Marketing methods have changed significantly over the past couple of decades. In the past, most marketing came in the form of newspaper, radio or television advertisements.
However, digital marketing has become huge as the internet has grown, which has led to the rise of things like search engine marketing, social media marketing and email marketing.
It is important to note that digital marketing methods are not perfect. Like traditional methods, they have their pros and cons – some of which will be explored below:
Digital marketing:
In this context, the term ‘digital marketing’ refers to any sort of online or internet marketing method. While these are extremely varied and different in the ways they are used, they are linked by one major thing – the internet.
Pros of digital marketing:
With digital marketing, you can reach a global audience, which is very beneficial for people with things like online stores.
Digital marketing can be very cost-efficient, especially when you are careful about the types you use and how you use them.
Digital marketing is monitorable, which means that you can see how effective your results are and who they are reaching.
Cons of digital marketing:
Digital marketing can be very competitive, which means that it can be very expensive to target certain keywords or marketing streams.
It can be hard to reach certain target audiences, such as older people who don’t use the internet regularly.
People become immune to digital marketing because of its pervasive nature and the simple fact that it’s everywhere.
Traditional marketing:
Traditional marketing refers to marketing methods which have been around since before the rise of the internet and the digital revolution and includes things like television, radio and newspaper advertising.
Pros of traditional marketing:
Traditional marketing methods are tried and tested. They work, and we know that they work. It is very easy to get them right, and you will rarely waste your money.
A lot of people aren’t tech-savvy still in this day and age and don’t use the internet regularly.
It is very easy to target specific geographic locations, for example by dropping flyers in letterboxes or by putting an ad in your local newspaper.
Cons of traditional marketing:
It is very hard to target your advertising for age or gender. Sure, you can choose when you advertise (for radio or TV) or what sort of magazine or newspaper you advertise in, but this is tentative at best.
It is very hard to monitor results, which means that it is hard to tell if your marketing efforts are actually working for you at all.
In the end, the type of marketing that you use will depend on the type of business that you have and on how much of an online presence you are aiming for. Fully online businesses should focus on digital marketing, while small local businesses should probably use a combination of certain types of digital marketing and traditional marketing.