In this digitalized era, we are more inclined towards digital marketing as it helps in scaling the business and makes it easy to reach out to a larger audience. But one should not forget the traditional means to market your products or services. So, one is the traditional form of marketing and another one is through digital media, one of the modern ways of marketing. Traditional marketing is the oldest form of marketing that has evolved over the ages whereas digital marketing has evolved in recent times. Both these forms of marketing have pros and cons. So, you need to think wisely before choosing any of these forms of marketing.
Understand Traditional Marketing in Simpler Terms
In simple terms, traditional marketing is a form of marketing that does not require any online medium for promotion and can be conducted offline. You can market your products through offline promotion using banners and conducting different surveys. Through posters and hoardings, you can promote your products or services. With the advent of technology, Digital Marketing has evolved rapidly in recent times. The traditional forms of marketing are included below
- Newspapers and Advertisements
- Hoardings, Flyers
- Events and Networks
- Traditional mail
- TV ad radio
You must be wondering by now that traditional marketing is quite outdated and not relevant in the realm of modern society. In several situations, your thinking is correct. However, there is always some business that requires traditional forms of marketing. So, based on your business and product offerings, traditional marketing methods can vary. Therefore, it is important to connect with a wider audience and get to know your business needs.
What is Digital Marketing?
In this fast-paced world. technology has evolved like anything and Digital Marketing techniques come under that umbrella where technology has outperformed the traditional forms of marketing. With the rapid use of smartphones and the internet, people can enhance their online presence by sitting in the comfort of their homes. These strategies can be adopted anywhere without any physical intervention. As a result, there is no transportation and logistics cost involved.
The frequent access to social media channels in general has made this task quite easy for marketers. As per the research reports, more than 4.5 billion people use social media and more than 4.8 billion people use the internet to fast-track their work. So, it makes much more sense to market your products or services through the Internet rather than through magazines or flyers.
Due to the evolution of technology and IoT, digital enablement will continue to grow. But to market your service or scale your business, you need to keep track of the current market trends. Here, is a list of advantages one can avail with digital marketing strategies
- You can easily track the involvement of the audience and collect data. This will improve the website algorithm and you can obtain all sorts of information related to the website, social media channels, customer queries, etc.
- Before going ahead with the premium subscription-based pricing model, you can start pushing your service across different platforms for free. You can send emails at free of cost. But if you opt for traditional methods, it will involve a huge cost of printing all the items.
- As digital marketing has a larger scope, it will easily catch a larger audience.
Different Methods of Digital Marketing
Email Marketing
This is one form of marketing where a business or organization can communicate through emails to reach the target audience. You can even showcase your work through storytelling as well.
Mobile Marketing
Through smartphones or tablets, you can showcase your products through various ad posts.
Social Media Marketing
It is in vogue now. Many startups and entrepreneurs are trying to advertise their work using social media channels via posts and videos.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
This is the widely accepted form of digital marketing used across organizations. The main objective of this is to showcase the business or keep your website on the first page of the Google search engine.
Affiliate Marketing
This is also one such platform where you can showcase your service or product with the help of some social media influencers or celebrities. It will help in improving the brand name.
Various Means of Traditional Marketing Forms
Below are some of the adopted strategies for a traditional marketer
Flyers
Many companies try to promote their business offline by sending flyers through events, social gatherings, outside malls, colleges, etc. These flyers can also be treated as handouts.
Billboards
It comes with pictures/ placards of different advertisements. You will get this on different highways. Most of the billboards are used by top-notch MNCs to promote their service.
TV Commercials
This is one of the traditional methods used to broadcast your channel or business. Agencies come out with advertisements that can add benefits because of this form of marketing.
Through Referrals
This is one of the important channels used by employers to create ads or arrange souvenirs to showcase products at different public events or businesses.
Direct Mail
Through the direct email feature, you can send postcards or notices to people across the organization.
Radio Channels
People who couldn’t afford television in the early 20th century usually opt for radio commercials. They use CD cassettes and try to broadcast various advertisements using the radio.
Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing-Harness the Power of Both
These two forms of marketing vary to a considerable extent based on the business you are doing. To Ace your business, you need to use a combination of both digital as well as traditional marketing forms. Through diversified marketing efforts, you can reach out to a larger audience and stay ahead of your competitors.
Digital Marketing seems to be the right choice for most of the business. If you want to keep a low margin and want to reach a wider audience, then marketing your products through digital campaigns can be the best option for you. By doing so, you can easily get all the information about your audience, and their behaviour, and optimize your future marketing campaigns. However, traditional marketing still occupies a certain place when it comes to old or local audiences. So the decision depends on many factors such as objective, target audience, and budget.