What marketing channel do you read about most?

Is it paid advertising?

Social media?

Maybe you’ve considered investing in that Super Bowl commercial.

Ok. Maybe you haven’t gone that far, but there is a lot of buzz about all the latest marketing channels popping up online. It seems like each day the blogging world and the tech news is full of the latest marketing channel that will revolutionize the business world.

The truth is that it’s difficult for a new marketing channel to prove its worth. The channel has to show that it can actually make money for businesses and that’s something that’s tough to do.

As a result, many marketing channels fail. A few do succeed and those usually stick around for a while. A few examples of successful channels include print and pay per click advertising. These channels are response driven and make it easy for businesses to manage profit.

Another channel that has proven successful for businesses is email marketing. And that’s just what a recent study showed as highlighted by eMarketer.

From UK Marketers Find Success with Tried-and-True Email:

According to SkyIQ, a marketing research firm in the UK, in September 2011, two-thirds (66%) of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing professionals in that country reported using email to reach their customers.

Email is definitely a profitable channel. It takes work to build a quality email list, but that list can be profitable for years if a business knows how to successfully market to the folks on it.

What I’m more interested in this study is the number one result. It’s a tried and true method of marketing and it’s the most successful marketing channel according to the marketing folks over in the UK.

SEO Most Successful According to UK Marketers

It’s a little difficult to interpret what the exact result is, but I’ll take online, website, SEO as meaning it is a company website that is, in fact, the most successful form or marketing today.

It makes sense. Businesses have long realized that investing in a quality website can bring in new sales. Current customers can easily recommend a business to their peers by simply sharing a URL for the business.

If a business has a content strategy to create fresh content with something like a blog, SEO can be a great profit driver. This can’t be accomplished without a website as the main focus. When a company has a website they can attract search traffic full of people looking for solutions. The businesses that are best positioned to attract this search traffic with quality content and quality goods and services are set to make the most profit.

Social media is great and so are lots of other marketing channels. These might someday be the top way to attract new business.

But today it’s still about bringing people to your own website.

The focus of any online activity should begin with your own website. It’s important to team with a quality web designer and a content strategies to develop a way for your business to become a lead generation hub in your industry.