Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” – Tom Fishburne

Why does he say so? It’s because marketing is a fun and creative field which offers a sea of opportunities.

Consumers today are aware that marketing affects all of our activities, purchases, decisions, and lifestyles. While much of it is obvious, some of the best advertising is subtle, so the average person probably doesn’t even notice it when he sees it. 

Imagine a workplace where you get paid to promote big brands in the most creative ways? Would you be up for it? If yes, then marketing is the career for you!. Even better, there’s a new branch of marketing coming up recently called digital marketing.   Now, while these stem from the same field, they differ in concept. Let’s find out how traditional marketing compares with digital marketing!

What is Traditional Marketing?

Any form of marketing that isn’t done online is referred to as traditional marketing. Print, radio, direct mail, telephone, and outdoor advertising like billboards are all included in this. This strategy of marketing helps reach specific audiences, whether through radio or newspapers. 

These marketing materials are often put in locations where their target market is more likely to see, hear, or engage with them. Because it targets consumers who spend time away from their computers and smartphones, traditional marketing is significant.

Let’s look at some of the advantages of traditional marketing:

• With conventional marketing, it is simpler to connect with a local audience. For instance, you may easily target residents of a certain town or city using radio broadcasts and billboards.
• Hard copies of information are simpler to mentally digest, retain, and recall in the future.
• Flyers, television or radio commercials, as well as advertisements that air every year during a particular holiday season, are frequently recycled by businesses. By doing so, they may promote the firm while also saving time and money.

Before you get too excited, let’s look at the disadvantages also:

• Billboards must be rented, and running commercials on radio and television is expensive as well.  
• A print advertisement requires time and several iterations of editing. The advertisement is then finished. The color, font, or words cannot be changed after it’s been published.

What about Digital Marketing?

Well, it is the marketing that is done..um..digitally. (haha)

Simply put, any marketing a business does online, such as paid social media ads, email marketing, etc., is referred to as digital marketing. It is the type of promotion that uses the internet and other digital communication channels to reach out to potential customers.

The way we market has changed as the world is becoming increasingly digital. Digital marketing is not only sometimes more affordable than traditional methods, but it is also a more direct method of reaching target people all over the world.

Digital marketing does sound good but let’s take a look at some pros and cons of the same.

Pros of Digital Marketing

• Digital marketing is ideal for you if you have a limited budget. The best aspect is that you can do a lot and obtain what you want on a tight budget.
• The marketing results can be monitored in real-time. You can keep track of leads, conversion leads generated by your website, and much more.
• Digital marketing uses a two-way communication strategy, which makes it very participatory. You may easily plan your communication so that it is conversational to enhance page engagement.

Cons of Digital Marketing

• Because digital marketing has a global reach, there is also a global rivalry to contend with. To stand out from the pack is challenging.
• Being up to date with marketing trends and technologies is crucial since they change quickly.
• Extreme reliance on technology is imminent but risky. Digital marketing is entirely dependent on technology, and errors can happen on the internet.

Traditional Vs Digital Marketing: Differences

1. Medium:

Traditional marketing is a dated form of advertising. It refers to the various forms of promotion and advertising that businesses employed in the beginning to market their products, including flyers, billboards, TV and radio commercials, print and newspaper adverts, and more.

Whereas, digital marketing refers to the marketing of any type of business using digital platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Google.

2. Phases:

Interest, awareness, desire, and decision are the four stages of traditional marketing.

Digital marketing has four stages: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.

3. Growth and scope of change:

Traditional media still has the capacity to simultaneously reach a large number of people, even though digital advertising is undoubtedly expanding at a higher rate. These conventional outlets frequently have a reputation in the neighborhood, which may be advantageous for some enterprises. 

However, using digital media for advertising enables a business to analyze campaign data in real-time and make any adjustments right away.

4. Target Audience:

Traditional marketing lacks a regular client base or a target audience. The market study and market competition are disregarded.

Digital marketing, in contrast, has a target audience or a consistent consumer base. It does a market analysis and makes an effort to understand market competitiveness.

5. Cost and speed of results

Because traditional marketing requires printing, radio and television advertisements, etc., marketing becomes more expensive and harder to track. When compared to traditional marketing, online marketing is more cost-effective because budgets can be defined.

In the case of traditional marketing, effects may not be visible for weeks or even months. Using reports and web analytics, it is much simpler to track results with digital marketing in real-time. Additional analytics are also available, including views and click-through rates.

Let’s understand with the help of some popular examples!

The best example of traditional marketing would be the billboards of upcoming movies or new products that you see on roads, highways, etc. Tanishq, a jewelry company, executed and launched a marketing campaign for its “Swayahm” collection in various Indian cities. The brand employed billboards, mall media, bus shelters, etc. where the campaign could be seen by the most people for this. Another example is magazines. Femina magazine targets the highest females in the pyramid by using print media.

Examples of digital marketing will include this hilarious tweet made by Zomato saying “Guys, kabhi ghar ka khana bhi kha lena chahiye,” Other brands retweeted the article along with their own statements once it became so popular! Another one is KFC. To increase brand visibility, KFC is enhancing its online presence on social media platforms. Its social media marketing campaign’s primary objectives are to increase product sales in India and draw in and target a younger demographic. The “Design Your Own Bucket” initiative from the brand received a lot of support.

Tread Smartly Towards Your Ideal Career

These were the major differences between traditional and digital marketing. With an increasing number of people working in the sector, digital marketing is one of the hottest occupations right now. 

Additionally, it is among the sectors with the quickest growth. There are many opportunities in digital marketing for new graduates, creatives, techies, authors, and marketing whizzes.

If, after working in a particular specialty for some time, you grow dissatisfied with it, you can go to another area of digital marketing without ever leaving the field.

Want a career in Digital Marketing? Read all about it here! 

Get started with Mentoria’s career assessment and book a career counseling session with Mentoria’s experts to discover the field that is ideal for you based on your interests and abilities. 

So, let’s get working!