It is easy to get comfortable and stop learning new approaches to marketing. Traditional marketing has been around for decades, and for many of us, it is hard to see outside of the box sometimes. Nowadays everything is instant. Things are available when you need them. People want everything to be quick and easy. Having a notable online presence and exposure will help your business tremendously. If you are still debating which channel of marketing you should choose (traditional marketing vs. digital marketing), keep reading…
The Pros of Traditional Marketing:
Traditional Marketing includes word of mouth, print media, broadcast media, direct mail outdoor, and telemarketing. It has been around for a very long time, which leads to a lot of trust due to its proven track record. It can reach your local audience and older demographics. Another good thing about it is the tangibility that a lot of people like because often times individuals prefer having a hard copy of materials to understand it better.
The Cons of Traditional Marketing:
However, it is very expensive and cost probative. TV ads can actually cost up to $400,000 per 30 seconds, crazy! It is out of reach of many small business owners. Even newspaper ads can be quite expensive ranging from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars just one issue. On average, traditional marketing costs 3X more than digital marketing to reach the same amount of people.
It is also difficult to track the results that your ads are generating. This is like tossing coins into fountains and hoping for the best. Though you may get results, you don’t know exactly where they came from. Therefore, continuing to broadly waste your marketing dollars, without focusing them on the results in order to increase them even further.
Many times, traditional marketing can feel forced and a one-way communication. Who else opens up their mail and separates their letters into “important” vs. “junk” mail? This leads to poor engagement since there is virtually barely to zero interaction between you and your audience.
Lastly, traditional marketing is limited. You have low accessibility to people. It is hard to reach your target audience cost-effectively with traditional marketing. It is especially true for small business owners.
Digital Marketing includes a website, social media, content marketing, paid ads, online campaigns, video marketing and much more!
The Pros of Digitial Marketing:
It can target a lot more people both locally and internationally. Plus, it is much cheaper than traditional marketing. It includes multi-channels so that your audience can pick their favorite way to receive your content, which is a lot more cost-effective for you.
Throughout social media, emails, and comments, you can interact with your audience and receive feedback. It creates higher levels of brand loyalty by providing engaging content.
The most important aspect of digital marketing is that you can track your results in real-time. The campaign performance is measurable so you can focus your efforts and money on what works. The data is available immediately, and you can avoid wasting your marketing dollars on what is proven to not give you any results.
The Cons of Digital Marketing:
Like everything, there are still some cons to digital marketing. For example, it is time-consuming to manage multi-channel campaigns; you need extensive knowledge and expertise to run your digital marketing campaigns. However, these are easily manageable when you work with a professional digital marketing agency.
Which one should you choose?
Traditional and digital marketing both have its ups and downs. However, digital marketing is proven to generate better results at a more cost-effective level. As a small business owner, you may be scared to take that leap of faith, and see the potential that the online world has to offer for your business. But once you do, you will be amazed by the results.
Now you know the pros and cons of both traditional marketing and digital marketing. If you are a small business owner who has a smaller budget, digital marketing is the best for you. If you have a bigger budget, you may do both but invest the majority of your budget to digital marketing. Don’t forget to set up your conversion tracking system so that you can measure the results from different channels.
