Traditional Vs. Digital Marketing: What Does Your Business Need

Anyone who has started a business knows that there are many challenges to buiding a new business. In fact, statistics on business failures are staggering. The US. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that 20% of new businesses will fail within the first two years, and that statistic shoots up to 45% failing within the first five years and 65% failure rate within the first 10 years. The reality is that only 25% of brand new businesses will last for over 15 years.

A marketing strategy is of importance for businesses that need to grow their brand awareness and establish their identity with their customer base. But it may be challenging to know what the best approach is and what to invest in. To determine next steps, you must first understand what type of marketing will best support your business’s overall goals.

The argument over the last several years has been the rise of technology and digital ultimately impacting the value of traditional marketing methods. With streaming devices and smart phones, more people than ever turn to technology to influence their buying patterns and product/service choices. So is traditional marketing dead? What does that even mean and how should you decide what marketing strategies to execute on for your organization?

Digital Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing: Key Differences Explained

What Is Traditional Marketing?

Traditional marketing typically refers to offline media marketing, such as print and broadcast advertising, telemarketing, direct mail, and billboards. Another example of traditional marketing is in printed coupons. Think Mad Men and Don Draper and the rise of traditional advertising from the 1950s and 1960s with print marketing like newspaper ads as well as television and radio advertisement.

What Is Digital Marketing?

Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing can only reach its intended audience when they are at a device such as a computer, tablet or smart phone. Also called online marketing, digital marketing allows businesses to connect with their targeted audience online. Examples of digital marketing includes search engine marketing, email marketing, and social media marketing, which has become the biggest hub for digital advertising due to the ability to reach a largely targeted audience with ease.

Pros and Cons of Digital and Traditional Marketing: Which Is Right for Your Business?

With so many choices, it can be challenging to know what type of marketing is right for your business. Diving into the pros and cons of each can help to understand the key advantages as well as the challenges that can come with both types of marketing and ultimately identify which type of marketing may fit best for your company’s unique landscape.

Pros and Cons of Traditional Marketing

Benefits of Traditional Marketing Services include:

• Ability to repurpose content
• Large audience reach
• Great for brand exposure
• Higher sense of trust

Disadvantages of Traditional Marketing Services include:

• Higher associated costs
• Challenge to track and gauge success
• Too broad of an audience
• Difficulty in making quick campaign adjustments

Pros and Cons of Digital Marketing

Benefits of Digital Marketing Services include:

• Easier to measure results
• Wide reach of audience
• Ability to engage directly with consumers
• Higher level of accessibility

Disadvantages of Digital Marketing Services include:

• Lack of trust
• Concerns with privacy
• Higher levels of competition
• Audience is dependent on technology

How to Choose Between Digital and Traditional Marketing for Your Business Goals

So now that you can understand what some of the pros and cons are, how do you choose between traditional vs digital marketing services? This will ultimately depend on a few major factors, but some of the top to consider are your growth goals and your budget.

If you are in the early stages of building your business, you may invest more in traditional means to get your brand out there to a new audience and have a bigger presence. And if you are new to business and don’t have a clear understanding of the efforts that go into digital marketing, you may want to start out with a more traditional approach.

However, if you have the budget and your product is better suited to a more technologically savvy audience, you may consider starting with your website and investing in your online digital footprint. Not having a website for your business will put you at an immediate disadvantage when it comes to your competition. Starting a website for your company and engaging in some marketing tactics that allow searchers to “find you” will be crucial to your ability to grow your organization.

Maximizing Your Marketing Strategy: When to Use Digital, Traditional, or Both

In truth, you don’t have to choose one over the other! A comprehensive strategy will allow you to leverage the traditional methods that are right for your business and build up your online presence at the same time.

Create a Marketing Plan For Your Business

The first step to your plan is to identify the type of audience you have and how they best receive communication. The more in tune with your audience, the better you will be at understanding which types of marketing you need from both the traditional and non-traditional avenues. A well formulated integrated strategy will help your brand to be identifiable and will support a consistent message.

Your business needs both strategies to really thrive. Remember those staggering statistics about new businesses that were shared earlier in the article? To succeed it is critical to have a growth plan in place and that should incorporate a strategic marketing plan. Your budget may change from time to time as you grow your business and you may be able to incorporate more variety of marketing services over time that support your unique growth pattern.  

Ready to talk about your marketing needs? HardPart Media provides both traditional marketing services as well as digital marketing services. We strive to understand your business and your goals so that we can craft a customized strategy to meet your business needs! Contact us today and let’s talk!