The Battle for Business Dominance: Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing: Part 2

What if you were bringing your marketing “A-game” to the wrong audience?

There is a world of difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing. Unfortunately, many businesses have trouble figuring out which option is best for their particular audience.

Wondering how to determine which form of marketing is best for your business? Keep reading as we explore the different benefits and features of each style!

What Is the Difference?

We’ve put together a solid guide exploring every aspect of traditional and digital marketing. Before we go any further, though, we need to define exactly what these terms mean.

Traditional marketing is defined as non-internet based marketing which includes print media, such as magazines, newspaper, periodicals, handouts, flyers, brochures and larger format fixed forms of such as billboards, signs, and posters. Tv and radio also fall into this category though there is cross-over into the digital realm.

Digital marketing is defined as electronic internet-based marketing that is usually interactive and dynamic. This can include electronic ads, social media, e-mail marketing, all things website related, and so on. Digital marketing also includes techniques such as automation and SEO to help drive visitors to your site.

Now that we have these terms defined, it’s time to explore the unique benefits each one offers.

Traditional: Going Local

One of the most important considerations is whether you have a local business or a global business. For a local business, traditional advertising reigns supreme.

Places like regional restaurants or “mom and pop” shops aren’t too worried about customers half a world away. Instead, they want to make the locals happy and keep them coming back for more.

This can be pretty simple, too. Major billboards can entice someone into a special Friday dinner, and sales flyers in the local paper can convince someone to return to your shop.

Ultimately, you must go where your customers are. And if your customers are local, you should be doing traditional advertising.

Traditional: It’s Tangible

We love digital advertising. But it has one big downside: it’s never truly permanent.

For instance, people love to share funny images and videos they find online. But that engaging advertising is gone as soon as they click on something else or turn the phone off.

However, traditional advertising is tangible. If a customer leaves the newspaper on their counter, you are effectively advertising to them for several days inside the comfort of their own home.

And appearance is everything. If your advertising appears to be steady and stable, then your business will appear that way as well.

Traditional: Nice and Simple

The final benefit we love about traditional advertising? It’s nice and simple.

Digital marketing offers the ability to do complex multimedia campaigns spread across multiple online channels. However, some demographics prefer things to be much simpler and straightforward.

For example, you might be pouring a lot of money into SEO marketing for your local business. However, if most of your customers grew up in a world without the internet, then internet marketing may be lost on them.

However, traditional advertising is easy and accessible for everyone. Things like TV and radio commercials have been an advertising mainstay for the better part of a century for a simple reason: they are simple and effective!

Digital: All About Analytics

The biggest downside of traditional marketing is that it’s tough to tell what’s working. You might spend a lot of money on a billboard or a television ad and be ultimately unable to tell how effective it was.

With digital marketing, you have the power of analytics. You can actively monitor which marketing efforts helped to drive specific increases in things like website visits, online purchases, and more.

This is invaluable because it allows you to “course correct” as needed. If one form of advertising isn’t working, you can try something else. This sure beats throwing all your money into something that’s not working!

Digital: Surprising Value

Another thing we love about digital advertising is the sheer value of it. You can a lot of advertising mileage without spending a lot of money.

For example, social media advertising is very popular, especially among Millennials. And it costs little or nothing for you to create social media accounts for your business.

Plus, there’s always the chance that some of your content may “go viral.” This means that customers will share what you made with everyone, you know.

That kind of digital “word of mouth” advertising is highly effective. And did we mention it’s completely free?

Digital: Find New Customers

Earlier, we mentioned the difference between a local and global business. It’s important to note that most new businesses are global businesses that cater to customers all around the world.

There is one “hard part” to that approach, though. First, you have to find the customers!

This is where good digital marketing shines. The right SEO or viral video content can lure in customers from all around the world. Combined with analytics, you may discover you have audiences you never even knew about!

With traditional advertising, you can focus your efforts on the customers you know. But digital remains the best way to find entirely new customers.

Traditional Marketing vs. Digital Marketing: Which Is Better?

This brings us to the big question, then: which form of advertising is better? The answer depends on the needs of you and your business.

As we said before, traditional advertising is best for local audiences. And it may be downright necessary to help you stay ahead of your local competition.

Digital advertising is best for anyone hoping to find a global audience. This includes many businesses that operate from homes and mail products directly to their customers.

And if your business has both a local and a global presence, it makes a lot of sense to do a bit of both!

The Bottom Line

Now you know about the different benefits of traditional marketing and digital marketing. But do you know who can take your marketing to the next level?

Here at the MAD Group, we help your business to reach its maximum potential. To see how we can help you grow and expand, contact us today!