When it comes to deciding whether to spend money on digital or traditional marketing, you ultimately must determine which method will be most effective for your company. While there are benefits for each type of marketing, digital marketing is often cheaper and has a much higher return on investment than traditional marketing. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of using each of these types of marketing:
Traditional Marketing Traditional Marketing includes print and broadcast media, as well as direct mail. Using this method of marketing, companies create billboard advertisements, magazine and newspaper ads, and television and radio commercials. With traditional marketing, your message is shared with an audience in hope that your brand recognition, and ultimately your revenue, will increase.
Benefits One advantage of traditional media is that it is a form of marketing that your consumers are familiar with and understand, especially if they are local. Consumers know that there will be commercials when they watch television or listen to the radio, and local consumers might see or interact with your advertisements frequently, which increases brand familiarity.
You are guaranteed to get your message across to an audience. With advertisements on billboards and television commercials, you do not have to hope your audience will be interested enough to open or click on your advertisements. That said, the cost alone of traditional marketing practices is enough to deter many businesses from investing too much into it.
Disadvantages While traditional marketing can potentially be a worthwhile investment for your company, there are several disadvantages you should consider before you spend your money.
The results and reach of the methods used for traditional marketing can be hard to measure and track. While it is a guarantee that people will have viewed your billboard, you have no way of knowing how many people have looked at it, or if any of those people decided to visit your website or make a purchase from your company as a result. Any information you do gain has to come from, sometimes unreliable, customer polls and call tracking. This means that you might be pouring money into an advertising strategy that is not actually as effective as you thought.
Traditional marketing is also more expensive than digital marketing, and it offers a smaller return. Newspaper ads are charged based on the amount of space your ad takes up and the reach of the newspaper. Telemarketing involves hiring employees to make calls and write your script. Billboards, depending on their location and size, can be costly as well. In order to reach an audience of 2000, companies spend around $150 on broadcasting, $200 on newspaper, $500 on magazines, and $900 on direct mail.
With such high costs for traditional marketing, businesses need to see a high return on investment in order to make these advertising strategies worthwhile, which traditional marketing just does not deliver.
Digital Marketing Digital marketing encompasses advertising and messages sent using social media, email, and other online channels. For the most part, digital marketing involves sending your company’s message to an audience that is already primed or consumers who have already shown an interest in your company.
Benefits Digital marketing allows consumers to expand their reach to greater levels than ever before. While a billboard or a newspaper ad will reach only a certain population, advertising through social media and smartphone applications, among other digital media, allows companies to spread their message worldwide. With the potential for sharing and the increased accessibility, using digital media marketing can help your company reach millions.
Digital marketing also allows for higher customer engagement. If you post on social media, consumers can directly respond to your message or share it with others. Additionally, your target audience will be able to take actionable steps that they would not be able to do with traditional marketing strategies. When consumers view a billboard, they might become familiar with your brand, but they still have to wait until they get home to look up your website or make a purchase.
With digital marketing, your products and services are only a couple clicks away. Whether you advertise through email campaigns or through a search engine, people will be able to immediately respond to your advertisement. This also makes digital marketing a more measurable tool. You can find specific data for each specific channel you use for marketing so you can see whether or not that channel is successful.
Digital marketing is less disruptive than traditional marketing. With traditional marketing, your goal is to push your message out to consumers and hope some viewers and readers will be interested and take further steps. With digital marketing, your audience already follows your brand on social media, subscribes to your email list, or otherwise interacts with your brand. This increases the likelihood of your followers finding your ads and messages helpful.
Digital marketing is also the most cost-effective of the two methods. Whereas traditional marketing requires a significant amount of money for an average amount of views, digital marketing provides countless views and interactions for a much lower price. In order to reach roughly 2,000 people, digital marketers only spend about $75 on social media marketing and $50 on search. Additional costs might include hiring an agency to develop and implement your online marketing strategy.
When compared to their return on investment, these costs are well worth it. The return on investment of email marketing is 38 dollars for every dollar spent and the ROI of Google Ads can be as high as double its investment. Traditional marketing just cannot deliver these results.
Disadvantages Digital marketing strategies might be less effective with certain audiences. Before you consider digital marketing, take a look at your target audience. If your products and services are marketed toward people who are less likely to own a smartphone or spend a lot of time online, you might want to use a mix of digital and traditional marketing.
If you want help developing a digital marketing strategy that can help increase traffic to your website and boost your conversion rate, you should contact Endless Revenue Marketing.
