Traditional Marketing v/s Digital Marketing: Who is better?

Introduction

Marketing typically remains one of the most important aspects of any business as it is the part wherein organizations engage their customers and market their goods. A lot of changes have occurred in the methods of marketing. before, the most consumed traditional marketing was television commercials, newspapers, and even billboards. However, digital marketing has proven powerful, especially with the coming of the internet and technology. With the help of the interconnected world, it is now possible to market directly to the consumer both physically and virtually. The big question is: which marketing method is better? In this blog, you will learn about the difference between both the conventional and the modern method of marketing and which is best for your business.

What is Traditional Marketing?

Traditional marketing can be defined as business marketing where firms used to market their products before they adopted the internet technology. These include:

• Print Media: magazines and newspapers, flyers and pamphlets, and posters. 
• Television: Greetings that are conveyed in television commercials as well as television ads.
• Radio: Radio advertising is where one makes use of the various radio stations to get across their intended message.
• Billboards: Exterior billboards that are fixed on roadsides such as highways and streets, as well as on building facades.
• Direct Mail: Categorized under tangible promotional materials because it involves sending letters, postcards, catalogs, or any other material to customers.

Some of the marketing techniques are as old as the marketing concept itself, and yet they are being employed in the current business world, mainly in local campaigns. Traditional methods for reaching a large amount of people are quite effective; however, they might be costly, and determining the effectiveness of traditional marketing might be quite challenging.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing, on the other hand, is the practice of using technology to advertise goods and services to consumers. Among the most popular tactics for digital marketing are: 

• Social Media Marketing: Including using social media tools such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and linked in to interact with customers.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): One example is when you are attempting to increase rankings for your website on SERP like Google.
• Email Marketing: Therapists offer their services to a specific list of potential clients telling them about their services through emails.
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: Advertising at websites such as Google and Facebook.
• Content Marketing: Developing and delivering desirable content such as blogs videos or infographics to the crowd.

Digital marketing is much more specific toward advertising to specific individuals on the internet and using technology and computerization to check how effective advertising is. It is less expensive and also very convenient than other methods of extending the company’s market around the globe.

Key Differences Between Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing

As we have seen now it is important to define what traditional marketing is and what digital marketing is, let’s list some of the differences between the two.

Reach and Audience

• Traditional Marketing: The majority of the concept is more inclined to get the attention of local or regional consumers. For instance, a Television advertisement may be only effective in a given country or town.
• Digital Marketing: Has a much broader reach. It enables businesses to market goods and services to the international market through the use of the Internet. Digital marketing means that you can get your message across to people all over the world at the click of a button.

Cost

• Traditional Marketing: This can be expensive. Television commercials, newspaper and magazine advertising, and billboards usually use a lot of money.
• Digital Marketing: Customarily cheaper, and particularly suitable for small businesses. Email marketing or pay-per-click advertising, social media and banner advertising as well as SEO are usually less expensive and can be modified to fit any budget.

Tracking and Analytics

• Traditional Marketing: Marketing has always been a challenge to quantify the magnitude of a traditional marketing push. For instance, how do you tell the number of people who noticed your billboard or the number of people who read the newspaper ad?
• Digital Marketing: Provides the ability to track, monitor, and analyze relatively more than the basic tool packages. This way you can determine how many people used an ad link, visited a site, or shared your posts on social networks.

Engagement

• Traditional Marketing: More often than not, it only goes up the chain of command. For instance, an advert in a commercial breaks informs the viewers about a product but there is no response channel.
• Digital Marketing: Permits both the sender and receivers to communicate at the same time. Users are free to express their opinions in a post or the posts of others, react to what they see, and even be able to directly communicate with a business on digital media.

Flexibility and Speed

• Traditional Marketing: Print ads and TV commercials, for instance, do not provide the same opportunity to change the materials as the Internet does. If you want to make changes, it may be necessary to reprint a flyer or broadcast a new television commercial.
• Digital Marketing: Of course, digital advertising campaigns can be modified in real time. This way, you can easily swap your ads, content, or strategy if there is something that does not work, or if something is interesting you want to try.

Choosing the Right Strategy for Your Business

The decision whether to opt for conventional marketing strategies or modern digital marketing strategies rests on some factors for instance; your objectives, your target market, and your financial strength. Here is a quick guide to help you choose the right strategy:

• If you have a local business: The use of conventional approaches, such as fliers, local television spots, and billboards can be particularly useful in reaching close customers.
• If you have a global audience: Digital marketing is more beneficial to you since you will be able to reach more people, from all parts of the world at a cheaper cost.
• If you’re on a budget: Digital marketing is always cheaper and encompasses better opportunities to attract customers for small businesses. Social media marketing and SEO are perfect examples of cheap techniques that can be used to market a business.
• If you want measurable results: Digital marketing is the best choice because it gives a straightforward analysis of the campaign, enabling you to determine its effectiveness.

Case Studies or Examples

Now, let's take a few examples of companies using both forms of marketing:

1. Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola is an organization that engages in both the promotional and operational marketing structures of both offline and online media. A current example is it has television commercials and billboards but it is very active on social media platforms. Through digital media, it communicates online with customers, shares information, and posts advertisements that appeal to particular groups of people.
2. Local Restaurants: A local restaurant may employ word of mouth through the use of fliers as well as placing an ad in the regional newspapers. However, it can also use digital marketing by getting a domain, introducing its menu on Instagram, and sending out newsletters with discounts and offers in its email.

Conclusion

In conclusion, one may assertively conclude that both traditional advertising and new media advertising have their relevance in today’s business environment. Local promotion through conventional channels is still efficient; however, digital promotion enhances coverage and availability of state-of-art metrics. You should therefore choose your strategy depending on your target customers, financial capacity, and marketing objectives.

With advanced tendencies toward Internet use and channels’ cost-performance capabilities, traditional marketing is not dead yet. The best solution therefore has to be a rank of web-based and offline-based approach and make certain that all your potential customers are covered at the respective channels. In this ever-transforming system of marketing, organizations that are planning to survive and gain competitive advantage, require such institutions as BBSMIT to offer the exquisite knowledge and tools to make the maximum use of traditional and digital marketing tools to achieve maximum results.