Imagine having the chance to choose both Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing.
Ah – the wonderful world of marketing! It’s a gift and a curse.
It can either make or break your business. If done right, your marketing campaign can drive traffic and sales.
However, if you fail to do it correctly, you’ll lose money, effort, and time with zero results.
It would help if you spent extra effort to ensure your marketing is on point.
But with today’s digital world, the marketing game has been more complex than ever. There are lots of marketing strategies that will drive you to the edge.
Digital marketing has a lot of new things to offer, but traditional marketing is proven time and time again.
With a budget to keep in mind, deciding which type of marketing will give you the most bang for your buck is essential.
What is Traditional Marketing?
Before the world wide web age, there were three predominant ways to market your products and services –print, TV, and radio.
- Print – These are marketing materials like magazines, newspapers, billboards, posters, phone directories, and even direct mail.
- Radio and TV – These are commercials, segments, etc.
These offline marketing strategies worked well in the past, and here are the main reasons why:
Marketing was a one-way street back then.
Companies talked, and people had no choice but to listen. There was no way to talk back or ask the companies. There was no Google to ask. No Yelp to check for other customers’ reviews. And no Facebook to check people’s comments and feedback.
Yes, news traveled through word of mouth. But really, words didn’t travel that fast back then.
That’s why, when the companies told them that those were the best sardines in town, they believed it.
People were almost the same.
Let’s admit it. In today’s world, we have more options. More products to buy, more clothes to wear, and more restaurants to try. Literally at the tip of our fingers!
That wasn’t the case in the past. People are most likely the same.
For example, if your target audience was a 25-year-old woman. You could easily visualize that those women were mostly moms with 1 or 2 children, family-oriented, loved to bake or cook, and probably, a churchgoer.
Therefore, creating a marketing campaign for the same audience was a breeze.
If you target 25-year-old females, you can think of various profiles in today’s world. They can be college women taking up their master’s degrees, career women, stay-at-home moms, work-from-home moms, etc.
You have to create different campaigns to target all of them, which takes a lot of AB testing.
It was easy for people to believe.
Since people didn’t have a chance to do their research, it was easy for them to believe what they heard or saw.
Nowadays, people are more intelligent and savvier. They don’t just buy. They look for feedback, comments, or reviews to ensure they are getting their money’s worth.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Traditional Marketing:
Among the many perks and benefits of traditional or offline marketing are:
Simpler and Easier to Understand
Most offline campaigns are spot-on. They give straight-to-the-point messages and tell you what to do next.
Better in Local Targeting
Offline marketing works best in local targeting. With newspapers and print materials, marketers can send their marketing message right before your doorsteps.
Marketing Materials can be Kept and Used.
With offline marketing, you can hold and keep your marketing materials. The best part of it? People can use your products for others to see, like branded umbrellas, pens, and bags – thus, free advertisement.
On the other hand, these are the disadvantages of this type of marketing.
Offline Marketing can be Expensive.
One of the main downsides of traditional marketing is its cost. It’s not a joke to print out thousands of marketing print copies – not to mention the people you need to hire to spread them out.
Tracking your marketing results is challenging.
Though there can be tools and methods to track your offline marketing results, the process can be complex and pricey.
AB Testing is almost impossible.
AB Testing is next to impossible because of the amount you have to spend to print a marketing material or air a marketing ad. There’s no way to communicate with your audience; thus, your data is limited.
What is Digital Marketing?
According to HubSpot, Digital marketing is a general term used for all marketing efforts that use the internet or any electronic device.
It’s everything from using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to autoresponders like Aweber and MailChimp, to making the most out of search engine optimization, and many more.
Here are some widely used digital marketing tactics:
- Content Marketing – blogs, ebooks, videos, infographics, online brochures, presentations, etc.
- Search Engine Optimization – optimizing websites, blog posts, etc.
- Email Marketing – newsletters, holiday promotions, etc.
- Pay Per Click – ad campaigns on Google, Facebook Ads, etc.
- Affiliate Marketing – Clickbank, Amazon Associates, Youtube Partnership Program, etc
- Social Media Marketing – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram
Learn more about the basics of Social Media Marketing here.
Advantages of Digital Marketing:
Wider Target Audience
Compared to traditional marketing, you can have a wider reach with this type of marketing. You can engage and transform people from worldwide to your actual paying customers.
Cost-Efficient
If done right, the money spent on paid ads will drive tons of traffic and sales. Online marketing is easier to track your money’s worth compared to traditional marketing.
Audience Interaction
Digital marketing allows you actually to engage and talk to your audience. Thus, it’s easy to get information that can help improve your products and services.
Disadvantages of Digital Marketing:
Complex
To some people, digital marketing can be too complex. It’s not straightforward like traditional marketing. Since there are many ways to market online, marketers need to keep up with all of them or pick one specialty.
Data Overload
With all the information you have online, how do you organize and use them all? If you don’t have a process, it’s easy to get lost and drown in all this data.
Final Thoughts:
Both traditional and digital marketing have their perks and downfalls. Knowing each of them and how they can apply to your business is essential. There’s no rule saying you should only use one. Just figure out which marketing techniques will reach your target audience and can drive a better outcome.
