You can’t peruse the internet without seeing ads. Be it your favorite dress, your favorite gadget, or your daily essentials, everywhere we can see ads. Not only is it limited to the internet, but when you scroll through your social media or visit your favorite mall or Mart, there also you can spot hoardings, banners, or posters, propagating ads related to any particular brand or product. All the ads we see, be it digital or print, audio or text, everything comes under the umbrella of marketing.
Now, with the advent of social media, the internet, and technology, the use of digital platforms has even modified the way of traditional marketing. Although, you can see ads on hoardings and newspapers, now using social media or the internet to make people aware of the brand is the new norm. Any business or firm needs any form of marketing to ensure they reach the correct audience and garner proper leads. To ensure businesses grow, flourish, and accentuate digital marketing comes into action.
Digital marketing is defined as any form of marketing that uses the internet, digital devices, or technology to propagate any campaign or ad. In erstwhile times, conventional media platforms were used for marketing; now, the major media of advertising is Google. Everyone uses Google and this platform plays a major role in influencing the ranking and traffic it will garner.
While many businesses have transitioned to online marketing, a majority of businesses still adhere to traditional ones. It is important to realize that with changing times, it is important to equip oneself with the latest technology and tactics to ensure you have the growth you need. Now let’s understand in detail what digital marketing is.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is any form of marketing that uses technology or the internet, including social media, PPC, email, and browsers to advertise. It can also be understood as the employment of digital media and platforms to send across to the audience what your business stands for.
Studies have shown that more than 3.2 billion people are active social media users and hence it has been the main driving force in the outburst of ads. Also, in times of the pandemic, when traditional marketing didn’t deliver the results it intended to, it was only through the use of digital marketing that businesses kept afloat and reached their target audience.
What are the advantages of digital marketing?
Now, let’s understand the advantages of digital marketing. Some of the advantages of this form of marketing are as follows:
- The most important aspect of digital marketing is that it helps you monitor your efforts and see instantly whether your inputs are bringing in results.
- As digital space is a vast field, you can be creative and get more opportunities to engage your audience.
- Also, knowing about your audience is way easier in digital space as compared to traditional means. You can collect consumer data through surveys, forms, etc., and keep your audience engaged.
What are some disadvantages of digital marketing?
- It is a fast and ever-evolving field. From SEO to affiliate, every domain is vast and you need experts in every subfield to do well
- This means of marketing is highly reliant on technology and if technology incurs glitches, it is bound to fail.
- It needs constant evaluation and monitoring.
Now, let’s understand what traditional marketing is.
What is traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing pertains to any kind of marketing that isn’t online. This compromises print, record, direct mail, phone, and other means of advertising like billboards. From magazines to radio, this technique of marketing enables businesses to reach the audiences they wish to target. It is not only one of the oldest and highly reliant forms of marketing but also it has been highly researched. As there are a lot of insights about this marketing medium, various people try to use it. Also, this means of marketing is so ingrained in our lives that no matter how digital we become, we can still spot them on radio, television, hoardings, etc.
Traditional marketing is a great way to cater to local audiences and it’s convenient and easier to reach local audiences as compared to digital marketing. Traditional marketing is a strategy in which sellers recognize their audience and spot ads where their audience will watch, listen, or interact with them offline, like print ads, hoardings, or TV. Digital marketing is promoted online and utilizes paid or authentic ads on browsers, as well as social media marketing, email marketing, influencer marketing, video marketing, etc.
Advantages of traditional marketing
- It helps bring organic customers and caters to an audience that relies heavily on tv, radio, print media.
- This category of marketing method usually works better for businesses wanting to create a bigger local audience. A small business will be striving for attention through billboards, booklets, and exhibitions rather than attempting to strive for a digital arena against larger businesses.
- TV ads and radio ads play repeatedly and hence the audience connects to them more as compared to random digital ads.
Disadvantages of traditional marketing
- Printing ads can be an expensive affair. Be it billboards, magazines, flyers, etc. getting them printed can burn a hole in the pocket
- Also, it takes time for traditional marketing strategies to show results. You can’t tell if a person has listened to your ad or seen your ad in the newspaper when we talk about traditional strategies.
As we have discussed both these marketing tactics, the question arises of which one is better and preferred. Well to be accurate, both serve a different purpose and what your business goals are, determines which strategy to choose. If you are a local business then traditional marketing would suffice, but if you intend to reach a larger audience and expand globally, then using digital marketing would be reasonable. Also, other parameters to consider include time, budget, results, etc.
Both these strategies are great and serve their purpose; now you need to understand which works best for you to ensure your business and firm grow and reach the goals it aspires for. I hope you found it useful!
One thought on “Your Guide to Digital Marketing and How is it different from Traditional Marketing”