We live in an ever-evolving digital world. When it comes to marketing, the landscape is continuously changing towards digital solutions and it is inevitable, and digital marketing is pivotal to ensuring your business is future-proofed for success. Before the days of the internet, there was only traditional marketing and it continues to have its benefits.
Consumer behaviour is increasingly migrating to the online world, which allows businesses to use digital marketing to reach their customers where a lot of their time is spent.
So what do you need to consider when choosing between digital marketing or traditional marketing? Both have their benefits but there is one significant difference between the two and this is key.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing typically refers to online marketing and creating digital advertisements that can be viewed on any technological device. Digital marketing is encompassed by a wide variety of methods such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising and many more. For a more exhaustive list, check out this article by Mailchimp.
What is Traditional Marketing?
Traditional marketing is essentially the opposite of digital marketing, where creative assets are distributed through non-digital channels and do not use the internet as a means of reaching customers. This includes things like print advertising, billboards, radio, and television (yes, technically digital but it’s considered a traditional method!).
The biggest difference: The cost
There is no question that both methods can be effective depending how a business strategically implements their advertising. However, digital marketing’s main benefit is that it is significantly more cost-effective and cost-efficient for the amount of reach and targeted advertising compared to traditional marketing. What do I mean by this? Let’s break it down below:
Traditional marketing
Expensive: The up-front costs associated with getting advertising material produced can be very high. Not only do you have to worry about the production costs associated with creating the advertising material, but you also have to consider the costs associated with the placement depending on the medium you choose.
Exposure is not guaranteed: The biggest problem is that after spending your up-front costs you have no guarantee that your customers will even see your ads to begin with, and you won’t know if your advertising is the reason they came to you in the first place.
Digital Marketing
Cost-effective: The cost is considerably lower and you have the benefit of a wider reach and quicker growth potential, making it cost-effective. Not all businesses have the luxury of a significant budget to work with, particularly smaller, start-up businesses. You have the benefit of getting your products or services marketed at a lower cost right from the get-go.
Cost-efficient: Your ad spend is more targeted, as you can control and monitor your spend. This means that your chances of reaching your customers or prospecting customers is significantly higher with less potential waste.
The Benefits of Digital Marketing
Let’s take cost out of the picture. There are numerous benefits to opting for digital marketing versus traditional marketing, and while there are many to consider, we’ve wrapped them up into bigger concepts below:
Data and Tracking
Digital marketing provides you with comprehensive data and tracking capabilities. If you want to know how many people viewed your ads, completed a conversion goal whether that be a purchase for an e-commerce business, or a form submission to register interest in a product or service, digital marketing provides you with this visibility. There are a large variety of platforms and key metrics that can support your marketing goals and help you to understand your marketing effectiveness.
Wider reach
Physical location isn’t a limitation for reaching your customers (Unless you make it so!). You can reach anyone, anywhere, at any time. Digital marketing provides flexibility, allowing you to create digital advertisements that can be viewed on any electronic device and in this continuously evolving digital world, your reach is endless. Not only this, but it gives you the potential to reach new customers that you may not have considered to be your target market, such as those living internationally.
Specific targeting
If you know which customers you want to market to, and you want to limit your reach, you can set specific targeting parameters. Your advertisements can be limited to show only for those that you wish to see it, whether this is based on certain demographics or interests, or whether you want to target a specific geographical location, you have full control over this process.
Actionable insights and visibility
By using the collective data that you can track, understanding your reach and ability to find new customers, and setting specific targeting, you can now use this information to create actionable insights to improve your marketing strategy and effectiveness. Making data-driven decisions is absolutely critical in the marketing world. When using digital marketing ads, you have more visibility and a deeper understanding of how your ads resonate with your customers, their behaviours and general interest in your products or services.
The Benefits of Traditional Marketing
Let’s break down the flip side of the coin. While digital marketing has its benefits as mentioned above, traditional marketing advertising has some significant benefits that are worth considering when thinking about your business and its goals:
Credibility and trustworthiness
It’s no secret that the digital world comes with risks, particularly around security and privacy which can have a detrimental effect on credibility and trust. For many people, there might be a bit of hesitancy or apprehensiveness towards clicking on a link from digital marketing advertising. Of course, there are steps you can take to ensure the legitimacy of the things you click on, but generally with traditional marketing advertising, there is less risk of harm and this in itself is a sense of security for many people.
Brand awareness
Having a reputable brand and something that is tried and tested goes a long way for customers. Traditional marketing advertising means that your product or service is advertised through reputable sources. Seeing a product on TV, talked about on radio, or up on a billboard can go a long way to get customers to trust your business. Reputable brands have a distinct advantage compared to newer, smaller businesses and therefore traditional marketing can be beneficial to larger, reputable businesses.
More variety
Traditional marketing offers more variety than digital marketing. There are a number of mediums that can be tapped into when thinking about traditional advertising. For example there’s billboards, newspapers and magazines, television, radio and even sponsoring events. Traditional marketing has a distinct advantage when it comes to variety compared to digital marketing, where its limitations are that it only exists on a digital platform or device.
Should you choose Digital Marketing or Traditional Marketing?
There are numerous benefits to both digital marketing and traditional marketing. While there is no right answer to the best method, it is essential to consider the benefits of each and how it strategically aligns with your business objectives. For a more established business with a reputable brand and a large marketing budget, traditional marketing methods are a feasible option. For businesses that are smaller and are wanting to increase their brand exposure at a cheaper cost, then digital marketing is the best option. However, there is no question that digital marketing is the way of the future.
Do you need help with digital marketing for your business? Or alternatively, are you looking for a Google Ads Agency to help guide your online strategy? Contact us today to see how we can help your business take the next step in maximising its online presence.
