It’s 2020! How many people have you noticed reading the brochures, newspapers, and print magazines?
Only a small percentage, isn’t it?
That’s true! Out of 100, you’ll find only 20 people seeking news from the local newspapers, buying print magazines and investing on billboards.
But does that mean traditional marketing is gradually dying?
Well, no matter how much digital marketing evolves with time, traditional marketing will always have its space in the marketing world because it has some great benefits.
And, before we explore those benefits, let’s find out what’s the difference between Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing.
What’s Traditional Marketing?
Traditional marketing means marketing your content on the traditional channels such as billboards, brochures or magazines. Of course, digital marketing is more in demand these days but that doesn’t make traditional marketing have become outdated. It’s still used by many big brands such as NewYork Times and Vogue. Apart from being an old way of communication with your customers, traditional marketing comes with its pros such as:
Pros of Traditional Marketing
- It’s Permanent: It’s one of the best things about traditional marketing that when you advertise once in a local newspaper or magazine, it stays for a long time unless the papers are recycled. By publishing your brand on print media, you can’t only build your authority but can also remain in your customer’s mind forever. Even when you have your billboard placed on the busy streets, you’ll always be capturing people’s attention. That’s one such great benefit.
- Easy to Understand: When you advertise your business on social media, there are many users who won’t get your message in the first impression. But with print media, your message has a strong impact. For example, if your ad is published in the newspaper, people will read it with focus and concentration while the digital ads can sometimes be passed through fast scrolling of the Newsfeed.
Cons of Traditional Marketing
- It’s Expensive: If you’re a small business and thinking to market on traditional channels then you should drop as it can cost you heavy.
- You Can’t Measure Results: Once you have published your ad in the local newspaper or a magazine, you can’t measure the results or the impact it has created to your customer.
Now, What’s Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is what we see daily on search engines, websites, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and other online platforms. It’s the form of advertising your content through social channels. There are many categories of digital marketing such as:
- Search Engine Optimization
- Google Ads
- Affiliate Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Inbound Marketing
- Email Marketing
- PPC
The type of digital marketing you choose depends on your customers, business product and your business status either it’s a startup, midsize business or a brand. Although digital marketing starts with a website, it gives you great opportunities to grow your business without spending a penny. Now, let’s find out the pros and cons of digital marketing:
Pros of Digital Marketing
- It’s Free: Unless you approach sponsored ads or paid social media campaigns, you can grow your business online without spending a penny. With a variety of digital forums, it gives you great opportunities to connect with your potential customers.
- Measurable Results: if you have your business website, you can always use Google Analytics or Search Console to measure your website traffic and campaign results. This will also give you the opportunity to evolve your marketing strategies according to the results and customer behavior on your site.
- Create Tailored Marketing Strategies: With a variety of digital platforms, you can easily tailor your marketing strategies according to the platform and your audience.
Cons of Digital Marketing
- Less Permanent: Unlike the impact of traditional marketing, the digital marketing results are for a short-time which means people can forget what they read after some time. It’s because there are so many online ads so it becomes hard to remember everyone for long.
- Constantly Evolving: Once you get into digital marketing, you need to keep learning this skill with time and revolve your marketing around the trending marketing technique. For example, these days video marketing is trending in digital marketing and you don’t know what the future might bring for you, so have to be prepared for the constant digital marketing updates.
- Ads can be Annoying Sometimes: Think when you’re reading your favorite article on Google and just pop out asking you to register for online classes. This will definitely impact your experience and you might not visit that page again. So, considering this, the ads can be annoying sometimes.
So, Which One is Best For You?
After learning the definition and pros and cons of digital marketing, it’s hard to pick one among both. For us, Digital Marketing vs Traditional Marketing both have their unique benefits and it will give you the results if you use it the right way. Although digital marketing VS traditional is a hot and never-ending debate you still need to figure out what works best for you.
If you’re a startup or a small business then digital marketing should be your go-to lead because by doing the SEO of your website you can attract potential customers for your business. Even if you don’t know SEO then you can search for some affordable SEO Services in Pakistan for digital marketing consultation.
On the contrary, if you’re a big business then traditional marketing will fuel your growth and make your impression memorable for your customers.
So, the conclusion is whether you choose digital or traditional, you need to analyze your business sources and the goal you want to reach.
