Digital Marketing VS Traditional Marketing: How To Choose?

Sometimes the digital world replaces the real world. It becomes handy if you want to occupy less physical space. But in matters of advertising and business, in general, it is not all clear.

To help you decide, you are welcome to read this fight of Digital Marketing Vs Traditional Marketing.

Let’s dig into what is what.

Definitions

As it is difficult to compare without having the right information, here you have a valuable explanation (yet concise). There are a lot of mixed concepts that can confuse you, so let’s dig deep into the subject. Let us start explaining each separately.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing, in a few words, is the kind of marketing going through only digital channels. It means channels like social media, search engines, websites, web banners, email, mobile apps, and more.

It also is contained in podcasts and other digital ways to share communication.

Digital marketing is oriented to use the most powerful part of the digital world: data. Online marketing is good for collecting data from online visitors.

After gathering that data, goes through a process that turns it into information, and this information into insights. Digital marketing companies use those insights to understand the whole business.

Hence, through insights reading, digital marketers can foresee the moves in the market, the buyer’s behavior, and digital trends. Predicting these allows us to make marketing decisions and change plans if needed in a short time.

So you can say that digital marketing is a way of dynamic marketing.

Many people tend to associate digital marketing with the future due to the usage of technology.

Well, digital marketing is now. Every single like on Facebook, any visit to a website, and every single post belong to digital marketing. Thus, online marketing is present in everything nowadays. It is worth keeping an eye on it.

What is Traditional Marketing?

Traditional marketing refers to offline marketing. In that sense, if online marketing uses all digital channels, traditional marketing uses all offline channels.

It means it uses printed materials, radio, television, mail ads, telemarketing, and any other offline method. This includes ads in billboards and ad inserts.

Traditional marketing is oriented to fix certain brands into the audience. By setting up a campaign to extend reach, offline marketing can be all a company needs.

Nevertheless, there is no possible way to measure the impact instantly. To see the impact of traditional marketing in the streets, there are some tools and signs to read.

A sign of traditional marketing’s impact is to hear what people say on the streets about your brand. Another is to check on the sales’ profit and see if after the running of the campaign incomes rise.

A more effective way to see what is going on with your offline campaign is by applying surveys. This last tool needs certain conditions, but well applied can give you an approach to see what people want.

Depending on the company’s size, they might apply one or more types of traditional marketing channels.

For instance, large companies can afford TV spots due to the high cost of production and TV time. Medium and small companies can afford any other printed advertising and even radio advertising. It all depends on the marketing goals.

How Digital Marketing is Different From Traditional Marketing?

Comparing digital marketing vs traditional marketing is not the only way to spot the differences between both. Nevertheless, this is the fastest way to compare and identify which is which. Let’s see how both marketing ways differ.

Major Differences

You are wondering how digital marketing is different from traditional marketing. Firstly, the medium where you advertise can set the difference.

If you are advertising online is digital marketing. If you are advertising offline, then it is traditional marketing. As clear as that. But there is more to know about it.

It is important to identify the channels online and offline. Speaking of offline channels, television and radio marketing campaigns are the main used. There are also printed campaigns in the form of brochures, newsletters, magazines, and banners on the street.

Then there is Telemarketing where a person receives a call from a salesman. In this call, the prospective client gets information about a promotion or offer.

The last (but not least) channel is advertising in direct mail. People will receive the information via the mailbox. Regardless it is a flyer, a brochure, a CD, coupons, and event invitations.

Now, speaking of online channels there are a lot of digital ways to deliver information. Emails, banners on websites, blogs, or even websites and social media are the channels to use here. Practically any digital advertising form is referred to as digital marketing.

Minor Differences

Both marketing forms are meant to reach a certain target. However, digital marketing is more accurate in this aspect.

There are terabytes of data that marketers can process in a matter of a few hours. In traditional marketing, this process might take (at best) a few weeks. Also, the way the information is interpreted is not as effective as the online counterpart.

The way to show advertising is also different. While offline marketing shows advertisements in a static way, online marketing can do it better. Not only dynamically showing ads but changing every single second the user shows them.

Digital marketing has a tool called cookie, which allows to get and process information from every user fast. This is one of the reasons why digital marketing wins over traditional marketing.

Another minor difference is the way information gets to the public. In the offline approach, the people’s sight crashes into the ad. Something similar happens on the radio. The message crashes a big number of people.

Digital marketing analyzes data to segment people and shows ads only to those interested in it. Both are useful depending on the marketing strategy.

Now, people with the internet are the only people reachable by digital marketing. On the other hand, everyone can see or hear an ad planned to appear on the offline channels.

Another minor difference comes in the budget. Most traditional advertising is more expensive than the digital one.

Of course, marketing is an investment, so if it is expensive or not, only ROI and profits can tell.

Advantages and Disadvantages

Like everything in life, marketing has advantages and disadvantages, regardless it is online or offline.

The intention here is not to discourage you to pick one or the other, but to help you decide. The following information is brought to you after years of research and error documentation of many marketers.

Who will win this contest between digital marketing vs traditional marketing?

Advantages and Disadvantages of Digital Marketing

Let us start by analyzing in-depth details that help you pick digital marketing as your marketing approach. In terms of revenue, effort, budget, and measurement, there are some traits to consider in online marketing.

Advantages

1. Global Reach: The best of digital marketing is the reach. Everywhere on the planet, there is the internet, making it reachable for a company using digital marketing. Additionally, by using social media, you can ensure to engage with your customers not depending on where they are.
2. Detailed Measure: The next remarkable advantage is the measurement the digital world can give. You can track, analyze, and later process data to make it usable insights. This way you can foresee where the market is going, and also redirect it. Also, by analyzing the data, you can program the information that you can show to your audience.
3. Cheaply Priced: Another advantage to remark is the low cost in comparison with traditional marketing. The fare of digital marketing is usually low, depending on how well-planned is the marketing strategy. A well-planned strategy leads to a successful campaign, and then to higher profits. Then you can tell that online marketing needs a lower fee to get high revenue.
4. Conversion Rate: The last advantage you can see is the speedy rise in the conversion rate. Conversion rate is the fastness of the process from which the audience turns into customers. In this type of marketing, looking at a web banner, and buying a product can take minutes.

Disadvantages

1. Volatility: The change rate of trends and updated tools can sometimes lead to a delay in planning and preparation. Sometimes trends change so rapidly that you must change your planning, and it translates into more time to replanning. Additionally, if you are trying to manage online marketing tools by yourself, it costs a lot of time.
2. The Competition: Due to the online marketing speed, another common problem is the competitor’s amount. It is so easy to post something on social networks that the relevance of your post lowers. This can be hacked by planning better your online strategy, but you are still competing with a lot of people.
3. Reduced Privacy: Another thing to consider is how public all communication is. It means that practically anyone can see opinions about your brand, good and bad. So if some of your clients are not happy with your products, previous users’ comments finish being your tombstone. You need also to have specialized people to treat any rude comment on social media.
4. Legal Details: The last disadvantage might be in the legal field. Every online platform has its own system of rules defining if something is public or private. Additionally, there is a number of the client’s information that should remain private.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Traditional Marketing

So far, digital marketing is winning the battle of online marketing vs offline marketing. Now it is time to see some of the plus and cons of the offline approach.

You might get surprised with a few things that are put offline over online marketing, but it makes sense. After all, why do you think it is profitable for some agencies to work with traditional marketing? Here is why.

Advantages

1. Works Unplugged: The main advantage is that it is always on. If there is no internet, if there is no electricity, it still works. What is printed, remains printed. This same feature makes reusable all the advertising already printed. Even some advertising spots can be re-transmitted as many times as you want on radio and TV.
2. Local success: Maybe the most powerful trait is the reach in a local range. In large cities, TV advertising can penetrate easily people’s minds. In small towns, you can get the same result on the radio. But you are going to need more wit in the usage of words and a catchy jingle perhaps. Everything in traditional marketing can dig deeper at a local scale.
   
3. Always finds a Way: Traditional marketing crashes into people’s senses. Therefore, this offline approach will make it more efficient to get a new audience. 71% of people in the USA look at billboards on a highway consciously. So you can figure out how many new people it reaches. Radio and TV are listened to and watched.
   

Disadvantages

1. Passive Aggressive: The main disadvantage is the forced way to show those kinds of advertising. Most ads need people’s attention, so agencies try to show their material in an invasive way. It feels sometimes like an ad jumps into our senses, gathering all the attention they can. If an ad is overexposed, it results in annoyance for your public.
2. Is Hard to Edit: the general advice is not to advertise through a printed channel unless you are 100% sure what to publish. Here is an example. If you printed 50.000 flyers with an offer of 50% off, you can’t take that back once distributed. Therefore, if you discover 50% off is too much, and you want to change this to 40%, you can’t.
   
3. Little Space: the space to advertise offline is limited. This hurdle reduces the number of words on the ad, and so the information that it shows. Hence, you need to buy more than a single space to show in your ad as you want. Sometimes, the message is short, and there is no problem. Other times the message takes a good explanation in short words.
   

Will Digital Marketing Replace Traditional Marketing?

Let’s face it: having a smartphone doesn’t make us throw away our home phone. In the same spirit, digital marketing will not replace traditional marketing. At least not in every aspect.

There are still too many people on the streets. As long as there is someone in the streets, there is someone to reach with traditional marketing.

One clear example is billboards (the advertising not the music awards). People spend in their cars an average of 293 hours a year, which is 17.500 minutes every year. A normal person can read a billboard in a fraction of a minute.

It means that billboard advertising is still worth it. No online advertising can get the exact reach of a billboard.

Something similar happens with radio advertising. Take all the time people spend in their cars, then add the time people listen to the radio. Not only in their houses but anywhere else. Places like workstations, malls, and shops where people still listen to the radio.

Also, count the blind people who never can see online advertising, and then you’ll have more prospective clients.

Local TV is another type of traditional marketing that is here to stay. The importance that someone feels when a family or friend appears on TV gives a sense of identity. This feeling is one of the features that make TV popular despite youtube and other internet videos.

If you still doubt the question will digital marketing replace traditional marketing?, let us simplify it for you. It is hard to confront online marketing vs offline marketing because both dedicate to different marketing purposes.

Do you agree that the digital world and the real world are different worlds? That is why one is only more important than the other only depending on your marketing plan.

Why Does Digital Marketing Win Over Traditional Marketing?

So far, we have tried to keep it neutral to avoid preferences. Nevertheless, there is one trait where digital defeats traditional marketing: it is easy to share. This is why digital marketing wins over traditional marketing.

With a single click on your computer or a tap on your smartphone, you can share information. And not only from person to person but from person to person. From one to many.

However, that is not the only aspect to consider while comparing both. Segmentation is another important trait to evaluate. It is not the same to show everyone an ad as to show an ad to the fanboys of the brand.

Show a puppy to a dog-lover person and you won’t have to pay to make him speak of dogs. Segmentation keeps showing relevant content to interested people. Advertising algorithms know how to keep us happy.

Speaking of fans, social media advertising is not meant to appear offline. Digital marketing agencies know that, and they act concordantly. To keep the brand relevant, digital marketers produce fresh content daily.

The content that the audience may love. This way the brand will keep its relevance. Offline marketing has not that precision.

In terms of reach, not a single TV channel has a worldwide reach. Online marketing does. By advertising on a website, or on a social media network, your product can appear throughout the globe.

If you are looking for clients far away from your physical address, online marketing is your tool. This is precisely how the internet revolutionized globalization.

It is all said. Now that you know who won the struggle of online marketing vs traditional marketing, let us say this.

As mentioned before, the ROI is higher on digital marketing. Thus the digital approach is less expensive than the traditional techniques. For example, an email marketing campaign is cheap and you can reach easier marketing goals (in most cases).

Additionally, the dynamic way you can change information ensures low costs of production. Also, digital marketing, as said before, is easy to track.

Using tools like Google Analytics you can see what is wrong with your strategy and change it on time. You can call this dynamism too.

To summarize, you can have all the reach you want and the segmentation only with digital marketing.

And if you want to know how your business is doing, you can check your metrics with analytics tools. The winner of digital marketing vs traditional marketing is digital marketing.

Choosing The Best One: Offline Marketing or Online Marketing?

Each marketing approach is better intended for certain tasks. One traditional channel can perform better than a digital one. After all said previously, let us help you to know which marketing form to use to reach an aim. Let us focus on our recommendations.

Offline Marketing

This medium is perfect to use for big companies. These companies can afford the budget for expensive places’ advertisements.

TV spots, radio jingles, and even movie ads need production, direction, editing, and more. These elements make advertising expensive. You will probably never see a Superbowl TV spot for a small business. It is not common.

On the other hand, billboards need large printing, an open space, and a well-thought design. They need to be easy to read and attractive to the sight.

They are perfect for advertising big and medium industries. It must be designed easy to remember, so it is not recommended to put a lot of information on it.

Now, let us say that your business is small. Then it depends on letting people know about your product, service, or even your idea before seeing revenues. In this case, your best options might be flyers and brochures.

With these printed approaches the costs are lower and the possibility to explain your product is a real deal. Flyers and brochures can be tossed if they do not have clear and well-structured information.

Finally, telemarketing is a valuable strategy to consider. Usually, it is more effective when directed to senior people. Young people try to avoid answering the phone.

If you are going to use telemarketing, it is recommended to avoid calling machines and pre-recorded messages. You might be saving money, but fewer people get engaged with a speaking machine.

Online Marketing

This is an approach thought for everyone. Big, medium and small businesses can be benefited from every digital channel. Websites, for instance.

Everyone can afford a website and it is a digital place to show what you got. You can say what your brand does, how to contact you and show what you did. Everyone can have e-commerce. The sky’s the limit.

Another digital channel is social media. This social tool well-applied to your brand can give you engagement and closeness to your public. These kinds of networks are meant to shorten social distances and grow communication between persons, and even brands.

Answering a question with wit and charisma can make people love or hate your brand. The recommendation is to hire experts to manage people and their verbal attacks.

Let us talk now about inbound marketing. By creating useful and relevant content, the number of conversions grows. Selling is not anymore a matter of show and seduce. Now it’s a matter of creating a niche of people who love your product.

After some time, the same brand lovers will preach your brand so people at least will try it. This angle rises sales while creating a community your-brand lover. At this point, selling is not a problem.

Last but not least, email marketing can work as well for leading conversion, as water to calm thirst. There are a large number of big companies that invest all their marketing budget in email marketing.

The reason for this is that sometimes constant wins. Make sure you have a nice designer to diagram the email template to make it sexy, or more alluring.

There are other channels and tools you can use in digital marketing. However, these are the ones with higher ROI on average.

Using Both of Them Together

Jelly is good, but mixing it with peanut butter is way better. In the same way, reinforcing one marketing approach with the other can bring juicy results.

For example, leveraging your e-commerce with a billboard might result in more sales. More sales is a good indicator of success, right.

In case you are thinking of having more followers on your social network account, you can use offline tools.

Leave some flyers with an enigmatic design with your social media account on them. If you have more budget, pay for radio advertising. Anything is allowed to do on traditional marketing to improve your online efforts. It also works the other way around.

Let us say your traditional marketing goal is to have more visitors to your store. Social media ads and well-segmented web banners can help you reach that goal.

Another tool to consider is when you use video platforms like YouTube to show your TV spot. This works particularly well in terms of engagement.

For example, Volvo’s TV spot where Jean Claude Van Damme performed a split on two trucks. Again, digital and traditional marketing work side by side.

If you open your mind there is no need to confront online marketing vs traditional marketing. Both marketing types can achieve the necessary synergy to get the best out of your marketing effort.

Where to Start Using One or Both of Them

First of all, you need to understand that marketing is not just a way to sell more. However, a well-applied marketing strategy will help you sell more.

Everything has to start somewhere, but speaking of marketing strategy, where do you think it starts? Here are two ways to start your marketing efforts.

Starting Alone

Let us say you have plenty of will to do something and the time to achieve it. You can start to start your marketing campaign by yourself. That is the way startups begin to move towards success: with a man with a plan.

Here is a little warning: it takes time, effort, money, and fails to plan a fine marketing strategy. Sometimes, managing marketing by yourself is an exhaustive process, but if you have the will it is worth the try. All you need before starting is to avoid some novice mistakes.

A common mistake is not to consider the budget before executing a marketing plan. This happens a lot when managing marketing by yourself without guidance.

If you are doing this on your own, your budget is probably short. It is recommended to study marketing strategies before setting in motion a single ad. Else, you will waste time.

However, it might be necessary from time to time to get an expert’s opinion on your management. Someone you trust in marketing affairs, with enough experience to warn you about possible mistakes, and even guide you.

It is essential to compare what you have done with what you want for your brand.

The expert is the right person to help you analyze it all. Regardless of whether he is a hired marketer or a marketing genius friend doing you a favor, he knows.

Another common mistake at this point is to play deaf to the expert’s advice. It is not recommended to ignore their advice or hints the expert can give you. Otherwise, it will be like doing it all by yourself but more expensive.

To Summarize Working Lonely

Please don’t. The general recommendation is not to do it yourself alone unless you are a marketing genius.

It is not the best idea especially if your goal is to make money fast. But it is the best idea if you want to spend time and money while struggling. Let the marketing experts do what they do best.

Hiring a Professional and Experienced Partner

Some naive CEOs think that putting someone without experience but full of passion is a good idea. Especially if this marketing enthusiast charges less than an expert. This is wrong on many levels.

The time spent by the enthusiast to learn how to use a tool is too long. At approximately the same time an expert can plan the whole marketing strategy. What do you think? Is it better to be ready quickly? Or is it better to rely on the novice?

Experience can bring a lot of benefits on your brand’s behalf. The fact that they spent hours finding a solution for many previous problems is essential.

Speaking of problems, one thing a novice ignores that an expert knows is dealing with budgets. Then the professional help comes to help you pick the right marketing approach.

Now, a professional first will analyze two things before starting: The goals and the budget. If your budget is not a problem, you can try as many channels as you can.

Then you must analyze which of them are successful and which are drags. After that, focus all budgets on this type of channel for your campaign.

One that can get the best of both (online and offline) marketing approaches.

Otherwise, if the budget is not that generous the experienced partner will find the channels that favor the goals. If your goal is to establish the brand by exposure, then a billboard is the best option.

That way your brand will reach a new audience and then people will know your company. You can reinforce the billboard with some web or social media ads to ensure the maximum reach possible.

Money Doesn’t Grow On Trees, Did You Know That?

In the previous two examples, the key to start using online or offline marketing is to sense what helps.

But the marketing budget was high. How about dealing with low budgets? Well, then you know you must reach your marketing goal faster to see profits and revenues as soon as possible. The panorama is totally different when you do not have a big budget.

Having the shortest marketing budget means two things. Firstly, you need to invest in inexpensive marketing channels, like the PPC or email marketing campaign.

Secondly, by getting an expected revenue, this marketing effort should be supported by other marketing channels.

Regardless you want to pick an offline or a digital ad, the support must help you make money faster. The ROI must be the highest in your marketing plan.

Now, being arrogant won’t help. If you have hired experts, the least you can do is to pay attention to them. If they say a billboard is not the best for a private investigator, then listen to them.

The time they have in this business, plus the studies about the business can help you. By distrusting the experts you risk losing time and money, like if you were managing marketing by yourself.

A final piece of advice: start your marketing efforts with a solid marketing strategy. Time spent planning is well-invested time.

Why Hiring Us as Your Digital Marketing Services Provider?

There are many reasons why choose Brimar is chosen over others. Firstly, having an experienced team is not an easy-to-achieve goal, yet we have it. Our marketing team will handle with care every channel you want us to advertise on.

We’ll be careful with your social media accounts, the design of your brochures, and even your website. All our resources are in the disposition of our customers.

On the other hand, our costs are affordable and every dime spent with us will have a considerable impact. In a few weeks, your brand will thrive in the means of your goals.

Our team is always updated on trends and technologies so your brand will remain relevant regardless of the trend moves.

We want to keep your brand fresh, and Brimar’s marketing experts know how to do it. If necessary, our team will propose new ideas and essential changes.

Additionally, the designs created by our graphic designers will exceed your expectations. If you get to be demanding, we know your company is in play. We are going to give an alluring design and diagrammatic to your arts.

Any aspect will look perfect no matter if you decide to use online or offline advertising. From a single flyer to your social media accounts, everything will show your personal touch.

With all that said, Brimar will only focus on your marketing goals. To us making your company grow is to see ourselves growing with you. If you succeed, everyone wins.

If you do not succeed yet, we will study your brand’s case to find the failure. Then our team will find the best protocol and take care of the course of action until you succeed.

No matter what it takes, we want to see your company on top of your business.

Do Not Overthink. Sometimes hesitation, nerves, even anxiety can suggest we make poor decisions. Hence, all we are offering is a simple solution, and an effective one.

By letting us handle your marketing you will have one thing less to worry about. Then you’ll have your mind clear to know how to run your company the best. And why not, to have some extra time for yourself.

Now you know the battle is not online marketing vs traditional marketing. At this point, you can tell the struggle is working the right channels to get exactly what you want.