Digital Marketing vs. Traditional: Which is better?

Traditional and digital marketing are one of prime cornerstones of your business throughout the longevity of it.

You will have to invest in marketing if you are launching a new product, or a new product line, announcing new R&D, making any public amendments or even merely sustaining in the marketing.

With improvement in technology, the marketing platform has widened and new strategies have been devised which has added to the reach of the process of marketing.

Earlier, there used to be only limited means for marketing your business such as newspaper advertisements, flyers, pamphlet distributions, local announcements, banners and hoardings.

Later with coming up of radios and televisions and the increase in their availability, audio and video commercials were introduced.

Today in the age of the internet, social media has connected the globe and you can reach not only the local or domestic but a universal cluster of crowd.

However, it is to be noted that the older means of marketing have been co-existing and still in use with their technologically advanced counterparts.

That is how we distinguish between the traditional and the digital means of marketing, by considering the time factor and the technology factor, both.

Let us now have a closer look at these both.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing refers to the conventional methods of marketing used since the coming of the concept of advertisements or marketing into existence.

This primarily includes the modes for brand promotion such as— Newspaper, Flyers, Radio, Television, Billboard advertising along roads and highways, Magazine ads.

Benefits of employing traditional marketing

1. Strong and easy reach to target local audience- you can easily reach your local targeted audience by the means of newspapers, brochures and radio/television advertisements o the local network.

2. Tangibility- The audience can have a hard copy of materials which they can read or browse through as many times as they want as per their convenience.

3. Usage - It can be easily understood by most people because they are already exposed to it, because they are very basic structures of information and no special requirement is necessary to reach it. Also because its usage has not been discontinued.

Because of its longevity, people are accustomed to traditional marketing. Finding ads in magazines and newspapers, or reading billboards are still familiar activities and people still do them all the time.

One of the primary disadvantages of traditional marketing is that the results are not easily measured, and in many cases cannot be tested at all. In most cases, traditional marketing is also more costly than digital marketing.

And perhaps the biggest disadvantage today is that traditional marketing is static which means there is no way to interact with the audience.

It’s more like you are throwing information in front of people and hoping that they decide to take action.

Digital Marketing

With the evolution of technology and creation of the World Wide Web (Thanks to Sir Tim Berners-Lee), the interconnection of people virtually has become easier and efficient.

With such global reach, the commercialization of the same was inevitable. Thus, today the internet and its associated platforms are used for marketing purposes.

This is the world of digital marketing. It nowhere is different from traditional marketing very much (theoretically), but uses digital devices.

Digital marketing is considered a form of inbound marketing and its goal is for people to find you. You can target a local audience, but also an international one.

Further, you can tailor a campaign to specific audience demographics, such as gender, location, age and interests. This means your campaign will be more effective.

Digital marketing includes business networking sites such as LinkedIn, social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, Email marketing, paid ads, blogs, SEO etc. What are the benefits of using digital marketing?

Cost Efficient

Marketing on digital platforms however also provides for free advertisements but even paid advertisement is cheaper than the traditional marketing.

Further, due to wider reach and tailored marketing availability, digital marketing is cost-effective.

Easy data recording

Unlike traditional marketing methods, you can see in real time what is or is not working for your business online and you can make amendments very quickly to improve your results.

Brand Development

Using social media channels, personalized email marketing and having a well maintained website comprising of high quality content which can target the needs and, and thus increase your target audience base.

This can add significant value to your business and generate leading opportunities. This establishes your name as a reliable and popular easy- to- reach brand in the market.

Because of its (virtual) global reach, easy response recording nature, facility of tailored audience it makes it not only cost saving, but also cost effective. Further, it is interactive in nature due to its social media linkage.

One of the disadvantages to using digital media marketing strategies is that it can take some time to realize measurable success.

Unlike traditional marketing, where you actually start getting physical numbers almost as soon as you employ it, in digital marketing it is not so quick.

Why do You Need Both?

Well, I would recommend both. Obviously, we are passionate about digital marketing, because we know that it works. But we do use traditional marketing materials, too.

The world has transformed into a very digital character. Everything is going digital, be it magazines to banking or books and many of our normal routine tasks.

Because of the rise of the digital age, a natural euphoric state has built up in the minds of the contemporaries (most, not all) towards investing into the digital campaign.

Even though traditional marketing seems to be diminishing, but it still has a place in our digitally based world.

Not to mention that usually the content and material on the digital platform is the same as in the traditional world, only that, its presence is digital as opposed to physical.

In today’s business world, it is peremptory to have a website and use the web for consumer interaction.

There are some successful traditional marketing strategies, but it is important to take advantage of digital marketing so as to keep up in today’s world.

Even newspapers have their digital versions today. Change is inevitable. But, I must say, one cannot sustain without the other, hence we need them both.