With the changing dynamics of the digital world, marketing agencies and in-house marketers must adapt to keep up with the ever-evolving needs of their customers. The field of marketing is diverse, ranging from online marketing, to social media marketing, to traditional marketing (TV, radio, newspapers, etc.). While each technique can be effective in particular circumstances, choosing one approach over another can be difficult. What are the benefits and drawbacks of each marketing method? Let’s examine each one.

Online Marketing

If you’re reading this, I assume that you’re already familiar with the basics of online marketing. If not, don’t worry, we’ll get to that in a minute. First, let’s discuss the benefits.

One of the biggest advantages of online marketing is that it is flexible. You can do it from anywhere; you don’t need to be restricted to one place. You can put up a web page and start marketing your product or service, or you can sit back and let the social media platforms do the advertising for you. All you need is a device (laptop, tablet, or mobile) and a good internet connection.

Another advantage of online marketing is that you can track the results of your campaigns easily. The moment you put something online – whether you publish a blog post, an article, a social media status, or create a web page – you can track the results of that effort. You can see how many views you got on a particular piece, how many people clicked on a particular link, or scan through your Google Analytics to see the traffic coming from the various platforms (social media, search engines, etc.).

With the various tools available today, it’s easy to track and analyze the results of your online marketing efforts. Every piece of content you put out there has the opportunity to gain popularity and drive traffic to your site (if you have one). The key is in creating content that people want to read or watch.

Traditional Marketing

If you’re reading this, I assume that you’re already familiar with the basics of traditional marketing. With that said, let’s discuss the benefits.

One of the biggest advantages of traditional marketing is that it is stable. You can plan out a TV campaign and know that it will probably work. You can put a radio ad in the car ahead of a family vacation and know that it will probably increase sales. You can write a newspaper article about a new product and know that it will probably increase sales. You can use billboards or posters around town and know that it will probably increase sales. In short, you can plan for the stability of traditional marketing and know that it will probably work.

Another advantage of traditional marketing is that you can target the right audience. With TV, for example, you can target people based on their demographics (e.g., men between the ages of 18-24) or psychographics (e.g., millennials, Generation Z, etc.). You can also target people based on geography, as there are certain areas of the country that are more receptive to certain types of marketing strategies than others (e.g., the South vs. the North).

With traditional marketing, you have a better opportunity to create long-term awareness and desire for your product or service. Through different advertising platforms (TV, radio, etc.), you can expose your product or service to a large audience over time and gain credibility with consumers.

Which Is Better?

Based on the benefits listed above, it’s clear that online marketing is the superior choice when it comes to flexibility. If you’re already set up with a web development team and you want to experiment with various marketing techniques, go with online marketing. When it comes to tracking results and predicting sales, traditional marketing still wins out. If you’re looking for stability, go with traditional marketing.

To summarize, online marketing is the preferred choice when it comes to flexibility and visibility. Traditional marketing is preferred when it comes to predictability. It’s clear that you need to have both, so you can effectively reach your audience.