What are digital and traditional marketing?
Marketing is an effective strategy because it allows a long lasting and ever-changing relationship between the audience and the business. This effective strategy has many different types, but it always comes down to either digital and traditional marketing. Digital marketing is an effective marketing strategy that uses digital platforms, such as social media and websites. Traditional marketing is an effective marketing strategy that uses traditional platforms, such as magazines and newspapers. Both digital and traditional marketing achieve the same goals while going in different directions. Picking a direction will then have someone realize that both marketing types have its pros and cons.
Pros and cons about traditional marketing
With the constant rise of social media and website design, traditional marketing seems to get the short end of the stick. Besides that, traditional marketing is still prevalent in the customer’s day-to-day life. There are some obvious cons that come with this type of marketing; however, if a budget is spent wisely, a great outcome can come out of traditional marketing.
Pros
- Easy to recognize and Impactful: TV commercials and bold billboards are in people’s daily lives. Most of the time these marketing mediums are bright and entertaining.
- Memorable:An ad that someone sees in real life is more memorable than seeing something on social media. Take the Super Bowl ads for example, the audience watching the superbowl knows the ads are going to be memorable that’s why they sit through them.
- Permanent: Traditional marketing prints are forever. Vogue magazine covers are forever and everlasting. It is easier to remember Vogue magazine covers compared to Instagram posts made by Vogue.
Cons
- Hard to measure: There are ways to measure but not REALLY measure. For example, band trackers don’t go in depth in order for marketers to get what they need.
- Expensive: Many mediums for traditional marketing are REALLY expensive. If the budget can afford that is good, if it is not possible then traditional marketing can seriously set you back.
- No direct interaction: With traditional marketing, the consumer views the content and that is it. They don’t have the opportunity to comment or like the content because there is no way for direct interaction.
Pros and cons of digital marketing
Traditional marketing will never die. Billboards, magazines, and newspapers have made a permanent staple in the marketing and advertising world. On the other hand, marketers cannot ignore that they are walking into the digital and internet world. Consumers spend more and more time in the digital world, so it’s time for marketers to see the pros and cons of digital marketing and make it work.
Pros
- More engagement: Digital marketing allows more consumers to engage with the business. Consumers might engage with traditional marketing by word-of-mouth, but digital marketing allows more engagement. Such as social media, reviews, likes, etc.
- Measure analytics easier: This type of marketing goes in depth when it comes to analytics. On one piece of content digital marketing analytics can tell a marketer the engagement rate, target audience, demographics, etc.
- Clever targeting: If there are tools that help you identify a 35 year old male who likes pizza and beer then that helps you create content for them. That leads to clever targeting.
Cons
- Potentially annoying: Imagine a consumer scrolling through Instagram and wanting to see pictures of the people they follow. This is not possible because they get ads every 4 posts. This might get annoying for the consumer and have them exit out of Instagram.
- Less permanent: Ads that are on social media platforms can be easily avoidable. They don’t have a permanent image in the consumer’s head which will get the marketer nowhere. That is why digital content needs to be really intriguing in order to be remembered.
- Constantly evolving: There is a lot of information that needs to be learned if digital marketing is being used. This information is always evolving, which results in marketers always learning. A majority of the time, a specialist is needed for each social media platform because each platform is always changing.
Digital marketing is WAY better than traditional marketing
With all the pros and cons listed above, digital marketing can be more beneficial and helpful than traditional marketing. After all this, check out these statistics to prove it.
Traditional marketing generates 50% fewer interactions with customers than digital marketing
70% of consumers want to learn about products through content as opposed to traditional ad methods.
64% of consumers say watching a marketing video on Facebook has influenced a purchase decision of theirs in the last month.