Looking to create the perfect marketing strategy, but not sure whether to go with digital or traditional marketing? Wondering what benefits might digital marketing tactics offer compared to traditional ones? 

Well, you’re not alone.

Selecting the right marketing type is an age old question on every marketer’s mind. It ultimately comes down to which one fits the needs of your company. And if you find yourself in the middle of the digital vs. traditional marketing debate, several significant differences can help you determine what type of marketing will work better for your company. We’ll go over the difference between these two major wings of marketing, which type you should use, and if you could opt for both at the same time. 

So let’s get down to the details !

Digital Marketing Taking the Advertising Industry by Storm

Every business wants to gain an edge over their competitors, and with the use of technology, the battle has become more real than during any other time in history. Simply put, digital marketing is promoting your business to audiences online. It involves using digital channels as tools for marketing communication, such as – 

• Website
• Social Media
• Blogging
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
• Mobile ads
• Email
• Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements etc. to promote and grow a brand, product or services. 

On the other hand, Traditional Marketing involves traditional channels, like – 

• Billboards 
• Print
• TV
• Direct Mail
• Telephone .

Though traditional or offline methods are still thriving and producing good results, many businesses especially SBEs and start-ups are beginning to rely mostly on digital marketing, something that’s becoming wildly popular due to the cultural, technological, and societal shifts around us.

Digital Marketing is Taking Over Traditional Marketing

The reason why digital marketing is crucial for a business today is because the internet is becoming one of the most used tools everyday. 

Yes, there is a percentage of people who don’t use the internet for conducting any transaction or activity. However, a considerable number of the population is regularly using and getting more used to  the internet for multiple purposes. They’re logging on the web to socialize or carry out their day to day activities like –  purchasing goods and services.

While traditional marketing is still effective, it’s not the only way to make your product popular among your target market.Thanks to the internet, businesses are now in a better position to research their demographics, advertise their products and services to the masses, and make financial savings when marketing.

For some brands, especially the well-established ones with a huge offline audience, traditional marketing may be too expensive to ignore. But for the many small businesses that are trying to make a mark on a tight budget, digital marketing can prove to be a savior.

Which is why many new and old businesses are now leveraging the power of digital marketing and rethinking the marketing funnel.

Technology is growing, evolving and connecting business to their audience like never before. And in the process, it’s empowering digital marketing and it’s omnipresence. No wonder it’s taking over traditional marketing which has quite some drawbacks, such as- 

1. Relatively higher cost
2. Limited customization options for campaigns, can take longer to execute and refine
3. Poor campaign measurement
4. Little or one-way interaction with audience
5. Doesn’t have the same ability for targeting and segmentation as digital.

Why and how is digital marketing more effective than traditional?

As a business, you need to ensure that you are ahead of your competition. Which means you cannot just depend on outdated marketing methods anymore.

You need to look beyond and understand how you can leverage the latest digital marketing techniques to grow your reach. Digital marketing provides you with a treasure trove of opportunities to evolve how you reach and interact with customers. Here are some of the reasons why many business owners rely on digital marketing to grow their brand and consider it a better option.

1. Lower cost

Digital marketing is less expensive & more effective. Whether you are just starting your business or you just have a minimal budget for your promotional activities, digital marketing allows you to spend less but gives you the potential of gaining more. Small businesses and start-ups benefit mostly from this feature as they have a lower budget for brand marketing. Many digital marketing tools like social media platforms, email, search engine optimization and blogging sites are free or have a free option. Paid ads like PPC, website or mobile ads are also more cost effective.

2. Target Market

Digital marketing makes clever targeting possible. It’s one of the reasons why a lot of business owners and marketers seem to lean on digital marketing. It allows you to easily identify your target market, listen to what they are interested in, and answer their needs by offering your products and services. It also allows you to personalize your advertising campaigns to let your audience feel like you know them and you have the answer to what they are looking for.

Also read: Integrate Facebook Pixel With Google Tag Manager For Ideal Tracking

3. Wider reach

Using digital marketing, you can create a highly customized campaign and widen your reach to different cities or even different countries. Unlike traditional marketing, putting your ads online does not limit your potential clients based on location. This gives your brand visibility and awareness depending on your desired reach. You may now expand your customer base to be several miles away from you, across the country, or anywhere else in the world.

Social media plays a big role in digital marketing and perhaps one of the biggest advantages over traditional marketing. As per the study, there are already about 3.8  billion people or 49% of the world’s population that can be found on different social media channels. This is something you can leverage to widen your reach. 

4. Greater customer engagement

Today, in this highly competitive business world the key to staying relevant and keeping customers is to ensure continuous engagement with your audience.

Digital marketing allows you to interact with your customers in a way traditional marketing does not. Through channels such as social media, for example,  you can physically see what your audience thinks of your brand and marketing efforts. Your clients are easily connected with you through more channels like email, instant messaging,  blog posts, chatbox and conversational marketing among others.

Also, by making the relevant changes to your website, you can hold the customer’s attention for longer and engage them more on site. 

5. Measurable

One of the things that make digital marketing favourable is having results measurable with ease, accuracy and in an instant. 

When you distribute fliers, give away brochures, buy ad space on billboards or advertise in magazines, you don’t know how far your marketing is going to be successful. Whereas in digital marketing, you know the effect and can measure the results with tools, such as Google Analytics, HubSpot, Hootsuite for example.

In digital marketing, online tools like web analytics and social media metrics that gauge the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts. You have access to a ton of information about your prospects and customers to help you understand where you are going.

Also read: Digital Marketing for Beginners

Digital marketing isn’t ALWAYS the most effective

To stay relevant, many business leaders are turning their attention towards digital marketing. But does that mean traditional marketing methods are no longer effective?

When digital marketing emerged, many thought traditional marketing would be forgotten. But that did not happen and rather, it’s alive and thriving, and still produces good results in 2021.

It still has numerous benefits which even the advanced digital marketing tactics may not be able to surpass. For instance-

1. Traditional marketing establishes credibility
2. Billboard signs, flyers and brochures etc. add familiarity component to the brand 
3. It is still the best way to reach a mature demographic who have less adoption of technology
4. Hard copy marketing materials are easier to process, remember and recall 
5. Promotional materials are sustainable; can be reused, reread anytime or anywhere without access to the internet.

Traditional marketing, now often undervalued by marketers, is still very much present  in a consumer’s day to day life. So if you have the budget to share your campaigns in magazines and prime time TV, your money could be well spent.

However, your traditional approach is not enough in 2021 and digital marketing is just as important as it, if not less. Digital marketing uses the time most people use on the internet in day to day life to its advantage by cleverly weaving in marketing communications into every digital channel.

Hybrid solution for businesses

The key to a great marketing campaign is to find the right balance between traditional and digital, which is where the ‘hybrid’ also known as brick-and-click concept of marketing comes in. 

These two methods can work seamlessly with each other.

Work on your online presence, leverage social media platforms and create a website that can be a forefront of your business online while still setting up an eye-catching billboard and impactful radio or podcast ad to generate easy recall. 

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. 

The moral of the story: a hybrid marketing approach can do wonders for your business, if you know your audience, have the budget and can find the perfect balance between traditional and digital marketing.