Traditional marketing has been around for a long time. So what makes it advantageous or disadvantageous in the era of digital marketing? We find out.
Since the advent of digital marketing, there have been changes in the way marketing is done. So, how do traditional and digital marketing fare, when pitted against each other? We find out.
Traditional marketing uses age-old methods of advertising which involves the display of ads on physical entities like billboards, backlit banners, flyers, menu, danglers, posters, business cards, product giveaways, etc. They also include newspaper and magazine ads, which are all very expensive ways of advertising. Add to it, radio advertising and TV advertising, which are overtly expensive.
On the other hand, digital marketing is comparatively more economical. There are different ways to do digital marketing, like socialmedia ads, email, blogging, banner advertising and posting customer reviews. If fact, many online marketing forums offer free advertising, even if may be for trial purposes.
When you market yourself by newspaper advertising via newspapers, it reaches a lot of people in one shot. They don’t need an email or internet connection to see your advertisement. The only disadvantage is that people throw away newspapers, the very next day. However, magazine advertisements have a longer shelf-life, as they are stored over a longer period of time.
In the case of digital or online marketing, an advertisement remains on the web, not just for a day of a month, but forever. Visitors can see it whenever they are come online to visit sites like Facebook, twitter, or any other website which contains the ad.
Unlike traditional advertising, online ads needn’t be placed by visiting a newspaper, magazine or publishing office – during working hours. There is no need to travel to different locations to place banners either. Online banners and ads can be posted at any time and from any physical location.
The ultimate goal of any marketing campaign is to generate leads by reaching out to a maximum number of people. In order to reach out to a large number of viewers, we must use a combination of traditional as well as digital marketing. The latter can get our brand message to the tech savvy who have access to the web, and the former can be used to reach out to the elderly people, who read newspapers and magazines regularly.
Traditional marketing takes a lot of time during processing. For e.g., if you need a flyer to be printed, it needs to be designed, proofread, colour corrected, and sent for print. After printing, it needs to be cut along cropping marks and laminated. It also needs to be distributed to various places, either via courier or by hiring people to distribute them manually.
However, if you want to convey the same to a digital audience, the website or graphic design needs to be made, proofread and posted on various sites. Many of the previously mentioned steps like distribution via courier, manual distribution, edge cutting and lamination are obviously eliminated.
Traffic for an online marketing campaign can be tracked, and the clicks can be counted. The leads and actual conversions can also be known. Feedback or product reviews can also be collected and displayed online. In traditional marketing, this information is collected manually by visiting customers, for a survey.
Thus, we find that both traditional and digital marketing campaigns have their own pros and cons. It is best to use a combination of both methods for getting the best results.
