How is Digital Marketing different from Traditional Marketing?

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During a meeting with a client, Don Draper, an executive in a reputed advertising agency, when trying to win a client is dodged by him, “We are happy with our agency!” 

“Are you? Are you happy with 50% !” interjects Draper. “You are on top but and you don’t have enough! You are happy because you are successful, FOR NOW!!” he presses.

"I won't settle for 50% of anything. I want 100%! You are not happy with your agency! You are not happy with anything! You don’t want most of it! You want all of it! And I won’t stop until you get all of it!” Draper ends his pitch and stands up.

You must be wondering why I highlighted this scene from MadMen, a famous American TV show. This is to highlight what marketing is really all about. It is about creating, communicating, and transferring a valuable product or service to the target audience. It is about constantly trying to position your brand by highlighting your USP (unique selling proposition) with an ultimate aim to steal the market.

In this blog, we will try to discover what is the difference between Digital Marketing and Traditional marketing, and also we will see which one you should use for your business.

What is Digital Marketing?

As the name suggests, Digital marketing is the process of promoting your products and services using digital channels, i.e., via the internet. It is also known as Internet Marketing, Web Marketing, Online Marketing etc.

The channels used in Digital marketing are namely, Search Engines, Social Media and Networking websites/apps, Email, and online directories.

 

What is Traditional Marketing?

Prada Billboard in a Market

Every type of marketing effort before Digital marketing was simply known as Marketing. But with the advent of digital technologies, it was inevitable to distinguish between the pre and post-digital era of marketing efforts. According to Wikipedia, Marketing “refers to the process an organization undertakes to engage its target audience, build strong relationships to create value in order to capture value in return.”

Channels included in traditional marketing are TV, Print (newspapers, magazines), Radio, Billboards, Fliers, Door to door advertising, and other offline directories, yellow pages for instance.

 

Marketing and Digital Marketing: A brief history

Historical accounts of every ancient civilization can make anyone conclude that marketing has always existed. The term or the process may have evolved but the essence of this part of the trade has always been the same.

It has been revolutionizing since the era of the industrial revolution where demand meant more than just the needs of people. It started to signify a desire for value ever since. Be it the desire for robust health, for quality entertainment, to have access to transportation, or anything that leads to a comfortable lifestyle.

Since the dusk of the nineteenth century, it has taken its modern structure, N.W. Ayer & Son created the first advertising agency in 1869.

Fast forward a hundred years, with the invention of the internet, the world has taken an all-new direction and speed. The birth of Personal computers gave businesses these micro spaces to place their products ads. Because why not? Ads are where eyes are! 1994 is said to be when the first clickable banner was live on the internet.

With that, I would like to talk about the ultimate revolution the world has seen to date. At least I see it as such.

What a lucky and inspiring day it would have been when Steve Jobs introduced iPhone to the world in 2007. The development of computing technologies has been unstoppable since this phenomenal piece of technology took birth. iPhone empowered people by not only bringing the internet-enabled portable devices into the hands of the public at large but also gave people the power to stay connected and have constant access to so many enriching activities that could be done on their phones.

One may argue that it was not technically the first smartphone, nor it was the first phone that had internet access. But, the way it did it, was never brought about before! Only after iPhone, the world witnessed Android the next year in 2008 which powers around 72% of the modern smart machines as compared to iOS which powers around 26% of smartphones.

 

Difference between Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing

Medium: 

Basically, what differentiates Digital Marketing from traditional marketing is the medium through which the message reaches the audience. As technology developed and businesses made their presence on the internet, marketing as a process also evolved with it.

Traditional marketing uses basically offline methods for the promotion of products such as Television, radio, newspapers, and magazines while Digital marketing uses digital channels such as websites, apps, search engines, email, and social networks.

Reach:

The number of people you can reach with the help of traditional mediums like TV and radio is immense. They may or may not reach the target audience. A simple example of this is a, say, a child sees a banner ad for a business product, GoDaddy, a domain name registrar, for instance. But he may not want to use it at all. 

Whereas when you market your products through digital channels, choosing the demographics, location (regional, national or global) can all be set as and how marketers like. To put it simply, reach in traditional marketing is large but untargeted while reach in digital marketing can be global and also focused.

Cost: 

Before digital marketing started to get over the place, new businesses entering the market could only dream of marketing using traditional channels because they obviously would empty their pockets spending for ads on TV or radio.

An estimate is that a 30 sec commercial on TV could cost anywhere from 1 lakh (around 1400 USD) to 10 lakh rupees (around 14,000 USD) in 2021. Similarly, all other mediums used traditionally are expensive. On the other hand, you could run your google ads with as low as a few hundred rupees (a few dollars) per day. Like Google ads, companies can also run their social media campaigns like on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn in a cost-effective way.

Analytics: 

Say, you get your fliers printed for your new restaurant business, and you hire someone to have those fliers delivered to the residents within a 5 km radius of your restaurant. Imagine how would that be if you could know exactly how many people actually looked at your fliers. And how many decided to drop by your restaurant after seeing your designer flier?

Sounds interesting right? But unfortunately, that is not possible in the real world. On the other hand, in the digital world, it is definitely possible. You can know how many people clicked your ad. How many people in your area are actually looking for what you offer. You can know how much time people actually spend on your say, website, blog, or how many people liked, commented, and shared your social media post (of course, you would know that) and how many of those actually visited your website using your social media page.

 

Which is better? Digital Marketing or Traditional Marketing and which one should you use? 

Two roads diverging as a reference of dilemma. Traditional or Digital? What should you use?

By reading the above, you could clearly make it out that I am going to say that Digital Marketing is the only way forward. But that is not possible anytime soon. At least till people step out of their houses!

Which one of them is better, let’s look at the pros and cons of both.

Using Digital marketing can be very cost-effective especially if you are a new business in your industry. A start-up company cannot afford to have their banners all over the city or hire some celebrity or an influencer for a 30 sec TV commercial. So, their best bet is digital marketing.

Going by budget, traditional marketing spending is much more than digital. And while digital marketing is cost-effective, I am of the strong opinion that it is not as effective as traditional marketing is. To understand what I am saying take a look at these short videos where in the first one, Volkswagen did a campaign in Hong Kong to promote safety while driving, and in the other, how Doritos showed their ad in the Superbowl, the famous football event in the USA.

As you can see, how these ads have a very high recall value than those social media ads which you might scroll over in a blink of an eye.

I would suggest you consider both of the types of marketing in a proportion that fits your business needs, industry type, and most importantly, your budget. You don’t want to hurt your business by sucking out all the cash that you could be put to better use, especially when you are starting up or are working to gain visibility still.

For example, BMW used traditional marketing before the 2000s (obviously). Since 2001, they have complimented their marketing strategy with digital video ads. BMW was among the first brands to have included digital in their overall marketing strategy. They started an online video campaign called 'The Hire', produced by the most famous movie makers of the time and starring film stars like Madonna and Clive Owen. It was an online sensation for months in the times when the internet was not highly accessible to all. Imagine what it would do today. You can watch these videos here.

Word of mouth Marketing:

I would conclude by expressing my humble opinion on the best type of marketing. It is not done by the advertiser itself. It is done by the consumer who consumes the product or service.

Think of the last time someone close to you suggested you some product for a problem you might be facing or anything that you needed.

I will tell you mine. I recently purchased an Air conditioner and wanted to purchase a voltage stabilizer for the same. I searched for it online and came upon several brands like V-Guard, Microtek, Zunvolt, Voltas, and whatnot.

I called one of my relatives to help me with the same and to know which brand they use at their place. He told me that he has had two stabilizers installed for a couple of years now and both of a brand called ‘Bluebird’. It was nowhere on the list as I told you above. And guess which brand I went for!

So, this is the best form of marketing I have known. It has the highest conversion rate of all and the best part is, it does not cost you at all!

To conclude it finally, you can and should use both Digital Marketing and Traditional marketing channels in your overall marketing efforts in a way that fits YOUR business needs!

If you want to learn the basics of digital marketing, then know how Google can help you. 

If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments below or reach me out through the contact us form embedded in the sidebar. 

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I am Pawan! Thank you for reading!