In this digital age, advertising has become easier than ever, as easy as a click of a finger. The traditional methods are still alive, but the focus has shifted on digital marketing, and almost every business is using it to its advantage and rightly so.
2019 saw a great shift in the world of advertising when the digital form of it took over traditional advertising. This tells us the world of business has already embraced and moved on to the technology of the future and reach more audiences than ever through online marketing.
But, the world of digital marketing is full of chaos. With a myriad of options to choose from, it’s hard to come up with the best choice for your business. The best option essentially comes down to what a business needs.
There are a few key points that a business needs to consider before they can come up with the best formula for advertising platforms. Before we move on with what to consider to stay ahead of our competitors, let’s look at some of the more popular traditional and digital platforms.
Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing is any form of marketing that’s not online-based, for example, ads in newspapers, billboards and radio, direct mail, and phone calls. It is one of the oldest and most researched forms of marketing, and it plays an important role in reaching local audiences. There’s a segment of the audience that can be reached only through the physical form of marketing.
It’s hard to miss out on an ad in the newspaper or not come across one in a billboard or the radio when we are driving. Most marketers flock towards it as a safe bet to reach their targeted audience.
The disadvantage of traditional marketing is that it can be seen as unreliable. There’s no going back to fix a mistake or a typo once the print is out. It’s also pricier, and the ROI of each investment is unclear as there’s no clear-cut way to measure the reach of the audience.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is the opposite of the physical form of marketing. It’s basically any way to reach audiences online, or as the name suggests, digitally. Digital marketing can be paid social media ads, email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, promoted tweets, influencer trips and videos sponsoring products, and so on. The vast array of digital marketing has made it possible to reach a global audience. A business can conduct research on consumers online, and consumers can make purchases online. It is a cost-effective and easily accessible method for both businesses and consumers.
With so many choices, which route should a business take? To make it easier for a business to choose and help use every form of digital marketing to its advantages, there are digital marketing companies like Phoenix Media Bangkok, which helps businesses grow by providing transparent campaign strategies.
Just like traditional marketing, disadvantages to digital marketing also exist. It completely depends on the internet and technology, and if a social media site is down, you lose money and time while waiting for it to come back up.
Another issue is security; there are always chances of private data and information leaks. Even with strict security, businesses need to be aware of the ethics and the legalities behind it. Also, social platforms get regular updates, and without continuous learning on the business’s side, it can be a curve to steer marketing in the right direction.
Which Platform Should You Choose?
There’s no right or wrong answer to this question; it depends on a business’s marketing strategy. There a place and time for both traditional and digital marketing – to understand which method or mix fits your business best, you need to know the answer to three criteria.
1. Target Audience
Before you start to plan the ‘how’ in marketing, you need to locate the ‘who’ you are marketing your products/services to. It’s vital to segment and target your audience for your marketing campaign to be a success. For example, if your business is serving local consumers, you can resort to a printed ad in the local newspaper, or if your enterprise is aiming to gain the attention of more widespread audiences from different regions and different age groups, then a digital method of marketing is the answer.
After market segmentation and targeting audiences, a business needs to tally the resources it has at its disposal. Resources not only means the budget but also manpower and talent, which can be utilized to achieve marketing goals.
2. The Goal for Advertising
The advertising channel you choose needs to serve the purpose of the goal for advertisement. What is your goal for advertising? Are you looking to create more brand awareness and customer engagement? Or do you want to increase sales by converting your target audience? Each question poses a different solution and a different mix of marketing.
3. Reinvent and Update
You can find the perfect mix of advertising platforms for your business, but market behavior is dynamic and fast-changing. If a business wishes to stay ahead of the competition, it must reinvent and update its marketing strategies.
It’s also smart to use platforms that you can recalibrate according to your needs and results or feedback from previous campaigns. Digital advertising platforms are capable of doing just that, but a lot of marketers are not comfortable in using it as it’s programmatic, and it can be difficult to learn.
Conclusion
We have seen a global shift in marketing since digital marketing has made its entrance. It’s more important now than ever to keep an eye on the trends and technologies that can affect digital marketing if you want to reap the best results out of it for a business.
As the digital world progresses and becomes more complex, so does digital marketing. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, video search optimization, and machine learning are all on top of the list of marketers; these are the present and future of digital marketing and advertising.
Businesses need to be willing to adapt to these changes. The question shouldn’t be which platform is best for you but how can you use both traditional and digital platforms to benefit and thrive for years to come.