Traditional marketing is a concept that comprises conventional forms of marketing and advertising. For many people, the traditional marketing concept remains the most recognizable idea of marketing, and its incorporation can be seen almost everywhere. Traditional marketing aspects include the following: print ads, broadcasts, direct mails, and telephonic promotions.
Television and radio are essential pillars of traditional marketing execution because these are the channels which run promotional content. Direct mailing is another method which includes the use of letters, banners, catalogues, flyers, brochures, etc. as a means of reaching out and communicating with customers. Finally, the concept of telephone marketing refers to promotional messages being sent out via telephone.
With the integration of digital marketing, the concepts of traditional marketing are fast disappearing and are being replaced by innovative strategies and methods which are being widely used by marketers around the world. It is a fact that the number of internet users in the world continues to increase on a daily basis.
According to Pew Research, internet users have increased by 5% in the past few years. Considering there is a large pool of people continually interacting over the web, it is undoubtedly worth mentioning that the trend is rapidly shifting from traditional to digital.
The broader aspect of marketing has always been reaching out to your target audience at the right time and the right place. The phenomenon surrounding traditional vs digital marketing has many attributes to it. Digital marketing encompasses all concepts, efforts, strategies, and methods of reaching out customers present over the internet. The most common digital channels remain websites, email, search engines, social networking sites, where the population of internet users is distributed.
Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing – the Popular Differences
Read on, we’re covering some important facts in this one!
Reach, targeting, and tracking:
In digital marketing, it is easier to reach a broader segment of your audience. One can reach customers globally and beyond a specific geographical location. Whereas in traditional, one can reach as far as the physical media can carry a message. There are different forms of advertising in digital marketing. Using data analytics, psychometrics, consumer insights, etc. your audience can be effectively pitched with targeted ads.
Costs and ROI:
Costs are generally higher when executing traditional campaigns. TV and radio ads costs, magazine ad costs are typically high, and small businesses cannot sustain such a marketing budget if they are taking the route of conventional marketing. In fact, the returns on such marketing activities are not high either. It tends to get the message across and does not do much for conversions. However, digital marketing allows you to engage and turn audiences into customers due to multiple methods, execution channels, and strategies involved. A simple newsletter and affiliate marketing techniques can generate sales. The spending on the key metrics is not high either. Google Analytics, one of the most useful platforms in digital marketing, is absolutely free of cost. BionicWP, a WordPress website hosting platform that also offers site maintenance and security. Subscription fee is minimal and the platform also offers a money back guarantee to clients.
Engagement and feedback:
Putting across messages in traditional respects does not ensure that the right segment of the audience picks the news, and collecting their feedback can be most tricky and costly. Businesses used to indulge in conducting public surveys, and those would not be so effective. However, in digital campaigns, marketers can view general feedback on a real-time basis. Public over the internet enjoys interacting with each other and expressing their thoughts in terms of reviews, comments, and social media posts. Brands can build an active channel where engagement remains high.
Objectives:
In digital marketing, every action’s objectives are defined first. There are multiple variables involved, and each has their individual results. Supposedly, a social media post would be intended for engagement. An affiliated blog post would be intended to increase sales, and so on. In conventional marketing, brands do not have a broader scope, and generally, the objective only lies in getting their message across to the audience.
Current marketing trends
Although digital marketing has penetrated the surface and has emerged as the primary medium, many companies in all sectors still have not wholly branched out of traditional marketing activities. This is due to the fact that there is still a segment – however, small – of their target audience that stays on the traditional wing, read their news from papers, watch television, listen to the radio, etc.
Even in such a digitally accelerated environment, brands have found a mix of digital and traditional media, where the focus lies on digital. For brands, it is a matter of gaining traction, earning the promotion, and make functional ROIs, which is why dedicated strategies are devised to keep both media of marketing in parallel to each other.
After all, it comes down to gaining competitive advantage and decisions are based on the best possible strategy involving aspects of both digital and traditional marketing. Sooner or later, when traditional media becomes outdated and leaves the side of consumers, digital marketing elements will grow even more popular.
Even today certain multi-billion dollar corporations have realized that more significant opportunities lie at the digital wing which is why they have put a hold on their traditional marketing activities, and rechanneled their scope and investments into digital prospects. It is widely believed that digital marketing is an alternative to traditional marketing techniques. Technology companies based in Silicon Valley are entirely in the race of executing their digital strategies and working out methods to stay on top. A remarkable example can be Samsung Galaxy S10 and S10+, which is being heavily advertised over digital platforms in terms of targeted ads and banner ads.
Digital marketing carries an exciting prospect as we enter Industry 4.0. In the near future, it would no longer be traditional vs digital marketing. Internet companies like Google are looking forward to exploring more progressive opportunities associated with the scope of digital marketing. As research and development takes place, more significant methods and their respective strategies would take up the surface and be called as the prevailing trends.
