Feeling frustrated by trying hard to reach your targeted customers to convert them into your loyal customers? You are not alone. There are many of the businesses who face these challenges due to lack of clarity on most effective marketing strategies.
We are living in a fast paced world where traditional marketing methods are not working anymore.
With this blog, we are going to discuss benefits and drawbacks of both of the sides. This is going to help you make informed decisions.

What is traditional marketing?

Traditional marketing refers to the use of offline modes in order to promote your products and services. However, this can include:

1. Print advertisement such as newspaper, magazines or billboards etc.
2. Direct mail marketing such as flyers, brochures or postcards
3. Broadcast advertising like TV or radio
4. Telemarketing
5. Event marketing like trade shows or conferences.

Traditional marketing has been used in different fields from decades and most of the businesses still rely on these methods to target their audience. Not only this, during recent years, digital marketing has got boom which is why traditional marketing is facing increased competition.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing includes all of the marketing efforts and uses digital channel to promote products or services. This can even include:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
2. Pay per click (PPC)
3. Social media marketing
4. Email marketing
5. Content marketing
6. Influencer marketing

There are different benefits offered by digital marketing such as increased reach, targeting capabilities and measurable results.

Important difference between digital and traditional marketing

1. Reach: Digital marketing offers you to reach global audience where traditional marketing is limited to specific geographic area.
2. Targeting: Digital marketing gives you the freedom to target market based on demographics, interests and behaviour. On the other hand, traditional marketing is based on broader demographics.
3. Measurability: Digital marketing gives you measurable results. Not only this, but it also allows you to track ROI and adjust campaign accordingly. On the other hand, traditional marketing is more difficult to measure.
4. Cost: Digital marketing is more cost effective as compared to traditional marketing. However, digital marketing is best for small businesses or startups.
5. Interactive: Digital marketing provides a platform of two-way communication with customers. On the other hand, traditional marketing is one way.

Benefits of digital marketing

1. Increased reach and visibility: Digital marketing is a great way to present your business to global audience and boost it’s online presence.
2. Targeted advertising: Digital marketing offers precise targeting and the ads are presented in front of right people.
3. Measurable results: Digital marketing offers measurable results. Not only this, but it allows businesses to track their ROI and tweak their campaign accordingly.
4. Cost-effective: Digital marketing is one of the cost effective option as compared to traditional marketing especially for small businesses or startups.
5. Flexibility: Digital marketing gives you the option for quick adjustment to campaigns where you can respond to changing market conditions.

Benefits of traditional marketing

1. Tangibility: Traditional marketing offers you a tangible experience for customers like holding a product or even attending an event.
2. Trust: Traditional marketing gives you the opportunity to build trust with customers when you combine it with personal interaction.
3. Local reach: Traditional marketing is an effective method to target local audience and build brand awareness.
4. Brand recall: Traditional marketing also increases brand recall especially through memorable advertising campaigns.

Which one is best for your business?
The answer depends on your business goals, targeted audience and marketing budget. You need to choose digital marketing when you want to reach global audience, or you have a company with limited marketing budget. On the other hand, traditional marketing is for those businesses who want to focus on local audience or businesses who needs to build brand awareness and trust.

FAQs

1.What is the difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing?
Ans.Digital marketing uses online channel such as social media, email, and search engine to reach audience that offers measurable and targeted advertising. Traditional marketing is all about using offline channel such as print, TV or radio as they offer tangible experience and local reach.

2.What are the advantages and disadvantages of traditional marketing?
Ans.Traditional marketing offers the benefit of tangibility, local reach and trust building. One of the downfalls of traditional marketing is limited targeting capabilities, difficulty in measuring ROI, high costs and even limited flexibility.

3. What is digital marketing and its advantages and disadvantages?
Ans.Digital marketing is commonly used to promote products or services. There are different advantages of digital marketing such as targeted reach, measurable results, cost-effectiveness or even flexibility. However, it has intense competition, dependence on technology and potential for negative online reviews.

4.What is the difference between traditional and digital marketing tools?
Ans.Digital marketing is all about utilising online channels like social media, website or other digital platforms to promote products or businesses. Whereas, traditional marketing is all about utilising offline modes like radio, newspaper or billboards to create brand awareness.

5.What is traditional vs digital business?
Ans.Traditional business is considered as offline operations such brock and mortar stores, relying on face to face interaction and they attract local customers. While digital business operates online, it uses digital channel, e-commerce and technology to reach global customers.