Traditional Marketing vs Online Marketing

A good marketing strategy is required to run a successful business. With the world transitioning into the digital era, businesses are confused with marketing methods. Traditional marketing vs digital marketing is a topic of debate among businesses.  Should they invest in traditional marketing strategies or online marketing paradigms? The major difference between the two is the medium. So which medium is more profitable? Let’s discuss in brief about both of these marketing mediums. 

Traditional Marketing

In traditional marketing, one-way communication mediums are used. The platforms employed do not allow two-way communications. These platforms make it easier to reach people, and the forms of advertisement are easily recognizable.  Television ads, radio ads, hoardings, pamphlets, posters, magazines, banners, etc., are all forms of offline marketing and are very expensive. With traditional marketing, you compete using numbers. More people will become leads if more people see the ads. 

Pros

• You can easily reach the older demographic, i.e., people above 50, as they spend twice their time on TV, newspapers, and magazines compared to the younger generation.
• Works best if you want to build a local audience.
• Your ads will run multiple times in a day on TV and radio, so your audience will remember you.

Cons

• Very expensive
• It’ll take a long time for you to know whether your marketing strategy was successful or not. 

Digital Marketing/Online Marketing/Internet Marketing

Digital marketing or online marketing, or Internet marketing, fundamentally includes all the marketing tactics that include the use of the Internet. The companies have various methods at their disposal, like social media ads, search engine optimization (SEO), content marketing, mobile advertising, etc. They can reach out to new prospects and existing customers through these mediums and connect better with them.

Pros

• You can easily track the engagement of your audience with your website or your content in real-time. You get a lot of data and insights from there, which can be used in strategizing better.
• Low costs, high revenues.
• It gives you broad scope, so you can easily reach out to scattered or global audiences.

Cons

• Ad blockers, premium subscriptions for zero ads, skip this ad are some options that can make your efforts go in vain.
• New technologies emerge every day. So, some methods that may be effective today may not work tomorrow. You need to stay updated, which won’t be an issue if your basics are clear.

Internet Marketing versus Traditional Marketing

The key differences between traditional marketing and digital marketing are:

• Traditional marketing techniques are static techniques, while digital marketing techniques are dynamic. When you use digital marketing techniques, you can even manipulate your ads as per the reaction. Whereas in traditional marketing, your ad is permanent, and you don’t have the flexibility to tweak it later. You can’t update the already existing ads and have to replace them. Therefore, digital marketing costs less.
• Using traditional methods, you publicize your product or service on huge expenditure and hope that it attracts customers. It has the uncertainty in whether or not you’ll be able to catch attention. If it isn’t, then you’ll have to spend again with a new ad on a different conventional platform. In digital marketing, your expenditures are minimized, your ads cost less even if it isn’t successful on one platform. Moreover, there are multiple options like content marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Search engine Marketing (SEM), mobile advertising, social media ads, and so much more. You can choose any combination of methods and use them strategically to generate leads. 
• In the case of traditional marketing, you’re publicizing to huge masses irrespective of their interests in your products/services. Whereas in the case of digital marketing, ads are shown to the people who are interested in what you offer. Here, you’re not chasing a prospect to spend. The prospects themselves seek you through your content. Therefore, you get a better Return on Investment (ROI) in the case of online marketing. Additionally, you can also use various tools available to determine the success of your strategies which is not possible in traditional marketing.
• You’re more connected with your audience in the case of digital marketing. You constantly feed your targeted audience with new updates, you get their feedback, so you’re in constant touch with them. Moreover, everything happens in real-time. When you use the primitive marketing paradigms, you miss these benefits.
• In digital marketing, you can track a prospect thoroughly, like where they are from, their age group, what they like or don’t like, their reaction to your products, and much more. Based on this data, you can do personalized marketing. The traditional paradigms lack tracking and connectivity. They are mass-produced, and so, there’s no personal touch.
• Digital marketing also gives you the flexibility of customization. You can customize your ads, your content as per your targeted audience. Traditional methods have a standardized structure for advertising, and you’re not able to go after your targeted audience with that much vigor.
• Traditional methods also give you limited time and space for your ads. So, you might not be able to publicize all your special prices and offers to attract people. Online marketing is free of these limitations.
• Traditional methods involve the use of mediums that can only provide localized publicity to the businesses. These days, it is most effective on older demography, i.e., people older than 50. Online marketing, on the other hand, allows you to expand yourself globally. 

Which One Is Better?

Simple answer: it depends. You need to consider your target audience. You should know where they spend their time and where they go for information to make your decision.  Digital marketing is the best option mostly. But you may also ask why online marketing is so effective? In today’s time, when half of the world is spending their time on the internet, it’d be a great loss if we do not reach them there.  Along with marketing, you’re getting data to adjust your business plan, products, services according to the needs of the people. You get many benefits from digital marketing, which proves why online marketing is so effective.

• Even businesses with a limited budget for marketing can benefit via online marketing. They can find a suitable platform and paradigm to market their products & services effectively.
• It levels the field for the small businesses to compete at par with the big businesses. They can even outperform big businesses if they plan and implement digital marketing well.
• You can connect better with your prospects and customers by uploading powerful content.
• More prospects are brought down the sales pipeline and are converted into leads, so you see better conversion rates.
• Since you engage better with your customers and the conversion rates are also going up, you generate more revenue. It also gives you the scope to expand your business.
• You see improved brand awareness as you keep in constant touch with your audience and keep them updated about your launches, discounts, and offers.
• There’s optimal ROI (Return on Investment) as you make higher revenues at lesser costs.

Traditional marketing has existed for a long time, and so, it works. But, there’s no certainty when you spend chunks of money. Therefore, when you make your marketing strategy, know your audience, your business and pick judicially. By the way, you can also use both methods.