Traditional Marketing v/s Digital Marketing: Pros and Cons

THIS ARTICLE WAS UPDATED ON 30/JUNE/2020

Everything in the world has advantages as well as disadvantages and before deciding for obtaining something it is crucial to know both.

In this article, we are going to discuss some of the pros and cons of Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing. But before knowing their pros and cons, we should be aware of what things traditional and digital marketing are. Let’s discuss that, shall we?

So, Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing are the two prominent measures of promoting a business or a brand in the target market.
Marketing is engaging customers and managing profitable customer relationships. Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing both engage directly with their carefully targeted audience.
As the name suggests, the traditional form of marketing has been in use for a long time. Mediums such as newspapers, magazines, television, and radio are used in this form. These are some of the time-tested marketing techniques.
On the other hand, we have Digital Marketing. The use of tools such as websites, social media, mobile applications, online advertisements, blogs, videos, etc. to promote a business is called Digital Marketing.
Let us dive into the pros and cons of both the topics now.

Traditional Marketing

PROS/ ADVANTAGES

• Easy to reach to the local audience

The use of traditional means such as the radio, local television show, or local newspaper helps reach the local level audience efficiently. It is one of the most effective ways of promoting a product or service in a locally targeted audience.

• Direct and easy to understand

Traditional means are clear and easy to understand. They have been in use for a long time, thus people find them more understandable and authentic. A study conducted by a neuro-marketing firm in Canada showed that direct mail required 21% less cognitive power to process as compared to digital advertising.

• More reliable and trustworthy

Many people find traditional tools of marketing more reliable and convincing than digital mediums. This might be because it is the older form of marketing and it has been time-tested.

• Accessible to all

While digital tools may be accessible to only those who are digitally-sound or use basic digital mediums, traditional tools are accessible to all. Mass media tools such as newspapers are widely accessible and available for all. It is a great platform for marketing.

CONS/ DISADVANTAGES

• Difficult to the target audience

Mediums of Traditional Marketing are usually to spread the word about the business. It targets a mass audience and not just a prospective group. The engagement is also less, as the advertisement runs for almost all the people and the number of actual buyers is unknown until there is a lead.

• More expensive

Marketing through means of mass media such as Television, Newspapers, Magazines, etc can be very expensive. Some renowned newspapers charge a significant amount per word. You must have heard about many TV channels that charge lakhs of rupees for a few seconds of footage.

• The difficulty of measure

When you indulge in marketing, you don’t know how the campaign is working for you. There are not many measures you can take to calculate the outcome of your marketing campaigns in traditional form. The only reliable measure is the number of responses or leads generated by the campaign. It is difficult to measure how well your business is being promoted in the traditional form of marketing.

Digital Marketing

PROS/ ADVANTAGES

• Cost-effective form of marketing

It is more cost-effective than any other form of marketing. Digital Marketing consists of attributes that provide optimum results in ways that don’t burn a hole in your pocket. Social media is one such powerful tool that can do wonders in a lot less money than you may need to invest while marketing through traditional forms.

• Good return on investment

As the investment becomes less but the output is at par, the return on investment automatically becomes significantly good. What Digital Marketing does is that it helps the firm get a substantial return on minimalist investments.
Promotion of a product through Email Marketing doesn’t require much investment but its return can be significant as email is a well-used tool and marketing through it is one of the most effective ways to generate leads.

• Most measurable form of marketing

Marketing response is the outcome of marketing your business. The response helps measure the usefulness of the steps taken to market a product or service.
Unlike the traditional methods of marketing that yield results in months or years and you have to wait till then to judge how well the marketing campaign worked, Digital Marketing can evaluate the results using software and other tools a lot easier and faster.
A small business firm cannot afford to wait years to get the results of its marketing, hence it would prefer methods that get faster results and also don’t burn a hole in its pocket!

• Instant feedback about content performance

Content can be called Digital Marketing’s backbone. This is because no amount of marketing can generate output unless the content is of good quality.
Digital Marketing gives you the benefit of direct feedback from the audience through means, such as comments, likes/dislikes, email, etc. which helps the firm recognize its fallbacks and then work on measures to improve them.
It also helps in building trust, as the audience feels more connected to the organization and also gets a feeling that the firm cares about their input and values it.

• Helps target the ideal audience

Every business knows its target audience unless it is something like water that everyone consumes. The firm must be promoting its work in front of the right people. It would not make sense if an advertisement for an Ice-cream company is run on the website of a Diabetes treatment hospital.
Digital Marketing measures help the firm understand and target the right audience for its product. It uses tools that will shrink the outreach to the correct kind of audience.
A billboard will not know the suitable audience for the product/service it’s promoting. Thus, Digital Marketing helps target the ideal audience.

CONS/ DISADVANTAGES

• Digitally sound audience required

In this form of marketing, all the techniques are processed through digital means. Those who are not capable of using digital pieces of equipment will not be able to have a suitable type of audience.
It creates a barrier between the target audience and the business.

• Negative feedback

Though the instant feedback is a positive attribute of Digital Marketing, it can also be a hurdle when there is criticism involved.
Anyone can leave feedback on the internet, and it is public to all. Even if the feedback is not correct or involves false statements, there is not much one can do about it. However, the negative feedback will make a bad perception in the mind of the potential buyers or audience.

• Lesser trusted

As it is the newer form of marketing, some find it harder to believe in the authenticity of its tools.
It is convenient for users to trust traditional forms of marketing as they have been in the market for decades now.

CONCLUSION

It is safe to say that both marketing tools are sufficient in their ways. The choice of the form of marketing is on the marketer and his requirements.
Traditional and Digital Marketing are both beneficial for the business, it depends on the needs of the business as to what to choose above the other, or one carries on both the forms together as well.