Traditional Marketing Vs. Digital Marketing: Which One To Use?

Many companies are believed to be shifting to omnichannel marketing as the after-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. Omnichannel marketing helps business organizations expand their customer base and reach a larger audience. However, with the rise in omnichannel marketing, the question of which one is better between traditional marketing and digital marketing has risen. Therefore, this article strives to find a solution to the predicament- of traditional marketing vs digital marketing: which one is better?

Traditional Marketing Vs Digital Marketing

The difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing is so great that the two share overlap in terms of resources used, parties involved, and marketing techniques. Therefore, we will concentrate on understanding the advantages and disadvantages of traditional marketing and digital marketing which will help us differentiate between the two. But, before digging into the difference between traditional and digital marketing, let’s understand the meaning of these marketing types.

What Is Traditional Marketing?

Traditional marketing refers to the promotional process of reaching the audience through offline mediums like television, newspapers, billboards, etc. They are believed to be more expensive than digital marketing, but it helps infiltrate remote places where the internet services are dormant.
Furthermore, tracking the leads and effectiveness of traditional marketing campaigns is tough and non-standardized. However, the importance of traditional marketing is not weighed down by these shortcomings. That’s why it is still the dominant marketing type in many established firms.
Here are some of the types of traditional marketing:

• Print ads
• Television ads
• Billboards
• Face-to-face marketing
• Telemarketing
• Radio ads

What Is Digital Marketing?

Any marketing campaign that uses electronic devices for promotion or advertisement is known as Digital marketing. In other words, any marketing campaign that appears on a computer, phone, or device run by the internet. It is also called online marketing and helps connect brands with their potential customers with the help of modern technological tools and mediums like email, social media, etc.

Here are some of the popular types of digital marketing:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Social media marketing (SMM)
• Content marketing
• Pay-per-click advertising (PPC)
• Email marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Search engine marketing

What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Traditional Marketing?

Here are some of the advantages of traditional marketing:

• Easy to understand
Traditional marketing ads are easy to understand. Their popping and colourful design make it easy to remember. Moreover, traditional marketing ads are believed to remain in the customers’ minds longer.

• Attracts native audience
Traditional marketing mediums like print and television ads infiltrate native areas. It attracts the native audience with its simple-to-understand messaging.

• Physical proof
Traditional marketing ads can be recycled, increasing the recall value of the promotional material. The longer the recall value, the more effective the ad is in serving its purpose.

Here are some of the disadvantages of traditional marketing:

• No customer interaction
Traditional marketing initiates a conversation between the brand and its customers. However, customer interaction is broken off early in the marketing process due to a lack of call-to-action options. Moreover, it is hard to contact potential customers due to the lack of proper performance metrics and lead tracking processes.

• Expensive
Tradition marketing is expensive when compared to digital marketing. Moreover, posting ads on television or in the newspaper is more expensive than a social media or google ad.

• No performance metrics
It is hard to track traditional marketing leads. Moreover, performance metrics help analyze the success or failure of a marketing campaign.

What Are The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Digital Marketing?

Here are the advantages of digital marketing:

• Customer feedback
Digital marketing helps brands instantly connect with their customers. Online campaigns like SMM, PPC, and others also help the business organization understand the needs and preferences of the target audience. Moreover, it gives them direct customer feedback in social media comments, Twitter review, etc.

• Measurable
Unlike traditional marketing, online ads are easy to measure. Various tools and techniques help marketing managers measure the campaign’s effectiveness. For instance, Google Analytics is a tool that helps measure leads generated through SEO and SMM campaigns.

• Cost-effective
Digital marketing ads are cost-effective. They also have a fluid and peculiar characteristic that allows marketers to pause or resume a campaign according to their convenience and marketing plan.

Here are some of the disadvantages of digital marketing:

• Short attention span
Digital ads cannot be recycled. Hence, they sometimes fail to gain the attention of the users. Moreover, it is easier to scroll through online ads than traditional marketing ads.

• Interface-related issues
There are many digital ads that are believed to annoy customers. Similarly, many digital mediums help audiences hide or remove ads that don’t please them. But unfortunately, this technological advancement turns the ads ineffective.

• Time-consuming
Developing, launching, and managing online marketing campaigns is a time-consuming task. Moreover, digital marketing managers need to take different certification courses to learn the basic fundamentals of tracking, creating, and monitoring digital marketing campaigns. Thus, digital marketing campaigns are time-consuming.

Traditional marketing and digital marketing are two sides of the same coin. That’s why business organizations combine different types of traditional and digital marketing to develop a personalized advertising mix that helps them attract maximum traffic. Therefore, to successfully implement traditional or digital marketing campaigns into an organization, marketing managers must be equipped with special skills and in-depth knowledge about the field. Therefore, we have several digital marketing courses online offered in association with renowned Indian and international institutes. Enrolling in these courses provided by Emeritus India will help you skyrocket your career.