Difference between Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing

In my opinion, Traditional Marketing, Direct Marketing, Offline Marketing are more or less the same.

I have managed Direct Marketing activities for more than 10 years in Vetcare (Tetragon Chemie Pvt Ltd). We were getting connected with the customers and widening our customer network by sharing informative bulletins/newsletters, brochures, organizing events and seminars, Road shows, mailers, print advertisement, Radio/TV advertisements, letters.

With the advent of technology, we have gone digital, but the concepts/principles and objectives remains the same i.e. Connecting with the target audience and widening the network. But connecting with the audience at right place and at right time has become reality and dream comes true through Digital Marketing. 

Digital Marketing does not limit its importance only to large organizations but small and medium organizations can also get benefited by implementing these activities.  

Execute Digital Marketing strategies where target customers are present (choose right technique to target right audience)

Now, let's have a look at the major differences between Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing

1. Traditional Marketing is Business Centric whereas Digital Marketing is Customer focused
2. Cost effectiveness : Organization needs larger allocation of budget for the promotional activities in Traditional Marketing whereas Digital Marketing activities can be implemented within budget, justifying focus on reaching the target audience at right time and right place.
3. Measuring the results : It is very difficult to measure the efforts of traditional marketing unless and until there is a feedback in writing. In Digital Marketing, the efforts can be measured using different analytical tools like Google analytics.
4. Niche/Target Marketing : Digital Marketing allows to target the audience at a micro level which is based on various consumer characteristics such as gender, demographics, location, hobbies, interest etc. to get real time reactions. In Traditional Marketing, though the focus is on core target audience, it’s very difficult to get the reactions, so it becomes very difficult to devise next plan of action.
5. Engagement : Engagement level is high in digital marketing due to real time reactions, whereas Traditional marketing involves lot of time to get reactions, sometimes even less than 5%.
6. Tracking : Digital Marketing helps in tracking the buyer’s journey from awareness stage to decision stage which is not possible through Traditional Marketing.
7. Visibility : With Digital Marketing scope of visibility is wide by using different techniques such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Marketing (SMM), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing etc. Local and Global visibility can be achieved through Digital Marketing. Low level of visibility is observed in Traditional Marketing.
8. Network building : With real time reactions it becomes very easy and cost effective to build network which is difficult through Traditional Marketing.

But till today, Traditional Marketing has not lost its importance, circulating the flyers through newspapers, publishing advertisement in newspapers, brochures, road shows, organizing events/seminars are considered as important medium to promote products and services.

In the next article, we will have a look at different modules/techniques used in Digital Marketing.