podcast will also help with discoverability and brand awareness. 

Alone, these platforms are good in their own way. Together, they become my silver bullet for business growth.

Michelle J Raymond, Founder - B2B Growth Coach, B2B GROWTH CO

7. Choose content marketing, email, and LinkedIn

If I had to limit myself to just three distribution channels, I'd choose:

Content marketing (SEO + Blogs): Content is timeless, and it's the backbone of organic traffic. By consistently creating valuable, SEO-optimized content, you not only attract the right audience but also build trust and authority. It provides long-term benefits, making it the first channel I'd rely on.

Email marketing: Despite the rise of social media and other platforms, email marketing remains one of the highest-converting channels. Building a solid email list allows you to nurture relationships with potential clients and keep existing ones engaged. Plus, it's incredibly measurable and customizable for targeted campaigns.

Social media (LinkedIn for B2B): LinkedIn is incredibly powerful for B2B marketing. It allows direct interaction with decision-makers, strengthens brand presence, and offers rich opportunities for networking and thought leadership. It's a great way to engage with your target audience, share valuable insights, and build relationships that drive conversions.

These three provide a great balance of long-term growth (content), direct engagement (email), and relationship-building (social media), covering different touchpoints in the customer journey and offering a strong mix of organic and outbound opportunities.

Ila Bandhiya, Senior Digital Marketer, Middleware

8. Opt for SEO, email marketing, and paid social

If I had to limit myself to only three distribution channels for growing a business, I'd choose:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO offers long-term value by driving organic traffic to your website. It's a scalable, cost-effective way to generate consistent leads and establish authority in your niche. A well-optimized site can cater to high-intent users actively searching for solutions.

Key Benefit: Even with limited resources, content like blogs, guides, and targeted landing pages can pay off over time, creating a foundation for inbound marketing.

2. Email marketing: Email is a direct, personal, and measurable channel. It allows you to nurture leads, build relationships, and convert prospects effectively. Campaigns can be tailored based on user behavior, increasing the chances of engagement.

Key Benefit: With segmentation and automation, email marketing scales easily, creating a reliable revenue channel that can complement other strategies.

3. Social media advertising (Paid Social): Paid social ads, particularly on platforms like Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and LinkedIn (for B2B), offer unparalleled targeting capabilities. They allow you to reach specific audiences quickly, test messaging, and generate leads or sales at scale.

Key Benefit: Immediate results with the ability to A/B test, refine, and optimize campaigns for maximum ROI.

SEO drives organic traffic and brand authority, email marketing nurtures those leads, and paid social ads generate targeted traffic quickly. Together, they provide a balanced mix of long-term, mid-term, and short-term strategies for sustained growth.

Pankaj Agrawal, CEO & Founder, Celestial Corporation

9. Rely on Word of Mouth, content, and email

I would have word of mouth, content marketing, and email if I had only three distribution channels to promote a business.

Word of mouth has always been the best method to acquire trust and loyalty because people trust recommendations from their trusted sources. As a word-of-mouth marketer, I've learned how building customer relationships and getting satisfied customers to tell their story helps to create tangible growth. It's affordable, it gives you trust, and it's a kind of cumulative effect that continues to build as more people share your business.

My second pick would be content marketing as this helps businesses to brand themselves as educated and helpful. Good-quality blogs, videos, or guides are educational for your target customers and show them what you can offer them.

Last but not least, email marketing is an amazing strategy for relationship building and following up. With email, unlike social media, where your message can be forgotten, you have a direct connection to your customers.

Anders Bill, Cofounder/CPO, Superfiliate

10. Select LinkedIn, email, and Reddit

If I had to pick just three distribution channels, I'd go with LinkedIn, Email, and Reddit. 

These platforms are where real, meaningful conversations happen. Marketers serious about growth and collaboration show up here, engaging openly instead of hiding behind walls. Email marketing is a classic because it delivers high ROI and lets you build strong, personalized connections. LinkedIn is perfect for networking, thought leadership, and reaching decision-makers, while Reddit offers a raw, authentic space to connect with niche communities and have real discussions.

And yes! Of course, SEO and content marketing play a huge role too. SEO drives organic traffic, and content marketing helps you build trust and authority by offering more significant value to your audience. Pairing these with LinkedIn, Reddit, and email gives you a mix of short-term results and long-term growth.

Jay Nair, Content Lead, Venngage

11. Go with organic search, social, and Slack

1. Organic Search - It's a cost-effective way of getting leads back to your business. Sure it may take some time to ramp up this channel, but once you're in the top ranks, the rewards are worth it. 

2. Social: This channel is where you can build the most engagement with your audience, and you can reach a large audience immediately once you reach virality in your posts. 

3. Exclusive Slack channel or email list: Both of these two options operate on rented real estate, but if you build an audience of your own, that's something that can't be taken away.

John Marquez, Founder, Search Forge

12. Pick web, social, and email

If I were to limit myself to three distribution channels, I would choose web, social, and email. 

First, web because a brand's website is its most important property for two reasons. It is where a brand can tell their story as they want to (spin, flip, audio, video, interactivity, downloads, multi-language, etc.) and it is where conversion occurs (put in shopping cart, download, schedule, etc.). 

Second, social. I would choose one platform, depending on B2B or B2C, and I would go deep on it. And finally, I would commit to elegantly using email as my outreach channel.

B Randall Willis, Founder, Right Angle

13. Prioritize communities, Reddit, and Bluesky

When you choose your distribution channels, you've got to think about where your audience is. Do your due diligence and find out where the audience you want to attract is already spending their time.

In my current case with Userlist, those would be B2B SaaS founders and SaaS email marketers. You will often find them starting discussions and asking questions in founder and marketer communities, but also on Reddit, and lately Bluesky.

So if I had to strip down our current distribution system, I would definitely prioritize these three.

Katarina Andrejević, Customer Advocate, Userlist

14. Main platform with 2 funnel channels

It depends on what industry they're actually wanting to breach. Some of the platforms I recommend may change based on what they're wanting. In general, I'd say you want a main platform and two funneling platforms, regardless of whether you have a website, since most of your activity will be on social media. In my case (marketing writer), I like using LinkedIn as my main, with Pinterest, Bluesky, and/or TikTok as secondaries. 

On LinkedIn, it's easier to have people see you as a business to collaborate with. On other platforms, your ICPs may be present but may also use their own marketing team running their accounts and not actually see you. 

This isn't always true, it just means it takes more time to be noticed. Especially since DMs aren't as commonly used, these places are better for funneling.

Amara Murphy, Marketing Writer, Cult Leader, Cult Creative

15. Use Google Ads, LinkedIn, and influencers

For paid media, I'd still use:

• Google ads 

• LinkedIn thought leadership ads 

• Influencer campaigns

For our niche, targeting marketers and content managers, these channels have proven to be successful. For Google Ads, we're targeting intent search. On LinkedIn, we promote successful video posts and we do longer partnerships with influencer campaigns. We can outsource Google Ads and keep the rest in-house for more control. That said, we are still a young company.

Yonit Kraushar, Marketing Automation, Shuffll

Trends and top platforms: where to focus your efforts

Across these 15 expert perspectives, three key trends emerge: email marketing, SEO, and LinkedIn dominate the conversation. These platforms are consistently highlighted for their ability to balance short-term results with long-term growth.

• Email marketing stands out as the top recommendation for its unmatched ROI, audience ownership, and versatility in nurturing customer relationships.
  

• SEO is praised for its compounding benefits in driving organic, high-intent traffic over time.
  

• LinkedIn emerges as a powerhouse for B2B connections, thought leadership, and decision-maker engagement.

Other notable mentions include paid social for its targeted reach, partnerships for leveraging complementary networks, and niche channels like podcasts and communities for unique audiences.

In short: Prioritise channels that align with your business model, audience preferences, and goals. Focus on platforms you can execute consistently, and remember, integration is everything—your chosen channels should work together to amplify your impact.