Traditional Marketing versus Digital Marketing: How to Create a Balance

Marketers worldwide leverage different strategies to promote their brands to the target audience. While there are several options available for marketers, in recent times, digital marketing initiatives have emerged as their preferred option. In fact, an increasing number of brands are aggressively investing in their online marketing campaigns. But does that mean that traditional marketing is dead? Well, the answer is simple, no.

Traditional marketing is still going strong and, in some categories, is offering better results than digital initiatives. Hence, what is required from marketers is to create a balance between traditional marketing and digital marketing. This would allow the brand to drive growth uniformly and avail all the available benefits. Read on to learn more about traditional marketing and digital marketing and how to create a balance between them.

What is digital marketing?

Digital marketing, also known as traditional marketing, is a strategy that makes use of online mediums and internet-based technologies to promote products and services to customers. In recent times, digital marketing has emerged as a preferred option for many marketers who want to communicate with customers on multiple online platforms like social media and other websites. Popular techniques used in digital marketing are SEO, SMM, email marketing, PPC advertisements and several others.

What is traditional marketing?

Traditional marketing is a term used to describe marketing activities that leverages offline methods to promote products and services. The most popular forms of traditional marketing are phone, broadcast, print, and direct mail. While digital marketing poses some challenges for traditional marketing, it is not finished by any means. Many brands still use traditional marketing to target their audiences, while several others try to strike a balance between digital marketing and traditional marketing.

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Traditional Marketing Vs Digital Marketing

Some of the most important differences between traditional marketing and digital marketing are as follows: –

• Medium: The standout difference between traditional and digital marketing is the medium used for targeting customers. Digital marketing requires an active internet connection to target a customer through a mobile app or website. On the other hand, traditional marketing leverages a multitude of channels for targeting the customers, such as magazines, newspapers, billboards, radio etc.
• Technology: Digital marketing is at the forefront of leveraging the latest technological solutions to attract customers. This can include augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D experiences and much more. While traditional advertising also uses technology for television advertisements, it falls a bit behind its counterpart on this front.
• Reach: Digital marketing has a wider reach as compared to traditional marketing. Digital marketing can be used to target customers across different countries easily, but traditional marketing is mainly focused on a given geographic region only.
• Cost: Companies can easily monitor the cost of their digital marketing campaigns through metrics like cost per click, impressions per ad and several others. When it comes to traditional marketing, the cost tends to be higher side and varies depending on the medium chosen.
• Exposure: This is where digital marketing may fall slightly behind traditional marketing. Marketers using traditional strategies can create a seamless brand experience through uniform marketing messaging through multiple channels. Digital marketers might struggle somewhat on this front as they can target users only when they are online.

Creating a balance between digital marketing and traditional marketing

Well, there is no need for marketers to choose between traditional and digital marketing channels when they leverage both and maximize the benefits. Here are some tips for creating a balance between digital marketing and traditional marketing.

• Multiple touchpoints: Using digital and traditional marketing together offers brands the opportunity to target customers at multiple touchpoints. Marketers can use a balance of print, broadcast, or radio ads along with social media ads to effectively communicate with the target customers. Multiple touchpoints offer a great opportunity for brands to establish a relationship with customers.
• Get a wider reach: – There are still many individuals who are not well versed in internet usage. On the other hand, many youngsters now don’t spend much time on traditional media. So, marketers must create a balanced strategy where they can target a wider customer base and improve sales.
• Uniform messaging: – Companies can leverage the harmony between digital and traditional marketing to present a uniform brand image. Customers will get consistent marketing messages across platforms, and this would help the brand gain top-of-mind space and drive sales.

With the rapid pace at which digital marketing is growing, there are chances that it can soon become the most popular form of marketing for brands. But that does not mean that traditional marketing is going anywhere. Companies need to create a balance between these two marketing strategies to target more customers and achieve their marketing goals efficiently.

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