Marketing is necessary for every business to reach more audiences and gather better business prospects for stable business growth. With time, the marketing trends and styles have evolved a lot.
The conventional way of reaching the consumers through advertisements on newspapers, flyers, radio, television etc., remains. However, it is often prevalent and can offer great possibilities. Besides that, the brands also organise promotional campaigns to attract more customers from their targeted audience base.
But, in this digital area, a new marketing trend has emerged and is already an important factor for brands and businesses. It is digital marketing – a digitalised way of marketing and promoting a brand. As more people are becoming tech-savvy, digital marketing is becoming an integral part of the marketing strategies used by brands worldwide. It often allows businesses to reach a wider audience base irrespective of geographical boundaries. Many people these days are pursuing digital marketing online training to upskill themselves in marketing.
But, these marketing strategies are different and distinct. Here you will know about the difference between digital marketing and traditional marketing and how they promote a brand.
Before understanding the difference between these two different styles, try to understand what they are. Here are brief details about traditional marketing and digital marketing-
Traditional marketing
Traditional marketing is the regular and more conventional type of marketing that does not involve online or internet marketing. It comes with different facets and has existed for a long time. In traditional marketing, tangible items such as magazines, billboards, newspapers, flyers. Promotional magazines. Brochures. Posters. Business cards. Advertisement on printed media like newspaper business cards etc. It also includes commercials that are broadcasted on radio or televisions. This often allows the brands to reach their targeted audience in a certain demographic region. With this marketing style, reaching potential local consumers is easier. Besides that, the advertisements and commercials are sustainable and physical. They can remain in front of the public for a long time.
In short, it is one of the most researched marketing strategies for decades and is still used to attract consumers. Traditional marketing comes with the following main principles-
Price- The price of the products are often decided based on the demand, their supply, familiarity among the targeted audience, profit margin etc.
Promotion- In traditional marketing, promotion or advertising the products or the brand in front of the targeted audience is essential. It can be done through campaigns, billboards, advertisements on printed media or TV or radio etc.
Product- In traditional marketing, the product is important. It should be sustainable and should meet the demands or expectations of the consumers to make the marketing successful.
Place- Another important factor to make traditional marketing successful is to present the products or services in front of the audiences or potential consumers at the proper time to attract their attention. This ensures the brand or the product gets maximum exposure and offers the highest conversion.
Digital marketing
Digital marketing is the digitalised way of promoting assets or business or products or brands. It is done mainly using digital media and the internet. Digital marketing includes email marketing, blogging, social media marketing, affiliated marketing, pay per click advertisement, google ads etc. It is done to attract people who use smart devices and the internet to find their expected products or services.
Digital marketing can be done through a website, a web page, video advertisements on the internet, including ads, products demos etc. It can also include an infographic, photos, product videos etc. In addition, often blogs, articles, ebooks, e-magazines, online product reviews are also used.
Digital marketing is a comparatively new way of marketing or promoting and has a wider scope. With the internet and smart devices becoming accessible to people worldwide, it has great prospects and a bright future. Besides that, digital marketing allows a brand or business to reach a wider base audience at once. You too can complete an online digital marketing course and stand out from the crowd.
The differences
So, what are the differences? These marketing styles are distinct and have their distinct essence and feature. Here is the detailed information about how they are different-
The marketing approach
The marketing approach for both of these styles are different and poles apart. Traditional marketing is quite personal with its physical presence. The advertisements are often present in some sort of physical form. Besides that, it can have a personalised touch, and the audience can connect with the brand or the product in a personal way or unique way.
On the other hand, digital marketing does not have any physical approach or physical presence. Therefore, it is more personal than traditional marketing. For example, the digital market can be customised to ensure each audience gets personalised messages or approaches through different messages or images or strategies.
Reaching the audience base
Both of these marketing strategies come with the main purpose- reaching their targeted audience. The traditional marketing strategy is more location-oriented. A single strategy may be applied over a whole demographic region. Still, it is done to attract the local customers of small pockets in a larger region instead of targeting the bigger consumer base as a whole. So, traditional marketing is better for connecting to the local people and grabbing their attention.
But, the digital marketing style has no physical boundaries as it is conducted digitally. Hence, a brand can connect with consumers or targeted audiences from all over the world. But, often, customisation is made to suit the audiences according to their place or ethnicity or personal preferences.
The consumer interaction
Digital media is a winner in the case of consumer interaction. Th digital marketing allows the brands to have personal relationships and direct interaction with their consumers or targeted audience through social media comments, likes, shares etc. Hence, the brands can understand the reaction of their targeted audience base easily. It is a two-way communication that ensures the audiences can solve their queries and get answers from the advertiser or the brand.
But, traditional marketing does not offer many scopes for interaction, and it is often one-way communication from the advertiser to the audiences. Hence, brands have to wait to get the feedback. Besides that, it also has limited scope for the audiences who have some queries regarding the products or services.
Marketing cost
The marketing cost of traditional marketing strategies is often expensive as printing, advertising on TVor radio is often expensive. On the other hand, digital marketing is affordable and costs less. It is conducted online. Often, there are many scopes to promote the brand organically without spending a lot of money.
Real-time performance analysis
Digital marketing offers better scope for analysing the performance; It comes with many metrics that can help analyse the performance of the strategies or campaigns and offer instant results. This allows the advertiser to check if there is scope for improvement.
But, the traditional marketing strategy does not come with real-time analytics. The brands have to wait for a long time to get feedback from the advertisement. Hence, they may not be able to do real-time analysis. This happens because, in traditional marketing, the mediums are more rigid compared to the flexible online medium used in digital marketing.
Employment scopes
Being a new-age marketing strategy, digital marketing has a wider scope. It is still growing and has a better future. The expanding industry needs more skilled professionals. Also, an online mba in digital marketing is highly regarded these days amongst job seekers. Hence, the digital marketing industry.
