How online marketing is different from traditional marketing

The main objective that differentiates online marketing from traditional marketing is the medium through which the customer is connected to the company. Online marketing uses digital platforms like social media or websites, whereas traditional marketing uses advertising methods like posters, flyers, newspapers, magazines, etc.

It is a well-known fact that brands and companies recognize the impact and reach of online marketing in today’s world and are drifting towards it. There are still some companies that believe in traditional marketing like distributing flyers, creating billboards, etc., for their ads, but rather than that they also like the new marketing trends. Online and offline, both channels are important to make your business successful. But instead of focusing on just one, if you focus on traditional marketing and build a digital marketing strategy and make them work simultaneously, it would surely bring huge number of customers to your store or website. Introducing an online marketing strategy helps showcase your products and services in front of gigantic consumers at the same time, plus the maintenance of records become much more accessible.

Instead of spending time and effort on the same old ways of marketing, the companies are up for presenting their products and services on digital marketing platforms. They are creating Google shopping ads, posting the product’s information on different social media platforms , running remarketing campaigns for their products and services, etc. Hence, this is becoming a great way of reaching more users at the same time. Opting for digital marketing is also affecting the revenue and profit rates positively.

But developing only a digital marketing strategy and forgetting completely about the other one is not the appropriate way of marketing. There is still a population that might have less faith in online transactions; in that case, adapting traditional marketing methods to promote the products and services is a great idea. Moreover, there is one more reality that marketing is not everything. Suppose that you create a product, you do the marketing part so well that many customers purchase your product, but somehow the product doesn’t meets it perks. So, now the consumers surely won’t come to you again as it is hard for them to believe in the products or services you are providing. In short, the point is it doesn’t matter whether you are using both online and offline marketing methods, if you are compromising on the quality of goods, they will surely prefer another company. Hence, to increase trust of the customers, the best idea would be providing quality goods to the customers.

What is online marketing and traditional marketing?

Before going further, it is better to know about these two terms. It doesn’t matter if you have already dug the hole and gained the information, there is much more to know.

Online marketing

Online marketing is a vast way to promote your products and services and increase its brand awareness with the help of different online platforms. You can build a marketing strategy and run a digital marketing campaign to promote your products and services in front of numerous consumers globally with the help of different marketing ideas like social media marketing, email marketing, or e-commerce remarketing. There are tons of social media platforms that you can use to build your company’s online presence. You can create text ads or video ads for your products and services and upload them on these platforms to attract customers. Some of these platforms are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, etc.

Running ads and promoting products and services can be tough and confusing. In that case, you can hire a digital marketing agency for search ads management services, display ads management services, remarketing services and social media marketing services.

Traditional marketing

Before the development of the internet in the 1990s, traditional marketing was the only source of marketing. It basically involves offline marketing channels like presenting your products and services in front of the customers through billboards, newspapers, magazines, etc.

Offline marketing is the technique to advertise the product and to attract users without the help of the internet. It could be through directly mailed postcards, coupons, and informational packets, television or radio commercials, flyers, telephone calls, and text notifications. Marketers are following this process because there are a number of people (especially old generation) who don’t believe in online products and services and are not used to the social media platforms where information about the product is published.

In short, if you want your business to be successful, using both online and offline marketing techniques would be a smart choice. In this way, you can acquire a number of leads that are willing to buy your products and services and can turn into fruitful customers.

Pros and cons of digital marketing

Digital marketing has been a field of innovation and upgrades ever since its inception. From time to time, new technologies and techniques like voice search, social media usages are always introduced to the digital marketing world. Not only this but digital marketing strategy to run PPC ads also include the latest and most modern techniques today. But, besides that, there are some areas where search engine marketing thrives and others where it doesn’t. So, let’s discuss some of the pros and cons of online marketing.

Pros

• In search engine marketing, you can easily track down the data and the user’s information with the help of Google ads or Google analytics conversion tracking. Whenever someone clicks on your website’s link or follows your page, the information related to that user directly comes to you. Afterward, you can use this data to target these visitors. You can also observe and get to know different aspects like which mediums are most effective, at what time most of the users are connecting to you, or what type of content is working for users to connect.
• Suppose, if you are not getting enough traffic for your products and services, then you can use different offers and urgencies to increase conversions. By this method, you can create a fear in user’s mind that they might lose the opportunity of buying their favorite products and services.   
• You can display your products and services through Google shopping ads or YouTube ads as well. Running a PPC ad on Google or displaying your products and services through video increase the visibility and affects the brand’s awareness positively.
• Search engine marketing is much cheaper than traditional marketing. You can target your customers and develop a digital marketing strategy to send out emails that can save much more money than as compared to creating flyers and billboards.
• Online marketing is a great way to present your products and services globally. To make your product more interesting, you need to have a good description and for that, you need to know how to create amazing content. This way people will get to know more and more about your products and services, plus millions of visitors would be able to know about your product at the same time. 

Cons

• There are different platforms where the ads are advertised. It is quite possible that if a person takes the premium version of some platforms (like Netflix, YouTube) then the PPC ads will be blocked and would be unable to pop up in front of users.
• New techniques and technologies are developing every minute, so it is possible that one day your ad is bringing much traffic by using the latest technique, but the same day it is bringing fewer customers to you by using the same technique, as there is a development of new technology. You always need to be updated in the market if you want to bring high traffic to your website.

Pros and cons of traditional marketing

By hearing the name of traditional marketing, you might get a wrong idea that it is old –fashioned, but let me assure you that it is as necessary as online marketing is. It includes promoting the ads through different methods like billboards, flyers, TV, radio, etc. There is a huge population that still follows these channels and hence the requirement of traditional marketing is still going on strong.

Pros

• If you want to target the old community, then offline marketing channel is the best way you can. It is a fact that the older generations are less active on online platforms but are more conscious in reading the newspaper and watching television advertisements. So using the method of traditional marketing, it would become easier to target them.
• This marketing technique works best to increase the visibility of the brand in local areas. You can increase brand awareness in front of the local audience. Talking about online terms, Google search console is also helpful for local businesses, but instead of competing with big companies, billboards and flyers are more effective in spreading small business locally.
• Offline marketing channel like TV and radio repeat the same commercial again and again and make a place in the user’s mind where as online ads can be blocked by the users.

Cons

• It cost much more than online marketing. Sending out flyers itself is very expensive and you can’t even tell that the people are actually interested in your product or not.
• As compared to search engine marketing, you can’t have information about the users and without a survey, you can’t decide what products and services are attracting them the most.

How online marketing have changed advertising colony?

Both online and offline marketing is essential to make a business successful, but after the introduction of the internet and running a digital marketing campaign on Google and other search engines have changed the advertising colony.

Before the introduction of online marketing, promotion of ads was limited to TV, radio, magazines, or billboards. But, when the marketers stepped into the foray of online marketing, the advertising colony broadened up and the platform to present the ads increased. Now, you can advertise your products and services in front of users who are far away from you. By controlling from one place, you can show your goods to the customers who are not even in your country. But if the process daunts you, then the best idea is to hire an advertising company that can help you run a digital marketing campaign. You can also decide the budget of your campaign. They help to expand text ads, to improve ad position & rank, and much more. There are different ad campaign types that you can choose from. So, running a digital marketing campaign help you to maintain your ad rank position and define your product in front of the whole country. 

Social media plays a vital role in online marketing. Through this, the remarketing of products and services has become so easy. You can target youths as they are more active on it.

Few more points to enlighten online marketing

• It lets you target audience globally all over the world.
• Here, the physical presence of the owners or the marketers is not required. I mean, it’s a plus point if they are present, but you can hire an advertising agency that can handle and audit the PPC ad campaigns.
• It provides paper-free documentation and is focused on soft copies of advertisements that can be accessed from anywhere and anytime. It also includes videos and images that attract many users at the same time.
• Online marketing provides several platforms like social media, search engines, email, etc., where products and services can be displayed. Different apps and websites can be created for the company plus the reviews can be collected from the users through these apps and websites. You can go for a web development service offered by a certified advertising agency to develop one for your brand. 
• It gives quick results as the information is passed to the business owner as soon as the product link is clicked. The digital marketing strategy can be easily changed according to the market results.
• Search engine marketing provides two-way communications and thus satisfies the customers and makes them feel that they are being listened to and served.
• The data are stored as a soft copy so that you can effortlessly analyze the marketing result.

Wrap up

So, now it must be clear to you that both online and offline marketing channel is required if you want to run a digital marketing campaign. After a long discussion, the outcome sure is that online marketing is different than traditional marketing but to increase brand awareness, you need both of them to work together. Online marketing sure has many advantages, but to target the old generation and to increase the brand’s presence you need to opt for traditional marketing as well. Promoting products and services is without a doubt a great idea of marketing but boosting through traditional methods is of no harm. Choosing both the ways will surely bring more customers.

So, now you must have got a clear view of online and offline marketing, the pros and cons of both the marketing methods and how after the introduction of online marketing, the advertising colony is changed.

Reference:-

• Online Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide
• 5 Brilliant Ways to Combine Traditional & Digital