As the internet continues to grow, the popularity and ease of digital marketing over traditional marketing has been growing as well. You may find yourself wondering what the difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing really is. The main differences between digital marketing strategy and traditional marketing strategy for businesses include how you reach your target audience and how that target audience first interacts with your products or services and makes its way down the sales funnel from awareness to purchase. Keep reading to learn more about the differences between traditional and digital marketing.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the term used to describe the act of businesses communicating marketing messages through online platforms and digital channels, such as social media, internet ads, social media ads, email marketing, and more. The advertisements you see when you open search results in a search engine, the ads you see when you’re scrolling through social media – all examples of digital marketing. Simply put, digital marketing can be described as marketing that uses the internet to reach customers. Social media platforms used in digital marketing include Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even newer platforms like TikTok.
What is Traditional Marketing?
When you think of traditional marketing, think of all the ways things used to be marketed before the explosion of the internet. TV commercials, radio ads, billboards, and print media such as magazines and newspapers are all examples of traditional marketing. Traditional marketing does not utilize things like Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertisements.
While traditional marketing can get a somewhat accurate idea of what audiences they are advertising to, using tools such as Nielsen ratings which analyze audience sizes and composition, traditional marketing isn’t nearly as targeted as digital marketing. It casts a much wider net in hopes of appealing to its target audience. Traditional marketing also does not allow for all of the measurable results and instant analytics that digital marketing can, so it can be difficult to learn more about buyers and others in different levels of the sales funnel.
What are The Benefits of Digital Marketing?
For the most part, effective digital marketing sees a much higher return on investment (ROI) than traditional marketing. This is due to a number of factors, including the fact that generally, the initial investment for digital marketing tactics such as social media posts, email marketing, or web ads is much cheaper than traditional marketing tactics such as television commercials, print ads, and more. A cheaper initial investment, couple with the extensive reach of digital marketing tactics, results in a much higher ROI.
Another benefit of digital marketing is increased analytics. Today’s analytics software programs can provide high quality, detailed, instant analytics and data about digital marketing campaigns. Data that can be gathered from digital marketing campaigns includes audience size, audience demographics, click rate, open rate, purchase rate, and much more. This data will allow for better lead generation, targeting, and automation. The data gathered from analytics makes it very easy to advertise directly to your target audience.
What are the Benefits of Traditional Marketing?
Traditional marketing still plays a key role in the marketing and advertising world, so while digital marketing does have many distinct advantages, traditional marketing shouldn’t be written off altogether. Traditional marketing still appeals to older demographics more than digital marketing does. If you’re trying to target an older demographic with your advertising, traditional marketing tactics may be the way to go. TV advertising also has a high success rate, as most American households watch TV daily and TV viewers are a captive audience.
Which Type of Marketing is Best?
The best type of marketing for your business depends on what you’re trying to sell, what your target market is, what your goals are, and what you feel comfortable with. If you think that digital marketing tactics would be best for your business, but you aren’t sure where to start in the digital world, or don’t feel comfortable in your online marketing abilities, it’s a good idea to hire an experienced digital marketing agency to grow your business using digital marketing. Thinking about getting started with digital marketing but not sure where to start? Call us to talk through some of our marketing services that you can utilize!
