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Establishing a successful business is not just about choosing a scalable niche or having a high-quality product. It’s also about inculcating the right kind of marketing strategy to reach out to the targeted audience and convert them into customers. A lot of businesses still find it tough, to reach out to the right “marketing” strategy, even though it can make a huge difference in their results. Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing is a huge debate going on in recent times.
How does a business owner know where to spend when it comes to digital marketing vs traditional marketing? By exploring the difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing, a business can get a better idea of which marketing strategy is appropriate and how it should be implemented. So, let’s first discuss what exactly is digital marketing and traditional marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
“In simple words, Digital Marketing is what you do to capture consumers and achieve your business objectives using online channels through digital devices such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones.”
To know more about Digital Marketing read our post on What is Digital Marketing
What is Traditional Marketing?
“Traditional Marketing is going on from the past many years and it involves traditional channels, like pamphlets, flyers, billboards, TV ads, radio ads, print ads, newspaper ads, etc.”
Having a marketing budget is important for any small business, but it’s equally important to have the understanding to spend it in the right direction and make the most of it. And in this day and age when the competition is so high and there are so many alternate options available, the importance of marketing has surely grown, so businesses need to get rid of those outdated marketing techniques, to make themselves stand out among their competitors.
Another key factor that puts digital marketing in front of traditional marketing is its pricing. Newspapers, TV ads, brochures, and phone calls are the key mediums of communication in traditional marketing. These were and still are very expensive and give very low ROI, and most of the time, the ad columns are even completely ignored. Whereas marketing via a digital platform is much cheaper with higher ROI, also the ads were only shown to the targeted audience so the conversion rate is much better.
COMPARISON OF DIGITAL MARKETING VS TRADITIONAL MARKETING
Bi-directional Communication:
One of the biggest drawbacks of traditional marketing is that it is a one-way street, that is, businesses and organizations can communicate with the customers about their products and services (through brochures, flyers, TV ads), but, there is no proper channel for customers to ask their questions and queries out.
Whereas, digital marketing is an interactive form of marketing where businesses can put forward their products or services. On the other hand, the platform is open for consumers as well, they can also communicate their requirements, queries, and even their grievances, back to the marketers. Hence digital marketing promotes a bi-directional form of marketing.
Inexpensive yet Productive Mode of Marketing:
For a startup or small business investing millions just for the sake of marketing is not easy. So, putting money in traditional marketing is not very helpful because the cost of publishing newspaper ads, printing multiple brochures and flyers, and then distributing them can be very expensive with very low ROI.
On the contrary, digital marketing is much cheaper and digital channels such as email marketing or social media marketing gives much higher ROI as compared to traditional marketing. And the ads will only be shown to the targeted audience, so the possibility of conversion is quite better.
Creates Brand Awareness:
Businesses must start investing in digital marketing to improve their brand identity. An active and reputed website, a blog starring useful and high-quality content, and interactive social media channels will surely help any business to build its brand image.
Easily Measurable:
Before investing in any marketing strategy, it is important to ensure you’re not investing in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, results from traditional marketing shows us that it is nearly impossible to measure, so that we can not put a track on our investment.
On the other hand, the performance of a digital marketing campaign can be easily measured. For example, we can track how many people have viewed the ad and how many of them are converted. It is also easy to know which campaign is running successfully and which campaign is not doing well so that we can adjust those campaigns as per need.
Precise Targeting to Reach Audience:
Traditional marketing uses the “spray and pray” method, where the ad is circulated over a wide platform with the hope that a few people would go through the ad and make a positive move. So, by implementing this strategy ROI would be very less.
Whereas, digital marketing allows targeted campaigns where we can choose our audience based on our products and services, and can segment them on the merit of age, residence, and interests. Hence, this will surely increase the amount of sales and will also cut down on expenses.
