Though, after the advent of the internet, digital marketing has become the golden standard. Why? That’s because half of the world’s population use the internet. Many of these people use the internet to find local businesses, shop for online products, and find solutions to their problems.

So, does that mean that traditional marketing is dead? The answer is the contrary. According to EventTrack 2018, 85% of consumers stated that they were likely to purchase after having a face-to-face experience with a brand. This statistic alone proves that “old-school” marketing is still effective.

However, traditional marketing is more effective when it’s paired with high-performance digital marketing methods. Do you want to know how you can achieve long-term success with multiple audiences through both traditional and digital marketing?

This in-depth article will detail how you can develop a unified marketing approach to boost your revenue and brand’s proximity.

What is Digital Marketing?

To put it simply, digital marketing is the process of promoting one’s organization through a digital medium, or commonly the internet. Since the rate of internet users has skyrocketed recently, digital marketing has become an imperative activity for modern-day businesses.

Classic examples of digital marketing include:

• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Link Building
• Paid Search
• Social Media Marketing
• Content Marketing
• Email Marketing

When done correctly, digital marketing can generate continual leads and countless sales opportunities for any business. Though, it may take more time to achieve actual results than a traditional marketing strategy.

Why? According to Nielson, nearly 96% of all U.S. families own a television. That’s far more people who own a television than a computer or smartphone. This means that traditional marketing techniques, like TV commercials, are still some of the greatest ways to reach your target audience.

Furthermore, another great benefit of traditional marketing is that it resonates well with all generations. It’s fairly apparent that older generations, such as Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers, relate deeply to traditional marketing methods.

However, the same is true for Millennials as well. According to a recent study, Millennials hate ads. The younger generation considers ads to be intrusive, and would prefer to surf the internet, watch videos, and browse social media without seeing too many ads.

Since many businesses rely on paid search and social media ads to stay in business, this fact can be detrimental. Though, if you consider what traditional marketing can do for your business, you may find a way to reach this younger generation.

For example, trade shows present marketers with the perfect opportunity to promote their brand. People who participate in trade shows fully understand that the theme of the event, which means that you will be marketing with them, and not at them, like the previous study explains.

That’s not all. Flyers, brochures, and even business cards are also a great way to market to Millennials. If you are running a travel company and have an upcoming promotion for a trip to Italy, you can simply provide flyers and brochures to anyone that visits your office. This way, you can give potential clients a chance to contact you whenever they’re ready to work with you, instead of bombarding them with ads. Consumers, regardless of their age, readily appreciate genuine face-to-face sales opportunities.

Overall, traditional marketing’s major benefit is face-to-face interaction. Since people live ordinary lives outside of a digital medium, traditional marketing methods are more effective for reaching people offline, which can lead to increased conversion rates and interpersonal sales opportunities.

Low Cost:

Marketing and advertising costs are one of the largest financial obstacles for an organization. While big businesses may have no problem spending millions of dollars on TV commercials, billboard ads, and print ads, this is nearly impossible for small businesses. For a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising, you can develop a digital marketing strategy that is just as impactful.

In addition, email marketing and social media advertising (Facebook Ads) are relatively inexpensive and you can get started with just a few bucks per month.

High Return on Investment:

Nothing matters more to a business than what they can get back for what they plan to spend. Rightfully so, marketing isn’t cheap, and you’ll ideally want to receive back more than what you spend on any strategy. Fortunately, many digital marketing strategies are designed to be cost-effective, while giving you a high return on your investment.

SEO, for example, is a long-term digital marketing initiative in which a business can increase their online ranking. While it can cost several thousand dollars to do so, the top search result on Google receives 33% of the search engine’s traffic. Considering that billions of people use Google every day, the return is much greater than the investment if you prioritize creating an SEO strategy.

Easy to Measure:

The progress of a digital marketing campaign can be easily ascertained. Compared to traditional marketing where you have to wait months to measure your progress, with a digital campaign you can know immediately how your ads are performing. There are countless online tools that allow users to measure website and SEO analytics.

Also, with an email marketing campaign, you can even see which of your subscribers opened and read your emails to formulate solutions accordingly.

Easy to Adjust:

Knowing how well your campaign is performing will help you understand how to proceed. With a digital marketing strategy, you can effortlessly decide to invest more money into a successful campaign, or adjust a campaign that needs a bit of work.

Traditional marketing campaigns often require a mountain of paperwork if you want to adjust your ads. This means that even if you’ve determined that you aren’t getting an optimal return from your ads, you’ll have to wait until your agreement is over before you can adjust or pull them entirely.

Brand Development:

Businesses can rely on their digital platforms to not only promote their brand, but to establish it as well. A well-developed website, a blog featuring useful and quality content, and an interactive social media channel are some of the ways a business can build its brand online.

Easy to Share

Many digital marketing channels have the capability of being shared across the internet. This helps create a multiplier effect, increasing your chances of improving your sales.

Precise Targeting:

The traditional means of marketing uses a technique known as “spray and pray”. This process entails creating an ad or promotion that captures as much interest as possible. On the contrary, digital marketing is much more precise, allowing you to customize your strategies to a granular level. This way you can receive a much higher return on your investment with an efficient campaign.

Global Reach:

By digitalization, the world has transformed into a global village. Accordingly, digital marketing campaigns can be visible in any part of the world. This presents start-ups with the unique opportunity to establish a global brand and clientele.

The internet abounds of success stories of start-ups that became wildly successful over a small period of time, thanks to the immense exposure many digital marketing strategies provide.

For a fraction of the cost you would spend making a traditional marketing campaign global, you can reach millions of people with lesser effort.

Segmentation:

Not only does marketing over digital platforms permit campaigns to be targeted to specific prospects, but it also allows for segmentation. Segmentation is the process of breaking down large customer groups into smaller ones based on specific classifications.

Segmentation regularly increases sales opportunities, while cutting down on marketing costs. Take, for instance, an e-commerce retailer that has created new promotions for men’s clothing. Using email marketing, users can send promotional emails to only men alone.

Also, if the promotion is available in certain regions, residents in that particular area will be the only ones that receive an email.

Greater Engagement:

Brands who engage with potential customers are more successful at converting them to paying customers. The downside to traditional marketing is that brands only have one attempt at converting a lead. Consumers who have questions, concerns, or would like to learn more about your business are often not able to do so after merely peeking at a billboard ad.

A digital marketing campaign ensures that your prospects can view your website, where their questions will be thoroughly answered. This results in more quality leads that will smoothly transition inside your sales funnel. While digital campaigns are not personal like traditional campaigns, they lead to greater engagement.

For a very long time, exorbitant price tags discouraged smaller businesses from purchasing billboard ads, but digital billboard ads are now available and they’re much more affordable. To get an enormous return from your investment, pair your digital billboards with geo-targeted ads. This will send a banner ad to a passing driver for a stronger marketing effect.

Combine Magazine and Digital Ads:

Print is not dead. People are still reading magazines for one underlying reason. Magazines are often based on a particular niche. This is why consumers rely on magazines to obtain an authoritative point of view on business, antiques, traveling, etc. Businesses that partner with magazines can receive the trust of its readership, which is a great thing if you want to build your brand via word-of-mouth. If you are considering purchasing a magazine ad, make sure you inquire if your ad can be promoted on the publication’s website and social media channels.

Take Out a Newspaper Ad:

Newspaper sections are getting thinner and thinner these days. However, depending on the audience, there are still people who prefer a newspaper and a cup of coffee in the morning. Since larger businesses have moved away from newspaper ads, you can reach a different audience by taking out an ad for your business.

Newspaper ads these days are shockingly cheap, which means you can purchase a large ad with a modest budget. What’s more is that many newspapers have online components, so you can always negotiate with your local publication to create a digital counterpart of your ad for increased exposure.

Utilize Television and Streaming Ads:

Everyone watches television, but according to the MPAA, video streaming has surpassed cable subscriptions as the most watched platform in the world. This still doesn’t mean that television ads are ineffective. If you know your target audience, you can easily find out which channels they prefer to watch and schedule an ad accordingly.

The cost of television ads have decreased over the years, and now many networks have YouTube channels to reach younger audiences. It would be wise to purchase an ad for both platforms, but remember to personalize each of your ads and repurpose them on other streaming platforms, such as Vimeo and Hulu.

Make Both Campaigns Look and Sound Similar

Before you read this section, it’s important for you to realize that your traditional and digital campaigns shouldn’t be similar. Instead, they should look and sound similar, while matching the ideals of your brand.

A big part of your marketing campaign is your appearance because this is how viewers will identify with your brand. Take a look at your traditional and digital channels and ask yourself a few questions.

• Am I using the same fonts, logo, and colors for each promotion?
• Does the tone of my campaigns sound the same?
• If I took my company name off each of my ads, would they still match?

Much like how a sports team has its own brand identity, you should too. Keep your brand consistent on all of your marketing channels to improve your recognition.

Only Use Platforms That Work:

Here’s a quick question - who buys from you? If you’re really lucky, you may only have one demographic. Many businesses have several demographics they appeal to, and they often make the mistake of choosing the wrong marketing channel.

This is because many marketing professionals use generational stereotypes to determine suitable platforms for their business. For example, older generations typically aren’t fond of using the internet. Still, there are thousands of older people who are actually skilled at navigating on social media.

Does this mean that you have to neglect social media marketing if your services or products relate to an older audience? Of course not. Conduct comprehensive market research to understand every single detail about your target audience.

This will help you identify the right platforms to conduct your marketing activities, instead of relying on stereotypes.

Conclusion

Traditional and digital marketing are entirely different marketing aspects, but they don’t have to be separate. By using the information above, you can successfully formulate a combined marketing strategy that will reach all of your target audience, and not just some.

Want to discuss how to incorperate both of these together? Schedule a meeting with one of our experts to see what we can do for you!