Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing is a recent but hot debate. Some say that digital marketing would take over traditional marketing completely, while some people are of the opinion that traditional marketing is here to stay. In this article, we list down what is traditional marketing and digital marketing, their pros, and cons and then discuss who is going to take the cake in the future.
- What is Traditional Marketing?
- Four P’s of marketing
- What is Digital Marketing?
- Pros and Cons of Traditional Marketing
- Pros and Cons of Digital marketing
- Which medium is better?
- Want to learn more about Digital Marketing?
What is Traditional Marketing?
Traditional marketing constitutes marketing activities that are done offline without the means of the internet. If you are seeing a print advertisement or an advertisement on your TV screen then you are being subjected to traditional marketing methods. Any marketing activity that does not require a digital medium will be part of traditional marketing. Traditional marketing has been used for decades, but with the growth in digital marketing, it is losing its popularity by each day.
Traditional marketing methods include:
- Direct mails
- Newspaper and magazines
- Radios and Television
- Telemarketing
- Billboards and fliers
- Network or referral marketing
Traditional marketing revolves around the four P’s of marketing, often referred to as marketing mix.
Four P’s of marketing
- Product: Product is the good or service that the company is offering to the customer. A proper understanding of the commodity you are trying to sell is important to market it effectively. The product should aim to fulfil the demand of its consumers.
- Price: Price is the value for the product. Price has to be determined while considering many factors like the demand and supply, competitor’s price, profit margins, etc.
- Place: The product needs to be brought to the right customers who are willing to pay for it. It involves deciding where to sell the product and how to deliver it at the right time.
- Promotion: Promotion involves appealing to your target market to buy your product through advertising, public relations, and promotional strategy.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the result of growing technology. Where anything offline constituted traditional marketing then, anything online would be considered as digital marketing. If you are watching a Youtube video and an ad pops up before you, that is part of digital marketing.
Digital marketing methods include:
- Websites
- Social media marketing
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Clickable ads
- Influencer marketing
With the growing internet consumption and more and more stress laid on internet connectivity, digital marketing has become the go-to method for reaching the target audience. You can learn Digital Marketing online to have basic understanding of it.
Pros and Cons of Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing has been losing its fanfare in recent years, but the benefits that are reaped by it could not be denied. Some may consider them irrelevant, but if you are a true marketer, you would never neglect it and use it effectively.
Pros
- Longevity: Traditional marketing leads to a larger impact. If you remember the jingle Washing Powder Nirma, I bet you are singing the jingle, that is the kind of impact that traditional marketing can create in the consumer’s mind. An advert in a magazine will stay until a new edition makes an appearance on the stands hence creating a longer impact.
- Larger and local audience: Indeed, a lot of people are now a part of the digital world, but there are still some demographics that are yet to be covered like the old people and the remote rural areas. You may find a TV connection in their homes but a smartphone, maybe not. They can be reached through TV ads, flyers hoarding on buses, etc.
- Emotional and impactful: Traditional marketing leaves a lasting impression. When you see a certain ad time and again, it will stay with you. Moreover, a TV ad brings credibility to the brand as they don’t come cheap. They are easier to understand and hard to neglect.
Cons
- Expensive: Want to run an ad on Tv or want to have your billboard placed, then get ready to doll out a huge amount of money. Most of the methods under traditional marketing don’t come cheap which limits small companies from marketing their products.
- Difficult to measure the reach: The methods to track the reach of your campaigns are less and don’t come cheap. The result may come in weeks or months. It is hard to measure the impact and is a time-consuming process. You can’t be sure how many people caught sight of your billboard and ended up buying your product.
- Reducing audience: Traditional marketing has been losing its audience if we talk with respect to the younger audience. Moreover, traditional marketing does not allow direct interaction with the consumers as there are massive hurdles in the way.
Pros and Cons of Digital marketing
Digital marketing is the language of today’s marketers. The kind of return that they have experienced through digital marketing is exceptional and due to its reliability and the assurity that it is there for the long haul, it has become the go-to choice of the marketers. Technology is evolving and so are the digital marketing tactics.
Pros
- Larger and wider audience: Digital marketing is not limited to any demographic or geography. Digital marketing methods help in catering to a global audience. Your social media page can be accessed by anyone around the world. Digital marketing has increased the scope of business exponentially.
- Reach can be measured easily: Tracking reach when it comes to digital marketing methods is very easy with so many tools available for the same. You can easily know how many people clicked on your website’s link, checked your social media page, and saw your advertisement on youtube. Not only this, but you can also know the kind of audience that is visiting your pages and which medium is more effective.
- Inexpensive: It is available to all. Anyone can make their social media page and market their brand at zero cost. Small businesses can reach a wide audience without any or minimum cost devoted to marketing activities. Sending out an email or writing a blog for your product comes at no or minimal cost. They are also more effective.
Cons
- Can be easily ignored: You can easily miss an advertisement on your Instagram while scrolling through your feed. Ad blockers would not let any ad pop up while you are browsing through multiple websites. The problem is that it is difficult to get noticed through digital marketing tactics. The constant ads that may pop up can be deemed as annoying at times which may result in a negative impact on the audience.
- Less impactful: Fact that they can be easily ignored leads to the conclusion that they are less impactful. It is hard to get the attention of the audience. Your inbox might be filled with a lot of email campaigns which reduces the chance of it leading to making an impact. The chances of continuing browsing through a website after clicking through a link are also minimal.
- Evolves continuously: The rule here is to keep changing and innovating. You can’t stick to one solution forever. The thing with technology is it is advancing at a fast pace. One thing was in trend earlier but maybe the next day it is over. One needs a good sense of every medium and a solid understanding of digital marketing basics to survive.
Which medium is better?
The answer to the big debate that which medium is better: traditional marketing or digital marketing would vary depending on what the product is. The key is to find out what works best for you. If you are a small business then digital marketing is your go-to choice but if your product caters to the elderly then, traditional marketing would suit you best.
Due to the reach and ease that digital marketing provides it has become the favourite among everyone. One can easily track the reach and learn more about their audience through digital marketing and the best part is that it comes cheap.
But if anyone denies the impact of traditional marketing then that would be stupid. Traditional marketing was there before digital marketing was introduced. It has a different audience that can’t be targeted through digital marketing. Therefore one can’t deny the impact of traditional marketing methods as they have lasted so long for a reason.
So, ultimately it is about the audience and the resources that one possesses which would help in making the better choice, and also there is always an option of using both the methods.
Want to learn more about Digital Marketing?
After this, we can easily conclude that digital marketing is the way of the future and holds immense scope. It is growing rapidly and has a lot to offer.
The market for digital marketing is only going to expand due to obvious reasons. If this excites you and you want to learn more about the field then you can check the Digital Marketing Postgraduate courses offered by Great Learning. What are you waiting for?
