If you have a business, you are probably wondering which is the best type of marketing for your business, so today we are going to compare the advantages and disadvantages of digital marketing and traditional marketing.

Today we will have a classic fight: traditional marketing vs digital marketing, for some time both marketing alternatives have been fighting for the title of the best way to promote your business, and today they will fight face to face for you to choose the best one.

What is traditional marketing, and what is digital marketing?

Before you make a decision, ideally you should know the contenders perfectly well. Traditional marketing is the advertising that does not use the Internet, it is all that advertising that uses analog media, so surely you already know it, it is the advertising of all life, for example television commercials, radio ads, billboards, flyers and print ads in magazines or newspapers. Digital marketing, basically, is the one that uses the Internet for distribution. This includes banner ads, social networks, landing pages, among others.

Media

Before you compare which strategy is best for your business, it is important to study the media of each one, to have a clearer vision of the places where your brand can have a presence with each of these types of marketing.

Traditional marketing uses offline media, that is, media that do not need to be connected to the Internet to work. Surely the first ones that come to your mind are television and radio, but there are many more, for example we have print ads in newspapers or magazines; and those placed in public places such as billboards, billboards and public transportation. Also, conventions and fairs are an essential part of traditional marketing.

Digital marketing depends on devices that connect to the Internet, in this sense in your marketing strategy you can use ads on websites, publications and campaigns on social networks, email marketing, blog content, chatbots, among other means.

Outreach

In the first round, digital marketing and traditional marketing measure their strengths through reach. At first glance, digital marketing seems to have an advantage, because thanks to the Internet your business can be promoted nationally or internationally without many complications, in other words, being on the Internet is to be all over the world.

However, despite appearances, digital marketing is not so easy, because there are niche markets that still do not have access to the Internet as widespread as digital marketing needs, so for these niches media such as radio, television are still the most important.

Also, do not forget that the audience in social networks has the power to decide which ads to see or not to see, so if several users decide to cancel your ad you will lose reach, this of course does not happen in traditional media.

H2 Segment audience

Digital marketing has a clear advantage when it comes to segmentation. With traditional marketing we can reach viewers massively, you can even get more views than you have in digital media, however most likely you will reach all types of viewers and not exclusively to your buyer persona. For example, if you decide to launch an ad on television you can only choose the time you would like it to be broadcasted, so you can choose the time when your target audience is supposed to be watching TV, but if you don’t have this precise information you could lose the opportunity to reach your audience directly.

On the other hand, thanks to tools like Google Ads or Facebook Ads, you will be able to reach an incredibly specific audience. If you have used these tools and especially Facebook Ads you know that the questions it asks about your target audience are very specific, such as age, gender or place of residence, which allows you to focus a campaign to certain people, without having to spend effort on a massive campaign.

In this round you will be the judge who decides who the winner is, it all depends on whether your goal is to reach the masses or if you prefer to reach a more segmented audience.

Measuring results

In any marketing campaign an important part is the measurement of results, so we will know what is working and what is not, which strategies can be adapted or which should disappear definitively. In this round who has a wide advantage is digital marketing.

Thanks to tools such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads, we can have accurate statistics on how many times your ad has been seen or how many times it has been clicked on. You can also check how other tools are working, for example you can check how many people enter your website, social media profile, blog or landing page.

Today, digital marketing statistics are so complete that you can know what kind of audience your advertising is reaching and how much conversion you are achieving.

In traditional advertising it is much more difficult to measure specific results, for example if you have placed a spectacular it will be impossible to know how many people have seen it, the only thing you could measure is if sales increased since you mounted the ad.

Feedback

Digital marketing also has an advantage in this round. Surely, it has happened to you that you arrive at a physical store or a branch and if you have a suggestion or something you did not like there are very few ways to let them know, the most common is that you find a suggestion box, you know you can leave there your comment or complaint, but you do not know if someone will read it, and you will hardly have an answer to your concern. In some companies, there is a customer service department, but it is often difficult to access it.

However, you know that through publications on social networks you can have immediate feedback, because your audience can write comments and interact with the publication, this can give you the necessary data to evaluate your campaign or create strategies such as a customer journey map for your business. In addition, your customers will appreciate having a quick response to their concerns.

Focus

When it comes to focus, digital marketing and traditional marketing compete in two different divisions, so once again the decision on the winner of this round is up to the referee, which is you.

Because traditional marketing is generally aimed at the masses it is almost impossible to focus campaigns on the consumer, that’s why in novel strategies like inbound marketing traditional media has no place.

On the other hand, the approach in digital marketing is more flexible and thanks to the fact that you can segment your audience you have the opportunity to create marketing strategies from other perspectives, so you can create content focused on the consumer and their needs.   

Cost

When it comes to cost, the clear winner is digital marketing, that’s why it is affordable for any business. Regularly campaigns in traditional media such as television, radio, newspapers or magazines, even in billboards or public places have a fairly high cost, while with digital marketing a campaign in digital media can be much cheaper and have more visibility with little budget, even if you have SEO strategies on your website and proper management of social networks you will have visibility of your brand for free.

The final battle: traditional marketing vs digital marketing, who will win?

Most of the rounds have been won by digital marketing, but you have to ask yourself, is this the end of traditional marketing? The truth is that no, traditional marketing is still an excellent way to promote a company, that is why this battle is still going on, even though digital marketing has been proving its effectiveness for several years.

Ideally, before investing in one or the other, you should clearly establish what objectives you want to achieve with a marketing campaign, to determine which of them can fulfill them better or in less time, the advantage is that both types of marketing are not mutually exclusive, you can use the strength of each one to your advantage.

 

It seems that the battle between traditional marketing vs. digital marketing does not yet have a clear winner, on the contrary both forces can be on your side, but tell us what you prefer to use in your venture: digital marketing or traditional marketing?