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Digital Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

Digital Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

When it comes to comparing digital marketing to traditional marketing, it all depends on your audience, your objectives, and your budget. Chances are, a successful marketing strategy will include a mix of digital and traditional techniques. Given the fact that consumers use the internet to research and make purchases every single day, it’s imperative that your marketing plans include digital approaches in addition to tried-and-true traditional options.

For today’s post, let’s take a closer look at digital marketing and traditional marketing and also consider some examples of how A Silver Lining, LLC offers our clients a combination of the two approaches.

The Differences Between Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing 

Digital marketing is exactly what the name implies: marketing in the online space, including paid social media ads, email marketing, content writing, pay-per-click advertising, and more. It’s no secret that our society has become more digital in recent years, making digital marketing a more cost-effective and direct way to reach consumers. It’s even led to the emergence of a new occupation: influencer! 

Traditional marketing, then, covers any marketing that isn’t online, such as print, broadcast, direct mail, phone, and outdoor advertising through billboards or other signs. Chances are, you will stumble across some sort of traditional marketing nearly every day. As a business owner, through these avenues, you can reach a very targeted group of consumers (i.e. neighborhood flyers for a nearby coffee shop) or a very broad audience (i.e. a billboard on a busy highway). 

Problems with Traditional Marketing

Now, let’s dive a little deeper into traditional marketing and consider four reasons why it isn’t as impactful as it used to be.

  1. It has a limited lifespan: Traditional marketing, such as a print article in a monthly publication or daily newspaper, has a short shelf life. Whereas an online article will be searchable forever and also have a positive influence on search engine optimization (SEO), a print article will disappear from homes and stores after a few weeks, if not sooner.
  2. It’s tricky to reach specific consumers: It’s also difficult to target the correct audience. Although the overall reach may be higher (thus leading to an increase in brand awareness), the chances of reaching people truly interested in your product or services are less. Digital marketing allows you to be very specific in terms of who is consuming your message (i.e. a Facebook ad that targets seniors in a specific location).
  3. There’s no clear way to measure your outcomes: With digital marketing, you can see exactly how many people viewed your message, how long they stayed on a page or post, and more. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to measure the success of traditional marketing techniques. Sure, you can send an after-purchase survey to your customers to find out where they heard about your company, but what about all those people your message reached who didn’t make a purchase? You have no way of knowing what brought them to your company in the first place or why they didn’t follow through with the purchase.
  4. It’s nearly impossible to know what is working: Expanding on the problem above, brands who pursue multiple avenues of traditional marketing have no way of knowing which method or campaign motivated people to make a purchase. Thanks to digital marketing analytics, it’s very easy to see the effectiveness of your efforts, from social media impressions to click-through rate. A company can then look at these conversions and focus solely on what avenues are bringing in business, ensuring that their marketing budget has measurable results. 

How A Silver Lining, LLC Relies on Both Digital and Traditional Marketing Techniques

At A Silver Lining, LLC, we understand the importance of combining both digital and traditional techniques for the most effective marketing strategy. For instance, for the upcoming opening of a brick-and-mortar compounding pharmacy, in addition to a robust social media push, we’re sending out a statewide press release as well as mailing postcards to tenants in the apartments located above the new store. Similarly, for a primary care physician in Central Florida, we combine the two approaches with keyword-focused blogs and consistent and cohesive social media posts as well as a print ad in a local magazine.

If you’re interested in working with A Silver Lining, LLC for your digital marketing needs, reach out to our team today!

Comments +

  1. […] exact audience: Targeting a specific audience is one of the greatest benefits of online ads. With organic digital marketing, tools such as hashtags can be used to try to reach your audience.  With online ads, different […]

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Hi, I'm Whitney

A brand strategist with an editorial approach and a lot of cats, based in Los Angeles, California.

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