Traditional marketing channels like print ads and radio definitely have their value. But as our society becomes more digital, traditional marketing may become defunct. Let’s take a closer look at the traditional versus digital marketing debate.
Does it always make sense for businesses to take their marketing online? If you’re still relying on flyers and newspaper ads to generate sales, it may be time to focus on building an internet presence. Here are 5 reasons to do digital!
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Customer Interaction
Traditional marketing channels are unidirectional: you create an advertisement and send it out for the public to consume. There’s no chance for customers to provide feedback, and it can be hard to find out if your sales pitch resonated with them or not.
In contrast, digital marketing opens up avenues for direct interaction between your customers and your marketing team. Clients can leave comments on blogs, respond to polls, or have conversations on social media. This allows you to figure out what strategies are working in real time instead of taking a guess-and-check approach.
Advertising Costs
The cost of print, radio, and television advertising is high. Every time you want to reach your audience, you have to pay for a new run of flyers, another newspaper ad, or more minutes on air. And even then, you’re paying for a one-time exposure—there’s no guarantee that your target audience will cross paths with your marketing materials at just the right time.
When you spend money on internet marketing, however, you can get a lot of mileage out of the same promotional materials. You can host content on your website or social media platforms indefinitely, attracting visitors for years to come.
You can also update, recycle, and re-release old content to keep labor expenses at a minimum. The only real costs are website hosting and targeted ad campaigns, both of which are scalable to your budget.
Providing Value
Traditional advertisements have one goal: to sell goods and services. They don’t provide your customers with any lasting value.
Digital marketing materials, on the other hand, tend to be content-based. They attract customers by providing useful information, helping your business to build a reputation as an authority. And when customers can trust that your brand will provide value, they’re more likely to make a purchase.
Campaign Targeting
Most avenues of traditional marketing work like a shotgun, by shooting out tons of ads and hoping one of them hits the target. Using online marketing instead can help take the guesswork out of finding your target audience.
Google, Facebook, and other media platforms let you choose the demographics that see your paid advertisements. Marketing directly to your ideal customers instead of the general public increases your chances of converting ads into sales.
Data Analysis
Finally, traditional marketing doesn’t help out much when it comes to data analysis. But running an online ad campaign and gathering website analytics will give you concrete values that identify what tactics work and what ones don’t. This allows you to run strategic A/B tests with your promotional materials and more easily optimize your marketing process.
Traditional Versus Digital Marketing
When it comes to the traditional marketing vs. digital marketing debate, the right answer isn’t always one or the other. But digital marketing has some clear advantages over traditional marketing that are hard to ignore.
If you’re ready to take your marketing online, schedule an online meeting with us. We help small businesses like yours develop a digital presence so they can stand out amongst the competition. We’ll work with you and your budget to start turning online visitors into loyal customers.
To find out more, contact us today!
