TRADITIONAL MARKETING VS DIGITAL MARKETING: WHAT’S BEST?

traditional marketing vs digital marketing

Being in the digital marketing industry for quite some time has taught me a lot. One of the things I have learned is- business owners still can’t decide where to invest when it comes to traditional marketing vs digital marketing. Their most significant question is, what’s the best way to market my product or service? Are you one of the business owners who still can’t decide on which type of marketing to invest in? Don’t worry, today we will share our thought on what you should do.

Before we go further, let’s take a look at what these two types of marketing mean

Traditional marketing

is a type of marketing that doesn’t use online media to reach out to consumers. Example of this is This means print, broadcast, direct mail, phone, and outdoor advertising like billboards. Traditional marketing is one of the oldest forms of marketing that is well-researched. It’s a fantastic way of reaching a local audience. We all encounter traditional marketing in our everyday life. Whether it’s radio ads, newspapers, or billboards when driving to work.

Digital marketing

is a type of marketing that uses online media to reach out to consumers. Examples of types of digital marketing are such as search engine marketing, online advertising, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, and Email Marketing.

Digital marketing has become popular due to the fast growth of the internet. With internet users increasing daily, this has revolutionized the way we do marketing. Its cost-effective and interactive benefits, make it easier to reach and engage with consumers at their comfort.

Buyers are nowadays searching online for products or services before they buy, this makes digital marketing very essential to businesses. A digital presence can help you stay in the mind of buyers at their earlier stage of buying. You can learn more here about how digital marketing can help your business grow.

Here are five key things that can help you to decide on whether to invest in traditional marketing or digital marketing or both.

What we will cover

1. The audience you are targeting

2. Your marketing goals

3. Your marketing budget

4. The type of your product or service

5. Type of marketing your competitors use

The audience you are targeting

What type of audience are you targeting? How old are they? Are they internet aware? Where do they spend most of their time? Where do they go when they want to buy? While it can be easier to reach out to teenagers through social media marketing, this may not work on mid-aged to old-age audiences who spend most of their time reading newspapers or listening to the radio.

When deciding whether to invest in traditional marketing or digital marketing, it’s best to consider the type of audience you are targeting.

Your marketing goals

If you have done a bit of social media marketing, you will realize that with social media you can run Ads that lead your buyers to your WhatsApp. This can be hard to achieve through traditional marketing. Someone will have to save your number and then text you through WhatsApp. But through WhatsApp Ads, your goal can easily be achieved without extra effort. This is because compared to traditional marketing, digital marketing is interactive.

Understand your marketing goal and let that decide which type of marketing is best for you.

Your marketing budget

Are you short on your marketing budget? Consider spending it on digital marketing. Digital marketing is affordable compared to traditional marketing. A budget of 500$ may be peanuts to run Ads on the radio but it’s a fortune to spend on social media and can yield better results.

The type of your product or service

Not every service or product can be advertised online. For example, advertising cigarettes or alcohol online is very limited and in many cases, to advertise, you need approval from say Facebook or Google. This applies also to services such as betting or gambling. While this can be a setback, you can use traditional marketing channels to reach out to your target audience.

Again, keeping in mind your target audience when deciding on which type of marketing to invest in is key.

Type of marketing your competitors use

While you may be focusing on digital marketing, your competitors are finding success in traditional marketing such as store branding, radio, and billboards. It’s best always to look at what your competitors are doing. This will help you determine where you should put your focus and will help you get better results. There is no need of spending thousands on SEO if your competitors don’t even have a website.

Traditional marketing VS digital marketing? Here is our opinion.

As we have seen, every type of marketing works well depending on your marketing needs and budget. Whether you are looking to invest in traditional marketing or digital marketing, understanding your marketing needs and putting your marketing budget into consideration is a good step in deciding what’s best for you.

If you have a good budget, try to incorporate both marketing tactics to get effective results. Of course, you may benefit when focusing on one type of marketing but in some cases, using both traditional and digital marketing may help you to spread your marketing message across different targeted audiences resulting in better marketing results.

For example, you may have a billboard that helps you drive traffic to your website where your buyers can learn more about your product or services before they purchase.

So, traditional marketing vs digital marketing: what’s the best? We say both are best but depends on your marketing needs.