To have your business be as successful as possible, you’ll need to spend much of your time on your marketing efforts. But as marketing continues to evolve in today’s business world, you may be wondering if traditional or digital marketing will yield the best results and send your profits soaring. Since making the right decision may mean the difference between your business succeeding or failing, here are some key differences between these two types of marketing.
How Much Can You Spend?
When it comes to cost, most business owners tend to focus on the channel that they want to share their advertising. For example, traditional marketing typically includes television, billboards, and magazines, which typically cost more to be installed and run than most digital channels such as social media and Hulu. However, an advertisement for a billboard will typically cost less to create than a full video production for a commercial on Instagram. That being said, if you have a large advertising budget, traditional marketing can pay off in a big way. Since many people will remember a memorable TV commercial, going the traditional route in this manner may put you and your business on the map immediately. However, since traditional marketing can be very expensive, you may want to opt for digital marketing via social media or digital advertising, which is significantly cheaper to run. Most digital advertising costs are based on the number of views or clicks that the advertisement gets. Television, however, has no guaranteed number of views and the cost is typically based on the average views of the show or timeslot that you are paying for. It is possible that people drop their attention to their phones during a commercial break and it is possible that the audience doesn’t even see the advertisement slot that you are paying for.
Digital Appears to be the Future
While everyone is still watching TV, more and more are spending more and more time on their smartphones. In fact, most people now spend in excess of seven hours per day online, either at their computer or on their phones or tablets. That is depending on your target audience, however. If you are trying to target people who are retired, it is more likely that you’ll be able to reach them on television and in a magazine ad compared to an advertisement on a popular mobile app. If you are trying to target a younger audience, then you will want to position your business in a way that seems to be with the times and ready to move to the future. For example, if your business is trying to sell shoe inserts to retired women with grandkids, then running a commercial on QBC might be a great option for you. If you run a yoga studio, then it is likely that your audience is younger and paying attention to channels like Instagram and YouTube. Since digital marketing appears to be the wave of the future, digital marketing for yoga can show potential customers your business is up to date and follows the trends of your target market.
Lots of Potential Marketing Channels
If you use traditional marketing, you will be limited to such avenues as television, radio, print media, and billboards. However, digital marketing offers you a series of marketing channels that are constantly evolving. Along with social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram, you can also advertise via your company’s website, email marketing, affiliate marketing, pay-per-click, and search engine marketing. Depending on your target market, you may want to run a mix of traditional and digital marketing to reach each core demographic. One idea is to create a video ad that can be formatted and edited for different channels such as television but also for Facebook, Instagram, and blogs in your industry.
Your Target Audience
If it isn’t clear already, your target audience should be a driving factor for what type of marketing would benefit your business the most. If your target audience is primarily baby boomers or Generation X, your customers will likely rely on traditional marketing efforts such as TV commercials or magazine ads to get their information about products or services. However, if you’re focusing on millennials and Generation Z customers, digital marketing will be what you’ll need to get your products and services to your potential customers.
Other Types of Marketing
Besides advertisements on different types of platforms, leveraging media relations can be a valuable way to get the word out about your company that lasts longer than an advertisement about a weekend sale while also elevating your brand. Media relations typically include working with journalists and local news producers to share a story about your business and the impact it has on the local community. Whether that is about the local economy, impact on students, or even just an origin story, you can get a huge story without the cost of production. Most companies don’t understand media relations or public relations and tend to outsource the work but you can also hire an intern to reach out to local news outlets to get a story out about your business.
If you’re like many business owners today, chances are you will use a combination of traditional and digital marketing to make your business successful. By doing so, you can take the best of each and use them to help your business grow year after year.