Traditional Marketing VS Digital Marketing: What to Choose
The difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing is the platform or medium a marketer used to convey a message to its prospects or build a relationship with its customer.
The definition of marketing remains the same for both traditional and digital marketing. The word traditional itself suggest old that means the old ways of turning a prospect into customers. Digital Marketing is marketing based on the internet. Without the internet, there is no digital marketing.
The way of convincing the user or prospect about products or services directly or indirectly through direct marketing (face to face communication), print ads, television ads, radio ads or any marketing method which doesn’t include internet comes under the purview of traditional marketing.
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Any method of marketing which is not related to the internet comes under traditional marketing.
Methods of communication in traditional marketing:-
- Outdoor (Billboards)
- Broadcasting (Radio ads)
- Print ( ads in the newspaper)
- Direct Mail
- Telemarketing (TV ads)
- Window Display and Signs
Methods of communication in digital marketing:-
- Organic Search (SEO)
- Paid Search (Google Ads)
- Affiliate Marketing ( Showing ads on other websites)
- Youtube
- Social Media (Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter etc.)
Both digital marketing and traditional marketing has some pros and cons from the perspective of both customer and marketer
Let me first discuss in detail the advantages and disadvantages of traditional marketing.
Advantages of Traditional Marketing from marketer’s perspective
Impactful - Remember the time when your last visit to a showroom or a shop and the salesman persuade you to buy a product, you know the power of face to face communication, how trustworthy it is. Memorise the last time when you see a billboard or a menu of a nearby restaurant in your direct mailbox and how impactful they are or remember your favourite tv ads featuring your favourite actors. This is the power of traditional marketing which you are not going to find in digital marketing.
Permanent - Most of the tv ads, radio messages keeps on repeating or showing the same content and unconsciously we memorise so much of the content shown on tv or radio. Similarly, some people tend to collect the interesting pamphlet, brochure or any other paper marketing ad, postcards etc.
Memorable - Just like the above point, some best tv ads, radio messages we still remember because we keep on listening or viewing same billboard and brochure, the ads just imprint on our mind forever.
Some Disadvantages of Traditional Marketing
Hard to Measure - You cannot measure how many people have seen your ad and influenced by it and how many going to purchase the product.
Expensive - Traditional ads are expensive in terms of cost itself as well as the cost of reaching to a prospect who can turn into a customer.
No Direct Interaction - Except direct marketing or face to face communication, there is no direct interaction in traditional marketing, nobody reports to tv agency, radio services or newspapers and the advertisers that this ad is a wonderful ad or the worst ad. No likes or dislikes on Facebook or Instagram.
No Control over Timing - Tradition marketers has a little control over time. They don’t know at what kind of customer going to see their ads.
Limited Customization Option - Unlike in digital marketing, they cannot customize their ads for different types of customer. They cannot select their customer based on age, gender and location.
So above are the advantages and disadvantages of traditional marketing. Now, we are going to focus on the advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing
Advantages of Digital Marketing from Marketer’s Point of View
Engagement - Whenever you see an ad or video on Facebook, Instagram you have the right to like or unlike it, you can express your views through comments and even just leaving a website without taking any action, you are going to tell the website owner you didn’t like the website. You can post feedback online about the company and its products. There is a lot of ways you can engage with the marketer, that’s the power of internet marketing.
Measurable - Unlike traditional marketing, you can identify your customer based on gender, age and location even you can know how many customers click on your ad and how many of them purchase the product. The best part is whether it is social media, organic channels or paid media, you can track your customer everywhere.
Targeted - What a man going to do with the ladies shoes or vice versa. That’s another advantage of digital marketing you can show your ads to the customer for whom you have to design the product. It is not at all possible in traditional marketing. You can target your customer in terms of age, sex and place.
Bigger Audience Range:- Though digital marketing ads are targeted yet they cover a large number of audience as they are not restricted to any location until defined by the marketer itself.
Disadvantages of Digital Marketing from Marketer’s point of view
Potentially Annoying - Most of the social media ads or display ads are annoying as they interrupt users rather than persuade users. Suppose you are watching a 3 minutes video on Facebook and suddenly a 30 seconds ad pop up on your screen may interact less and annoys you more.
Less Permanent - As you keep the physical copy of ads in traditional marketing in forms of brochure, pamphlet or newspaper cutting, you cannot do that in digital marketing. Everything is on the internet, once it goes it goes forever even the same ad on social media repeats rarely.
Constantly Evolving - Keep evolving at a fast pace is not always good, if you keep changing your message or ads at a fast pace, it becomes difficult for your user to remember your brand.
Advantages of Traditional Marketing from Customer Point of View
Fulfil the Urgency - What happens if you need the product now, for e.g you want to go to a party and suddenly you find that your shoes are torn off, will you buy shoes now or will you order online and wait for 3-5 days. Thus, we can say for some industries being offline is more profitable than online.
Sensory Stimulation - Whenever you buy anything, you perceive that product by seeing with your naked eyes, you touch the product or taste if it is an edible item so whenever you buy offline, you get a sensory stimulation which enhances your trust in the product and this is not available online.
Expensive- The above two advantages help you to buy an expensive product online as there is always a fear when you make advance payment and you are going to receive the product after a certain number of days. More the days, more the fear. However, online marketers introduce cash on delivery but still, the sensory stimulation is missing in the expensive online purchase.
Disadvantages of Traditional Marketing in terms of consumer
Limited Choice - Offline market is like a small pound while the online market is a sea. You always have a limited choice available in an offline market. Just in case, you want to buy shoes offline, you go to a store and your choice is limited to what the store offers to you. You cannot visit every shop in your city to buy a single pair of shoes.
Time-Consuming - You can buy anything online by clicking some links on your laptop, however, if you want to buy that same thing offline, you need to travel to market, hoop from one shop to other for the best product which consumes a lot of time as compared to online shopping.
Now we are aware of the pros and cons of traditional marketing both from the point of view of consumer and marketer. We should look at the advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing in terms of consumer.
Advantages of Digital Marketing in terms of Consumer Behaviour
Time-Saving - What you can buy in an hour, you can buy in a few minutes through online shopping.
Sea of Choices - If you are very choosy, then online marketing is for you, there are thousands of options available for a single product. Even for the exact similar product, you may find different prices which are quite difficult to find in offline marketing.
Disadvantages of Digital Marketing in terms of Consumer
Expensive - Customer doesn’t show much trust in the expensive product while doing online shopping. However, various e-commerce sites are using showrooming concept where customer can check the product quality and later on purchase the product from their site.
Delivery Time - In most of the online businesses, delivery takes 3-5 days, but in case of delay, it may annoy the customer.
Sensory Stimulation - How fastly your webpage loads? How good is the content of your website? How bright is the image? All these factors cannot stimulate much of the user senses. Remember, the reality is always more trustworthy than image.
After going through all the benefits and drawbacks of digital and traditional marketing, one must evaluate what is best for him, is it digital marketing or traditional marketing.
I believe that every marketer should go for both options. If you are running an offline business or shop then you must register your shop address on google maps. So, customer can reach your shop easily. If you are an e-commerce website even then you must spend in some offline marketing activities or at least use Cash on Delivery option for your customer. It may bring trust in the eyes of your customer.
So if you are trading offline even than you can create a website to guide your customer about your product. You can create videos to market your product or other social media channels like Facebook etc.
Conclusion
Finally, I must conclude with a definition of the market. A market is a place where buyers and sellers meet. The purpose of the market is always the product or services which marketer's offer and customers want to purchase. So, clearly understand the product from the customer perspective and choose whether to invest in digital marketing or traditional marketing. So, I have tried my best to provide as much information about digital marketing vs traditional marketing.
Words of Gratitude
Thank you for reading my blog, and I express my gratitude from the bottom of my heart that you have taken time to read this blog from top to bottom which shows you have a zeal to become successful in your life. Knowledge and success are complementary to each other.
May God Bless you with knowledge and wisdom!
About the Author
Ankush Agrawal is an MBA and a Digital Marketer. He is having an experience of 3+ years in digital marketing and believes sharing knowledge with others is a sacred practice. Through this blog, he will share his experiences and understanding, so have some reverence in him and plunge into the world of digital marketing.
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