When most people think about marketing, they think about TV commercials, billboards, magazine spreads, and traditional forms of advertising. While these are all forms of online marketing, it’s important that you understand the differences between them so you can choose the right strategy for your business.
Traditional vs. Online Marketing
First of all, let’s consider traditional marketing versus online marketing. When you Google “marketing,” you’ll find thousands of articles and blogs discussing the various definitions and distinctions. Here’s a brief overview of the definitions.
Traditional Marketing is advertising that focuses on attracting customers through traditional means such as TV commercials, magazine spreads, and billboards. This type of marketing is often considered “low-tech” because it relies on mass distribution through print media and billboards. But just because it’s old school doesn’t mean it’s ineffective. In fact, it can be highly effective when used correctly.
“Low-tech” marketing includes many methods such as radio ads, newspaper ads, magazine spreads, and billboards. Because these are still effective ways to reach potential customers, companies often use them as part of a mix of digital marketing strategies.
To put things in perspective, let’s say you’re a company that sells workout gear. You might want to advertise in a magazine that covers sports and fitness. If someone reading your ad is interested in your products, but doesn’t necessarily know who you are, they might click on your ad to learn more about your company. After reading about your company, that person might decide they’re interested in your products and set up a blog post about their experience with your company. This type of scenario is what traditional marketing is all about.
Pay Per Click (PPC) Marketing
Next up is Pay per click (PPC) marketing. People who use search engines to find content drive almost all of today’s online marketing. When a person uses a search engine to find content, they typically end up on a page containing many small boxes. Each of these boxes is a “pay-per-click” advertisement. When a person clicks on one of these advertisements, their browser opens up to a landing page containing the text of the advertisement. This type of marketing often gets referred to as “display advertising.”
Pay per click is a form of advertising where you only pay when someone clicks on your ad or makes a purchase. This might sound like an effective way to advertise, but it’s not a good idea to overuse it. If you do, you’ll start to see your earnings drop because nobody wants to click on advertisements all the time.
PPC marketing is often considered “high-tech” because it relies on advanced techniques such as website optimization and tracking software to attract visitors to your website. These tools help you measure and analyze the results of your marketing efforts.
Social Media Marketing
Then there’s social media marketing. This type of marketing is all about using social media to attract and retain customers. The most popular social media platforms include Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. These platforms allow businesses to communicate with their customers and potential customers via blogs, articles, and status updates.
There are many different ways to use social media to market your business. You might want to create a YouTube channel and use the platform’s video functionality to showcase content that’s relevant to your business. You could also find and connect with bloggers who have a special interest in your product and create a series of blog posts about your business. Finally, you could use social media to communicate with your customers via status updates. This type of marketing is often considered “mid-tech” because it uses platforms that are a bit more advanced than what you’ll find in traditional marketing.
Just remember: whatever strategy you choose for marketing your business, make sure that you test and measure the results of your efforts. With digital marketing, you can use tools like Google Analytics to track your results and determine which strategies worked and which ones flopped. If you make use of this information, you can choose new strategies to grow your business.