Traditional Marketing Vs. Digital Marketing: Tips to Spend Wisely
What are the pros and cons between traditional marketing vs. digital marketing? We’ve got a list of expert tips to take your marketing budget to the next level.
Most small businesses spend around 1% of their revenue on marketing. If your revenue is $500,000 then you’re probably spending around $5,000 on marketing.
$5,000 isn’t a ton of money, which means businesses have to make smart decisions when it comes to their marketing strategy so they get the biggest ROI (Return on Investment).
Some companies prefer traditional marketing while others have gone 100% digital. Others rely on a mix of both forms of marketing.
If you’re not sure yet which direction to take, keep reading. We’re sharing with you the differences between traditional marketing vs. digital marketing so you get the highest ROI.
The Differences Between Traditional Marketing Vs. Digital Marketing
There are definite differences between traditional vs digital marketing. However, both methods have pros and cons associated with them.
Often, your choice depends on your target audience and your budget. Let’s take a look at what types of marketing are involved for both traditional vs digital marketing.
Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing has been around since people started selling goods and services to one another. It’s also known as physical marketing since certain methods are far more tangible and/or require more effort than digital marketing.
Some forms of traditional marketing are:
- Print (newspapers and magazines)
- Broadcast (tv or radio)
- Direct mail (catalogs and postcards)
- Telemarketing
- Outdoor (billboards, signs, posters)
One advantage of traditional marketing methods is that it’s easy to reach your local target audience. Often you’re sending marketing materials straight to their mailboxes where they have to notice it.
Another advantage is that traditional methods are easy to understand. We all know the purpose of a flier or television commercial.
The Cons of Traditional Marketing
Compared to digital markets, it’s much more difficult to reach out to your target market. It’s also more invasive.
Since there’s little or no interaction between you and your customer base, you have to dig deep to discover the crucial information that helps you sell to them.
No Control
Once you create an advertisement, there’s no way to fix or update anything without completely redoing it. That means if you send out postcards and your address is wrong or you move, it’s going to cost you a lot to fix it.
More Expensive
Traditional marketing efforts such as print ads are also much more expensive. You often end up with recurring costs that may not even work.
If you choose to run an advertisement in a newspaper, chances are your customers will only have one opportunity to spot your ad. They may miss it entirely.
You have to continue renewing advertisements to stay fresh and relevant in the minds of your target market. That gets expensive.
Hard to Measure Results
The only way you have to measure your results from a traditional marketing campaign is to ask each customer how they found out about you. That’s extra work you may not have time for.
It’s often difficult to determine if your campaigns are successful. This makes it difficult to ascertain if it’s worth the money to continue.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is any type of marketing found online. Some forms of digital marketing are:
- Digital Ads
- Social media
- Email marketing
- Content
- Website
- Affiliate marketing
The downside to digital marketing is that physical materials seem more real to human brains. Touching something physical gives it meaning and a place which helps us remember it better.
Also, physical marketing materials involve more emotional processing, which helps with brand association.
The Pros of Digital Marketing
There’s a lot to love about digital marketing. Here are a few reasons why:
Cost Effective
It’s much easier to stick within your budget with digital marketing. You can set a fixed budget and once you reach that goal, your campaign gets shut off.
Also, the ROI is much higher for digital markets.
Easier to Track Results
Digital marketing allows you to track the results of your campaigns in real time. As a result, you know exactly how well your campaign is doing.
Those results can also pinpoint where you need to fix or adjust your campaigns, making it much more cost effective with better results.
Better Able to Target Customers
With digital marketing, you can gain inside knowledge into the private lives of your customers. It’s far easier to gain access into who your customer base is, where they live, how much they earn, and even what their hobbies are.
Also, you can place this information into a database to help you find more effective strategies to reach your target market. And lastly, 89% of American adults have access to the internet where you can reach them.
You can also interact directly with your target market. This puts you at a great advantage to learn exactly what they want from your company.
Continued Advertising
You can only send a postcard once before you have to repeat the process for the same amount of money. But for many digital options, you only have to do the work once.
Methods such as social media, content, and websites are going to be around forever. That means that if you create one video, you can continue using it in perpetuity for free.
Many Consider Both Methods
Luckily, you don’t have to choose between traditional and digital marketing. Many businesses choose to use both forms effectively.
Physical marketing helps further strengthen current relationships with your customers.
It’s best to determine your budget first and then identify the best methods you’ve used so far. Then you can determine which forms of both types of marketing to incorporate into your yearly strategy.
Get Help With Digital Marketing
The one big difference between traditional marketing vs. digital marketing is that everyone understands how traditional marketing works. Most businesses have some idea about the various types of digital marketing, but they’re woefully undereducated on how to use it.
We can help. We have assembled a team of experts who know and understand digital marketing strategies.
We can help determine which strategies work best for your needs and your budget. Whether you want a quote or only need a few questions answered, we’re here waiting. Click here to contact us.
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