Which of the Following Characteristics Distinguishes Digital Marketing From Traditional Marketing?

You want to get the word out about your business in the best way possible and for the best price possible. Primarily, there are two main types of marketing: digital and traditional marketing.

The question is which one you should choose for your marketing strategy. When you’re deciding, it’s important to consider what characteristics distinguish the two types and what makes each one unique.

Which Characteristics Distinguishes Digital Marketing From Traditional Marketing?

First off, you should already know the basics of traditional and digital marketing. Traditional marketing are ads in spaces like newspapers, on flyers, in mailboxes, or on TV or radio. Digital marketing, on the other hand, happens on websites, social media, and YouTube.

Either type can help you with your marketing goals, but which marketing strategy you use depends on your business, and on how each strategy can help your business.

Ad Interaction

The fact of the matter is that marketing happens everywhere now, and people have the ability to engage with ads in ways like never before. This is what makes digital marketing so unique, because it allows you to put forward ads that your potential buyers can interact with.

Digital ads aren’t necessarily about advertising, but about creating awareness about your brand. Using a digital strategy will help people to understand your company and learn more about what you do, while including more subtle corporate message.

Familiarity

If your target audience is generally older, traditional marketing does have its benefits. People have been familiar with traditional ads or brochures for a long time. It is an easy way to reach them. With traditional marketing, people are also more familiar with physical materials like brochures that they can keep and refer to over time.

This is not to say that digital marketing doesn’t breed a sense of familiarity though. With a more tech-savvy audience, they should be rather familiar with digital marketing like social media ads or blogs in today’s technological climate.

Data and Numbers

It’s not always easy to know if your marketing campaign is working when you send out pamphlets or have an ad running on TV. With digital marketing though, you have a lot more data and statistics at your fingertips. You can easily see how many people are coming to your website from an ad or from various social networking accounts.

In other words, the traceability of digital marketing allows you to tailor your strategy and optimize it for the best returns. If a certain strategy isn’t currently working, you have the ability to change it up on the spot. The ease of changes and customization is also a perk you get to enjoy with digital marketing.

Audience

With traditional marketing, you’ll be more focused on reaching your local audience with brochures or cards that people feel more connected to. A business might also pay for a radio advertisement to play in a specific town.

If you want to reach a national or international audience though, digital marketing will provide you with a much broader audience reach.

Digital marketing allows you to reach people with ease regardless of where they’re located, and no matter what social media or website they’re using. You can even specify the demographic you want to reach, in terms of their age, gender and so on. With such specific customization in your digital marketing, your campaign will have much higher chances of success.

Cost

Finally, consider the last characteristic that differentiates the two types of marketing: cost. Digital marketing is generally a lot more cost-effective compared to traditional ads like radio or TV advertising. These forms of traditional ads will definitely set you back a few thousands at the very least.

In comparison, you can easily reach a broad audience with just a few dollars a day with social media ads, for example.

When it comes to business expenses, you have to consider the ROI. A costly newspaper ad that reaches a broad and diluted audience might not beat the ROI of a well-implemented digital ad that’s reaching a very specific, targeted audience.

In Summary

Marketing can be complex, yet it is an essential part of your business. Choosing how to implement digital and traditional marketing is an important decision for your business. You don’t necessarily have to choose one over the other either.

Most of the time, businesses try to implement a well balanced plan that merges both types of marketing. Your business may leverage the benefits of both for a well-rounded marketing strategy. Our digital marketing analyst will be able to help you come up with the best strategies for your business.