What is digital marketing? — Simply put, digital marketing uses digital channels such as websites and social media as marketing communication tools. If you are using social media, you will be well-versed in the ads that appear in your feed – digital marketing.
What is traditional marketing? On the other hand, traditional marketing includes traditional channels such as billboards and print media. Think Don Draper in Mad Men, brainstorming TV commercial ideas and copy for Coca-Cola. Up until the development of the Internet in the 1990s, traditional marketing was practically the only type of marketing.
Digital Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing:
What’s the Difference? — The main difference between digital and traditional marketing is how the audience encounters the marketing message. While traditional marketing uses traditional media such as magazines and newspapers, digital marketing uses digital media such as social media or websites.
Traditional Marketing: Pros and Cons
Pros and cons with the rise of social media, traditional marketing is often underestimated by marketers. However, traditional marketing still has a place in the consumer’s daily life. You could well spend your money if you have the budget to share your campaigns in magazines and primetime.
Pros:
Effective and easy to understand A visually bold billboard or a flashy TV commercial is a normal part of most people’s daily lives. They are easy to digest and often enjoyable.- Print Marketing: Materials Are More Permanent If you have an ad in an issue of The New York Times, it will be there until the magazine is redesigned. It is excellent if the consumer is an avid collector.
- More Memorable: Seeing something in real life rather than on your phone is more likely to be remembered. The anticipation of a new Super Bowl ad or a beautiful and impressive storefront is more likely to stay in your head than an Instagram ad that you will scroll through in seconds.
Cons:
Campaigns are harder to measure; there are ways to measure traditional marketing campaigns, such as brand tracking, but they are nowhere near as deep and intelligent as the tools available for digital marketing.
- Often Expensive: If you’re a brand in its infancy, you don’t have the means to spread four pages in Vogue. Many forms of traditional marketing will cost you a lot of money.
Digital Marketing: Pros and Cons
Pros:
- More Opportunities for Engagement: Through channels such as social media, you can physically see what your audience thinks of your brand and marketing efforts. You know you’re doing something right if your marketing has been shared, liked, and received positive feedback.
- Easily measure your campaigns: On the other side of traditional marketing, the tracking features of digital marketing are intense. It makes your knowledge crystal clear for your next round of marketing efforts.
- Makes smart targeting possible: If you have tools tailored specifically for a 29-year-old female writer who loves Lizzo and drinks Guinness, can you create perfectly tailored content?
Cons:
- Digital advertising can be considered annoying by some.
- Think about that moment when you’re browsing the Facebook home page, and all you want to do is see what your old school friends are up to. Then you get a scary promotional ad for something related to the embarrassing affliction you googled last night. It will surely make you dislike the same brand that makes smart targeting. Less permanent
- Digital marketing activities such as Google ads, banners, promotional emails, or social media ads may be temporary. They are intangible and can be easily ignored. If your target audience keeps scrolling or clicking on the next page, your ad will disappear from their screen.
- Constantly evolving: There is a lot to learn to get the most out of your digital marketing efforts. Each channel requires a professional to get the most bang for your buck. Each channel usually requires a different specialist, from search marketing to social media. However, a grassroots social media marketing strategy is a great place to start. Look at our digital marketing strategy guide for inspiration.
What type of promotion do you require for your business?
Traditional marketing has several drawbacks. For starters, companies have little to no real-time engagement with the customers to whom they sell their goods. When you see a supermarket billboard, you can’t even send it a digital message asking if gray duvet covers are on sale today.
Furthermore, some marketers find conventional marketing to be cumbersome. You can’t adjust the discount amount you entered in a radio advertising. A print ad that has been printed cannot be changed.
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