DIGITAL vs. TRADITIONAL MARKETING
Let’s say that you decided to engage a traditional marketing activity, you advertised on billboards, spent a ton of money on TV ads and even sponsored a radio show. You did all these because you are still a firm believer in marketing and advertising in the traditional sense expecting your billboard ad to be viewed by thousands of motorists, the TV ad to be viewed by exactly the income group intended at the prime time and your radio show to be heard by loads of interested customers. Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place to use these traditional tools as well nevertheless, the times are changing.
What I mean is that, for example, you are watching your favorite TV show or listening to your classical music show with your 5 o’clock tea and suddenly an advertisement comes out. It has nothing to do with your interest. Same happens with mail and print marketing. The users are forced to it. A type of push marketing happens where it is marketer centric instead of being customer centric.
In the meanwhile, when done properly this is not the case with digital marketing. Online ads are targeted to certain audiences that have previously shown interest in services or products similar to yours. They are displayed only to your potential customers. The aim is to encourage customers to make the decision to interact with your business. And there is another hot point to highlight here. When people are engaged with digital marketing ads, they can go and finalize their shopping activity with as little as 3 – 4 mouse clicks.
I remember a client of mine boasting for spending over 200k $ on a single billboard ad for an entire year. I was quite surprised and couldn’t help to ask them “Do you know your ROI for this ad? How many people converted to become your customer from those who has seen your billboard?” of course, this time they were the ones surprised.
Recent research from various sources predicts that digital marketing ad spending is advancing in comparison to traditional marketing spending. It is expected that 2019 is a year of a new era. And there are many good reasons for that. As I mentioned before, your digital marketing activity, when done properly, targets your audience in ways that you could not have imagined in your wildest marketing dreams. In traditional marketing, it is almost extremely costly and confusing, if not impossible, to know which of your customers responded to your traditional marketing activities and ads. You almost never get to know your customers inside and out like you do with digital marketing, unless of course you get hold of each and every one of them for a long and grueling survey before they leave your store.
Briefly speaking, activities and analysis such as targeting, retargeting, personalized advertising, detailed analysis reports, detailed customer data and many more information cannot be done /acquired by traditional marketing activities. Yeah maybe you can gather a bit of data, but you need to spend all your fortune to market research firms like Nielsen.
On the other hand, let’s say you are about to start a digital marketing campaign and you know that the main target audience for the pink women’s sneakers you are selling for 200$ is 13 to 17-year-old teenage girls living in high income households. Keeping in mind that you have already done your homework and analyzed your target audience in detail, hence you know which social media channels they use, who are their favorite influencers, what other brands and goods they like, where they live, etc. Now, by using digital marketing targeting tools you can advertise your ad like a laser guided missile. And after a successful campaign, you will now have the information listed below;
Of course, what you will do with all this and many more data is up to your and your team’s ability and vision.
There is a brave new world for marketers with digital marketing tools, where you need to be agile, flexible, informed, insatiable, creative, data centric and strategic in order to survive and thrive.
On top of this, there is the new phenomena of Digital Performance Marketing, which will be the topic of another article.
Wish you success in all your marketing endeavors.
Cengiz DINCER
e-Commerce and Digital Marketing Head Consultant
https://en.invecrea.com/digital-vs-traditional-marketing/