For physical products, there are four basic types of marketing channels:

1. Direct selling, where products are marketed and sold directly to consumers without a fixed retail location
2. Selling through intermediaries, where products are manufactured at the point of origin and sold to customers by downstream intermediaries such as agents, brokers, wholesalers and retail stores
3. Dual distribution, where manufacturers combine multiple types of channels to sell products to the end-user. This could mean that the manufacturer sells directly to customers and also does business with wholesalers and retailers who sell to customers through their own distribution networks
4. Reverse marketing, where products move from the customer back to the manufacturer. Typical cases of reverse marketing include recycling and product recalls Businesses that engage in digital marketing campaigns are executing a special type of direct selling campaign that may leverage many different types of channels to effectively market to prospects, nurture them through the sales funnel and drive sales growth and revenue target attainment.