Every company is torn between traditional and digital marketing. Many companies ponder over how much time, money and effort they would have to spend on both or either. The truth is that traditional and nontraditional marketing can and should coexist. The secret lies in using the best of both the worlds.
Despite clubbing everything into the ambit of traditional and digital marketing, one doesn’t discount the fact that both the realms are quite diverse and ever expanding. Traditional marketing of the eighties or nineties is no longer relevant today. Also, digital marketing in the early years of the century is not effective now. Let us explore the prevalent concepts of both mediums of marketing and how they fare against one another.
- SEO or search engine optimization is at the crux of digital marketing. You cannot avoid trying to get your website ranked higher. And, you cannot do this unless you invest in search engine optimization. The biggest benefit of SEO is its impact. If your website can rank on the first page of search engine results for a keyword or set of keywords, then the traffic you can generate from that would be phenomenal. Also, SEO is free if you can develop your own content. You don’t need to spend a lot of money on buying ad space or billboards. On the flipside, SEO takes a really long time to have any impact. If you have a new website and it is trying to compete with thousands of other businesses or sites, then there is very little chance that your website would get ranked on the first page anytime in the near future.
- Social media is an amazing platform for digital marketing. Whether you consider Facebook or Twitter, YouTube or Instagram, the sites offer an ever expanding audience that you can access in real time. The sites are free to use and you can open up multiparty and multichannel communications at the same time. The sheer engagement on social media makes it quintessential for businesses.
- PPC or pay per click advertising is one of the most rewarding concepts in digital marketing. You get to post your ad on a chosen page of search engine result pages, social media websites and third party sites, targeting a well-defined audience and you would only pay for the ad space or the ad itself if the link provided gets clicked. No traffic, no expense.
- Traditional marketing is consistently evolving. It is cost intensive and that is why many people are shying away from it. However, the impact of brochures, emails, flyers, print ads, feature stories done by magazines or local radio and similar mediums cannot be undermined.
