Traditional Marketing and Digital Marketing: Which is more powerful?

Marketing has come a long way from the time it came into existence in 18th or 19th century. Marketing agencies have always used multiple ways to reach customers, from newspaper ads to radio and TV commercials to various online channels. Now the agencies have been using social media, mobile technology and Big Data to reach out to maximum number of customers or consumers. These agencies have been using Digital Marketing techniques to attract customers and generate revenue.

Brands and marketers have started going or gone digital on festivals for multiple reasons.Top them is to reach out for their share of the consumer wallet. April has turned out to be the ideal month for the brands to grab every opportunity to reach out to consumers. Tamil New Year and Vishu in Kerala were the two important festival of southern India and brands splurged lot of money on advertisements and sales.

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Digital Marketing in post pandemic scenerio

Unlike in the past, digital marketers prefer to go digital for advertising and marketing their products. According to market analysts, there is a realisation that post-pandemic scenario, the sentiment around each festival has been one of enthusiasm and gratitude. Hence, several leading jewellery brands launched new collections like Sapphire Story, Peacock Saga, month-long bangle showcase – for New Year. They are using AI powered tools to woo customers.

In an article in Exchange4media, a top official from digital marketing company said that the sentiment around Tamil New Year and Vishu continues to be positive and celebratory this year. Consumers are enthusiastically gearing up to celebrate the festivals with their families, while brands are developing their marketing strategies to tap into this mood and achieve their objectives.

According to Aparna Tadikonda, EVP (South), Interactive Avenues, automobile and apparel sectors, as usual, have been the largest spenders during Vishu. While there has been a 10-15% dip in spends for apparel but FMCG, local retailers, jewelry brands, and e-commerce players have been leveraging this season with offer-based messaging to drive footfalls or traffic to their D2C platforms, reported Exchange4media.

Why do marketers prefer digital platforms?

The sole idea behind spending big bucks is to capture the attention of consumers who spend a significant part of their lives online. So brands too have started following the online path. These brands have been producing marketing content for social media platforms, OTT and other online mediums which garner a larger share of the wallet.

According to a latest report in Financesonline.com, Global internet users now spend 145 minutes or 2 hours and 41 minutes per day on a variety of social media platforms. Time spent on social media by country varies. People in some continents and places spend more of their waking hours glued to their digital devices checking social pages.

The trend to spend more money on digital marketing techniques has given sleepless nights to marketers and companies because of the fact that the internet has turned the world into a global village. Boundaries, caste, class , age and language etc. have lost their relevance. However, companies like Coca Cola launched global campaign to target consumers across the globe.

Journey from traditional to digital

The pathway from traditional marketing to digital marketing was long and patchy.The ideas of marketing reportedly began during the time of the Industrial Revolution. This period spanned the late 18th century and lasted long into the 19th century.

During the Industrial Revolution, mass production created many industries engaged in the same endeavor to serve the needs of a growing consumer market. The traditional marketing is offline. Marketers and advertisers used to reach their target audience through print, broadcast, direct mail, phone, and outdoor advertising like billboards. From newspapers to radio, this method of marketing helped reach targeted audiences.

Based on research, the traditional marketing has helped marketers know the ground reality. The traditional marketing has still not lost its relevance as it is the best way to reach out to local audiences. Advertisements can be kept for a long period of time, if they’re physical.

Benefits of Digital Marketing

With the entry of internet, traditional ways of marketing started loosing its sheen because of some limitations. In Digital marketing, sky is the limit. Lets understand it, how?

Today, Marketers can easily interact with the consumers in real time who bought their products or vice versa. For instance, consumers can go to marketing companies’ twitter handle for redressal of grievances. They can directly enquire about the availability of products by leaving message on companies’ website. The provision for altering advertisement design and content is not available in the traditional form of marketing. Also, traditional marketing has become a costly affair because of rise in the advertising cost.

Marketers find it difficult to analyse the impact of advertisement . Also it is difficult to assess if consumers or customers have bought their product or not. Boundaries, borders and languages mattered a lot in traditional marketing. Undoubtedly, traditional marketing is more realistic and important way to market certain businesses but it is gradually loosing its relevance in the digital era.

Features of traditional and digital marketing

“Traditional marketing refers to marketing techniques that were used before the advent of digital technology. These include techniques such as print advertising, direct mail, telemarketing, radio and television advertising, billboards, and event marketing.

Digital marketing, on the other hand, encompasses marketing techniques that leverage digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, mobile apps, and online advertising. While traditional marketing techniques are still in use today, digital marketing has grown in importance in recent years.

Digital marketing is cost effective and has a greater impact . Advertising can be placed at point of time. Also there are ways of knowing the impact of advertisement. Data Analytics tools are helpful in knowing the behaviour of consumers or customers. There are some digital tools which help marketers connect with consumers or customers. In fact, businesses reported that half of revenue is influenced by social selling. However, the digital marketing has an edge over traditional because of the interaction with customers. Businesses can easily assess the behaviour of have full control of their audience growth and see real-time results of each facet of that campaign. And with inbound marketing consumers find the business, not the other way around.

In digital marketing keyword analytics matter a lot. The marketing trends have been changing very fast so brands have been constantly adopting new ways of marketing on digital platforms. Marketers said that brands can’t just rely on their tried-and-true marketing best practices. Consumer values and preferences have shifted, with effective marketing tactics following suit.

Influencer marketing is the latest form of digital marketing. Influencer marketing involves a collaboration between a brand and an individual with a specific niche and large online following. marketers would want to pay more attention to influencer marketing than before. Influencer marketing offers the second highest Return on Investment or ROI of any marketing trend. Influencers also help marketers save lot of money on advertisements.

Market analysts said that influencer recommendations have more impact than those from friends and family. It wont’ be wrong to say that the influencer recommendations are more powerful than before, as past trends have shown friends, family, or reviews from other consumers being the most impactful when making purchases.

According to https://blog.hubspot.com/, HubSpot’s 2022 Marketing industry trends report, Influencer marketing is the most popular and effective trend (with the highest ROI) in generating authentic content for your business, establishing social proof, and building brand awareness.

Besides, influencers have the ability to influence customers purchase especially younger audiences. Also, they help marketers build long term relationships with audiences. Long-term relationships has many advantages as influencers \increase credibility with an audience when their followers see that they continue to work with you, use your products and services, and trust that what they use serves them well. Influencers help marketers share authentic content in a human way.

According to Forbes magazine, many businesses are busy mapping out their digital marketing plans for the current 2023 and beyond. Smart businesses are looking for the latest trends to incorporate to maximize their results and impact. The metaverse is one of the most talked-about trends in digital marketing. The metaverse is a broad term that describes a variety of immersive virtual experiences taking place online, usually with others. Starbucks, Nike and several other big brands have announced metaverse experiences, wrote Krista Neher is the CEO of Boot Camp Digital , a 6X best-selling author, international speaker & recognized digital marketing thought-leader.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest trend in digital marketing . AI is being integrated into almost every digital marketing channel. Algorithms determine the social media posts you engage with, the search results you see and even the ads displayed to you. AI is making marketing smarter, connecting consumers to the exact right products and messages.

ChatGPT a chatbot powered by a large language model trained by OpenAI is a tool that has brought a revolution in the field of digital marketing. ChatGPT can be used for copywriting, data analytics, Google tags, Google Ads, brainstorming, and more.ChatGPT can help in copywriting by generating ideas for headlines, calls-to-action, and other marketing materials. To use ChatGPT for copywriting, simply prompt it with a topic and let it generate suggestions for you.

Many algorithms and AI in digital marketing have started creating a better user experience. Search engine optimization (SEO) focuses on providing the most helpful content to users. Beat the algorithms and delight your customers by focusing more on their experiences, is the latest mantra of digital marketing.

Tiktok and and Instagram reels are the real favourites of social media users and hence marketers and advertisers too are opting for consumer attention. In fact, short video formats have become an in thing. The social videos are making their way into social media management tools and schedulers which is an indication of future trends in digital marketing.

After spending millions on marketing, many companies have realised the power of their employees. Employee advocacy is about getting your team or employees talking and sharing on behalf of the business. According to an article in Forbes magazine , employee personal profiles and assets are often more effective at reaching more people more authentically than business accounts and assets. Harnessing this power is an untapped opportunity—especially in business-to-business (B2B) marketing.

Employee advocacy is about getting your team or employees talking and sharing on behalf of the business. More and more businesses are realizing the power of their employees. Employee personal profiles and assets are often more effective at reaching more people more authentically than business accounts and assets. Harnessing this power is an untapped opportunity—especially in business-to-business (B2B) marketing.LinkedIn has suddenly started showing growth and engagement. According to available information, it is expected to account for 25 per cent of B2B advertising in two years. There is a growing opportunity for businesses to use the platform for growth.

So, digital marketing has a bright future. Marketers and advertisers should strategically use LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms to improve their prospects. They should optimize content, grow audience and look for new features and opportunities to accelerate success in the field of digital marketing.

Disadvantage of Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is dependent on technology and, sometimes, technology breaks. Digital marketers are dependent on social media sites. What if social media sites go down. Security and hacking are two important issues which digital marketers must take note of.

Social media platforms have been taking strict measures to protect users’ information and Since the Facebook scandal in which the private information contained in 87 million profiles was leaked, other platforms have taken strict measures to protect information of users. However, marketers have to keep in mind the legalities of their marketing, too.