Imagine you are in the year 2005, spending a peaceful Sunday, and all of a sudden, someone rings your bell. You walk out to open the door and see a man, dressed up exceptionally formally for a Sunday, with an airbag strapped across his chest.
As you proceed to converse, the man asks you if you’d be interested to buy a set of encyclopaedias worth INR 2000, and carries on to explain why exactly you need to adorn your bookshelf with encyclopaedias. After hearing the entire thing out, you decide buying encyclopaedias doesn’t fit your budget, much like Joey, and you send off the salesman.
Fast forward to 2018, you’re browsing through Facebook, and you find a link to a website, that’s selling a set of encyclopaedias at 50% off, at “just” INR 3999. So you think, “Wow! That’s an amazing deal! I might as well shell out my cash for this! Plus, that really cool kid from college also shared about this exact same encyclopaedia deal on his Facebook page. So, it’s decided, I’m going to buy those encyclopaedias!
Digital Marketing- 1
Traditional Marketing- 0
When you hear the words “Traditional Marketing”, your mind immediately pictures all those direct mails, referrals, print ads, hoardings, radio ads, and so on.
These marketing techniques still exist, but gradually, eventually, they are being overshadowed by digital marketing trends, which have definitely been taking the marketing world by storm. But, is traditional marketing really going to be dead in the future?
What Benefits Does Traditional Marketing Provide?
With the advent of digital marketing, many marketers would think twice before considering traditional marketing as any sort of benefit. But trust me, there are still many things that traditional marketing is capable of doing.
Local Audiences are Easily Convinced: Let’s say you own a bakery, and you bake some really delicious cakes. To let more people in your locality know about your bakery, you start sending out flyers to each house.
While it is possible that some people might not check your flyer, but there are also people who might see your flyer and think of giving out bakery a try. That way, the next time someone in your area has a birthday party, they would remember your bakery and get a cake from you. And since you already bake great stuff, the word-of-mouth for your bakery gets bigger and better in your area.
Some People are More Familiar With It: While the majority of the people are marching towards a more or less digitalised life, there are people who are still accustomed to traditional marketing, for instance, old people, people without access to the Internet, etc. For such people, traditional marketing is more familiar and is easier for them to use. When they come across a radio ad or a flyer, they know it is promoting something, and take the corresponding action based on their needs.
Offers Better Personal Interaction: It’s true that digital marketing offers personalization and customization up to a great extent. But eventually, at the end of the day, it’s digital. Virtual, if you will. Traditional marketing, on the other hand, is greatly personalized. It offers more chances of personal interaction and better comprehension about something, as compared to digital marketing.
Word of Mouth Still Rules: 8 out of 10 people would prefer to buy something that has been recommended by a family member or a friend, as compared to an influencer. This is because, when someone who has bought something recommends you personally to try it out as well, there’s an increased trust and credibility, which possibly cannot be conceived when an internet influencer advertises the product or the service.
But then, digital marketing has already been taking over for quite some while now, and it is what most companies are taking up. So does that really mean that in the long run, traditional marketing would no longer exist? Well, for one thing, traditional marketing isn’t being dead, it’s just changing and giving way to newer things. So, how exactly is traditional marketing travelling the road to Oblivion?
A. The Cost Involved is Pretty Much on the Higher Side: Let’s say you are trying to advertise a new shoe line that your brand has launched. Now, if you choose to advertise on a digital media, say, social networking websites, you probably only need to spend a few thousand bucks to get your campaign running for as much time as you want.
However, if you are planning to advertise it via a traditional marketing technique, like a boarding, or a newspaper, then the cash converts from thousands to lacs, which is a onetime investment for a stipulated time.
B. Over the Years, the Profit Rate Has Declined: Sure, there was a time when traditional marketing was the only sought-after method work on the statistics to generate leads. But that gradually started fading when digital marketing walked in with its bigger and better profitable results.
While traditional marketing is still running well and good, the profits and the lead generations have considerably reduced. On the other hand, digital marketing, irrespective of the money invested, gives more ROI.
C. Well, Keywords Matter: If you own an apparel store, and you are advertising it on a newspaper, you can use only a particular set of words in your advertisement, for instance, “We have the best dresses in the city!” But, what if someone wants to know if a particular piece of cloth is available or not? Of course, they can call and ask. But that’s time-taking.
However, if you advertise your store via your website, it gets easier for people, as well as you, to talk about your brand. There are 10 different people, with 10 different queries. You obviously can’t answer all the queries n a newspaper or a billboard. But, with digital marketing, where you can opt for any possible keyword that is relevant for your website, you can easily get more audience attention, something which is less when it comes to traditional advertisement.
Now, traditional marketing has definitely been going through a lot of fluctuations and changes. However, that is not to say that traditional marketing is going to be completely dead in the forthcoming times. In fact, traditional and digital marketing methods rather go hand in hand.
HEY ! I’m Nil (Founder of OnlineDrifts.com), Digital Marketer, Affiliate Marketer and a blogger writing about blogging tips, SEO, Tech Tips etc.