Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing are two different approaches to marketing that aim at achieving similar goals; i.e., promoting goods and services, and reaching the target audience. Traditional Marketing is a marketing approach that uses conventional methods to promote goods and services; however, Digital Marketing uses online platforms and digital technologies to promote goods and services. In this blog, we will be learning about the difference b/w both of them and which one should you go for.
What Is Traditional Marketing?
Traditional Marketing is a form of marketing that uses conventional methods/offline media to reach the target audience. This marketing involves traditional channels, like billboards and printed media. It is a one-way communication marketing approach and allows businesses to broadcast their message to a large audience with no or less interaction.
These marketing materials are usually inserted in locations where their target audience is more likely to see, hear, or engage with them. Up until the development of the internet in the 1990’s, traditional marketing was pretty much the only type of marketing. The traditional marketing campaigns require quite high financial investment as the cost associated with broadcasting, printing, and distributing tangible materials is high.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing is a form of marketing that uses online platforms and digital technologies to reach the target audience. Put simply, this marketing is using digital channels such as websites and social media as tools for marketing communication. For this, the organization leverages social media, internet, search engines, mobile apps, email, and other digital channels.
If you’re using social media marketing you will be well versed in the adverts that pop up in your stream—that’s digital marketing.It is a two-way communication marketing approach and allows the organization and audience to interact with each other, engage properly, and provide feedback and/or suggestions. Marketing offers the organization with numerous tools and techniques to target specific audiences, measure their campaign performance, and optimize strategies.
With digital marketing, organizations can interact with their audience, allow them to provide feedback and comments, and engage with them properly. It uses multimedia content like images, videos, infographics, etc., for user engagement across different online platforms.
Digital Marketing Vs. Traditional Marketing: What’s The Difference?
To help you decide which is the best for your business, let’s look at a few key points of comparison.
The main difference between digital and traditional marketing is the medium through which an audience encounters a marketing message. While traditional marketing uses traditional media like magazines and newspapers, digital marketing uses digital media, such as social media or websites. Of course traditional marketing doesn’t mean it’s old fashioned. Traditional marketing still plays an important role in people’s lives with the ever growing need to step out of the digital world. Subconsciously you attach yourself to their brand emotionally, meaning they will stay at the top of your mind.
In the same token, digital marketing is just as important as traditional if not even more so. It includes solutions such as search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click ads (PPC), social media marketing (SMM), display ads, content marketing, and email marketing. It uses every touch point of your daily use of the internet to reach you. If you are google searching holiday ideas for your next weekend getaway, the chances are that soon after you will see a tailored sponsored ad from a travel company. Using the internet for several hours each day is a normal part of most people’s day to day life. Digital marketing just uses this to its advantage by cleverly weaving in marketing communications into every digital channel.
Which Type Of Marketing Should You Use?
The key to a great marketing campaign is to find the right balance between traditional and digital. In 2024, digital marketing is the yin to traditional marketing’s yang. Both play an important role in a marketing strategy, but they are each elevated when used in unison.
The right marketing strategy for your business depends on your company size, goals, target audience, and budget. Let’s get to the specifics and define the differences between digital marketing and traditional marketing and their pros and cons.
Traditional Marketing: Pros And Cons
With the rise of social media, traditional marketing is often undervalued by marketers. However, traditional marketing still very much has a place in a consumer’s day to day life. If you have the budget to share your campaigns in magazines and prime time TV, your money could be well spent.
Traditional marketing channels include:
- Outdoor (Billboards, bus/taxi wraps, posters etc)
- Broadcasting (TV, Radio etc)
- Print (Magazines, newspapers etc)
- Direct Mail (catalogs etc)
- Telemarketing (Phone, text message)
- Window display and signs
Pros
The advantage of traditional marketing is that it reaches a broad audience quickly; however, it can be expensive for businesses with a limited budget and is less targeted or measurable than digital marketing. Seeing something in real life rather than on your phone is more likely to be remembered. The anticipation of the new ads or a beautiful and impressive window display is more likely to stay in your mind than an Instagram ad you’ll probably scroll past in seconds.
Cons
There are ways to measure traditional marketing campaigns such as brand trackers but they are nowhere near as in depth or intelligent as the tools available for digital marketing. The audience cannot be engaged and interacted with in real time, and traditional marketing is frequently a one-way communication strategy that cannot obtain rapid feedback. Many forms of traditional marketing will set you back a considerable amount. Unlike social media marketing, you’re more or less in the dark about your audience’s reaction to your marketing efforts.
Digital Marketing: Pros And Cons
However impactful traditional marketing is, we can’t forget that we are well and truly living in the internet age. It allows developers to develop data-driven decisions and optimize tactics thanks to the powerful analytics tools provided by digital marketing, which allow them to track and evaluate the efficacy of campaigns.
On average, people spend 6 hours and 42 minutes online each day.
That’s a mind-bogglingly huge amount of time and opportunity to do some clever digital marketing.
If you need tips on launching a successful digital marketing strategy, check KingAsterisk Digital Marketing’s other blogs for for guidance.
Digital marketing channels include
- Social media (Facebook, Instagram etc)
- Website
- Content marketing
- Affiliate marketing
- Inbound marketing
- Email marketing
- PPC (pay per click
- SEM (Search engine marketing)
Pros
Through channels such as social media you can physically see what your audience thinks of your brand and marketing efforts. If your marketing has been shared, liked and had plenty of positive comments, you know you’re doing something right. On the flipside to traditional marketing, the specifics of digital marketing tracking is exceptionally in depth. This makes your learnings extremely clear for your next round of marketing efforts.
Cons
Think about the moment you’re scrolling through your Facebook homepage and all you want to do is see what your old school friends are up to these days. Then you get the dreaded sponsored ad for something related to an embarrassing ailment you googled the night before. It’s sure to make you actively dislike the very brand doing the clever targeting. Digital marketing trends like Google ads, banners, promo emails or social media ads can have a fleeting, temporary character. They’re intangible and can easily be ignored. If your target audience keeps scrolling or clicks to the next page your ad will be gone from their screen.
To get the most out of your digital marketing efforts there is a lot to learn. Each channel usually requires its own specialist, from search engine marketing to social media, each channel requires a pro to get the best bang for your buck. However, a grass-roots social media marketing strategy is a great place to start.
Find What Works Best For You
Ultimately both types of marketing have their benefits and downfalls, but the key is understanding your specific marketing needs, considering your budget and understanding your target audience. Traditional marketing channels are often more expected and welcomed by the Baby Boomer generation and Gen X—people who own televisions and prefer to buy newspapers for example.
However, digital marketing is a surprisingly suitable route for all ages, not just millennials and Gen Z—everyone spends hours scrolling through Facebook, sharing Lad Bible videos and shopping online. Both digital and traditional marketing can work for you, as long as you know what your audience wants.
Conclusion
Digital marketing has become increasingly popular in recent years as it is much more affordable and easier to measure results. It also allows you to target specific audiences more accurately than traditional methods.As compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing can be more cost-effective. It is because digital marketing usually includes low overhead cost and has more advertising options.
It takes time and research to choose the right mix of digital and traditional marketing methods, but it is ultimately worth it. For this, you will be needing an expert to handle all your marketing needs. KingAsterisk Digital Marketing can be your friend as well as a partner to guide you on all branding requirements. Connect with us to gain more insights and proceed with marketing operations.
