There has been a considerable rise of late in the digital marketing space with more and more organisations opting to promote their products and brands in the virtual world.
The internet has provided a stable, progressive – not to mention cost-effective – platform to businesses to reach out to wider audiences, unbound by geographical peripheries.
Social media and internet ad tools are a great medium for interacting with customers using innovative forms of content presentation; a trending tweet, a Facebook poll or even an engaging blog post – each has the potential to gather a substantial number of followers in a matter of minutes.
On top of that, there are various tools available that could be used to determine the metrics of user response, google Analytics being a primary example. A periodic assessment of traffic that is directed to a company website through online marketing means could help to determine how well the approach is working.
Add to that the reasonable cost involved as besides the internet and electricity charge, the rest in terms of effort spent in content creation and distribution is marginally low. However, there is one definite disadvantage to using digital marketing methods. One has to depend on the customers’ access to the internet and technical astute in using the web.
On the other hand, traditional marketing methods have a proven success rate. Such methods include print advertisements like flyers, newsletters, billboards, newspaper display ads, and television commercials and radio spots promoting a product or business.
This form of marketing has a greater reach locally since all it requires is access to a newspaper, a television or a radio – an ask which even the remotest local pockets could meet. Rather than the customer going online to discover your business, you have the choice to bring your service or product to the customer via traditional means.
One disadvantage of conventional marketing though is the relatively higher cost incurred in advertising as every single print space or television slot costs enormously.
So what would be the best approach in choosing a marketing means to promote one’s business? The smart route is a balanced combination of both means to achieve the most effective results.
Most businesses inclined towards innovative marketing trends tend to effectively feed one means off the other. For example, a printed newsletter may contain online information such as social media or youtube links while a blog post may embed relevant information about a television commercial or radio spot.
Most corporations who have thus far only stuck to traditional marketing are finding themselves lagging behind by overlooking the digital space. Contrarily, replacing the existing methods with new-age online marketing means can prove to be dangerous as these methods have been around for a long time and have a proven success rate.