Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing – There’s often a debate when it comes to deciding whether digital marketing is the best or traditional marketing takes the cake? Well, let’s burst the bubble. There’s never a single best marketing channel in existence. It entirely depends on your kind of business, marketing goals, and of course, the budget you’re willing to put in.
Let’s delve into each of them in detail and decide what’s better for you.
It is marketing through the online mediums via the Internet like websites, social media apps, email marketing, Facebook, and Google ads, etc.
Did you find it spooky when you were casually scrolling through social media and you kept seeing posts or adverts of something you recently searched for on Google? Well, it’s nothing scary but a part of digital marketing
What is Traditional Marketing?
Hence, it is nothing but marketing through all offline modes. It includes marketing on billboards, print media – newspapers and magazines, cold calling, radio, and television. Before the era of the Internet, Traditional marketing was practically the only means of advertising. It is inevitable to disbar this mode of marketing.
All the ad jingles that we grew up with in between our favorite tv shows were one of the most effective ways of traditional marketing. The art of capturing consumers’ attention through billboards for mere seconds while they were driving was developed under traditional marketing.
Now that we have seen what each of these modes of marketing cater to, let’s see the opportunities and obstacles of digital marketing and traditional marketing.
Digital Marketing: Pros and Cons
Pros
You can create very specific criteria for your target audiences and only those who meet the criteria will see your advertisements. What more can a marketer want than his ads to be displayed to those who are potential customers!
But having the perfect know-how of your target audiences is very important otherwise this facility may backfire, and your money can go down the drain. Intrigued to find out more about how this works? Give this Facebook Ads course a shot!
There’s no point in running a marketing campaign if you cannot measure its performance. Digital marketing lets you do that. You can measure how well, or poor your campaign did and make necessary tweaks to get it back on track. It also gives you detailed insights into your campaign.
Social media is highly interactive. It lets you engage with your audience and strike a conversation with them. Also, if you generate quality content, it is often saved or shared by your users. Social media picks this and helps you boost engagement even further.
Cons
While we may celebrate the fact that we can go global with our target audiences and capture a larger audience, with that comes the need to compete with global brands. Today, the number of businesses using digital platforms is so large, that to stand apart and be heard is no fun and games. Requires consistent hard work with smart work.
It is no secret that technology is constantly evolving and with that, so are the means to digital marketing. Thus, it is not enough for you to be aware of the changes. You also need to start adapting to it and become a specialist in that field.
Has this ever happened to you? You’re seeing a really interesting video, the climax is about to approach and bang, you’re now forced to watch an advertisement on donuts. We have all faced this and know how irritating it can get. While a few people have started living with it, the other few can dislike your brand for it.
Traditional Marketing: Pros and Cons
Pros
As we mentioned earlier, most of the ad jingles are so catchy that they register in a user’s mind very easily and associate your brand with the product in general. Users are exposed to exciting billboards very often and don’t have the option to skip them or scroll past them, thus making them very easily memorable.
Television ads or out-of-the-box hoardings are visually more appealing. Plus, unlike social media, users are not bombarded with numerous advertisements constantly in the traditional marketing channels. Hence, they are likely to create more impact on consumers.
While everyone is catching up with digitalization, the rural areas are yet to familiarize themselves well with it. But they are good to go when it comes to tv, radios, and local newspapers. Thus, traditional marketing lets you tap into these markets and appeal better to them.
Cons
Unlike digital marketing, the traditional channels are sort of one-way communicators. They lack interaction and thus the engagement with the audience is very less. Consumers love when brands communicate with them and this poses an obstacle under traditional marketing.
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Immeasurable
There do exist certain ways to track your campaign, but they don’t give an in-depth analysis which leaves you confused about what exactly went wrong or which factors worked in your favor. This turns down the scope of learning from previous campaigns and generating better ones.
Buying space in a leading newspaper or magazine or running your adverts on a renowned tv channel during prime timeslots costs a hefty amount. Billboards in posh areas can almost cost you a lac for a month. If you have just started, it is very difficult to invest such a big amount of money, especially in the trial-and-error phase.
Let’s find out what’s suitable for you- Digital Marketing or Traditional Marketing.
What’s better for you – Digital Marketing or Traditional Marketing?
To spell the verdict for digital marketing vs traditional marketing – it is best if you integrate both in your marketing strategies but divide weightage depending on your requirements and target audience.
Although looking at the overall picture, you may or may not skip traditional marketing, but you cannot afford to skip digital marketing. It is the need of the hour and the faster you get along with it, the better.
So, depending on your target audience, you can decide where to go all out and where to take it slow. If your audience comprises more of the millennials, needless to say, Digital marketing should be your prime focus. And on the parallel side, you could also go for timely adverts through traditional modes.
But if your product is consumed majorly by the older generations or is a daily-use consumer item, nothing beats the exposure that traditional marketing can bring in. And to start connecting with the younger audience, go with social media campaigns as your secondary marketing activity.
Are you a start-up and wish to get a higher ROI through marketing channels? Then yes, digital marketing is where you need to start. It is inexpensive and at the same time will help you give a good kick-start if utilized correctly. To ace the digital marketing game, we suggest you take a digital marketing online training course which will equip you with the latest wayward of this industry and how you as a business can seamlessly integrate it to make the most out of it.
Hope this blog helped you choose the better option for yourself.
