The world of online marketing is ever-changing, and the competition is always evolving to stay ahead of the curve.

It’s a common dilemma for businesses – they want to stay connected to their customers, but don’t want to resort to expensive marketing techniques or paid advertising. So what do they do?

Well, they could try sticking with the traditional methods of marketing, which can still be extremely effective. But to maximize brand loyalty and grow their business, savvy companies are looking for the best ways to integrate digital marketing with traditional marketing.

Luckily, there are ways that businesses can blend the two together successfully. And best of all, depending on the platforms you’re using, it can be extremely cost-effective.

What is Digital Marketing?

Simply put, digital marketing is the online marketing practice of marketing products and services using digital platforms or digital channels.

In other words, it’s using the online world to promote your products and services. That can include anything from email marketing and social media to online forums and search engines.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on the first three – email marketing, social media, and SEO – as those are the most common and most effective tools for digital marketing. But don’t be limited by this list, as there are hundreds of other ways to market online. 

Why do I need to blend digital and traditional marketing?

If you’ve been paying attention to the news, you’ll know that traditional methods of marketing aren’t exactly working in today’s world.

The majority of people now rely on digital platforms for their news and information, with only 10% opting to read a magazine or go to the movies. As a result, traditional methods of reaching consumers – such as newspaper inserts and TV spots – are slowly becoming obsolete.

While it’s still completely viable to use traditional methods of marketing, those who want to survive in today’s world will need to find a way to integrate them with digital marketing.

How do I integrate digital and traditional marketing?

The best way to blend digital and traditional marketing is to utilize multiple platforms.

And not just any platforms – specifically-targeted ones. With the right tools and a bit of know-how, you can take advantage of the huge audience on social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube while also reaching your customers via email.

The key is to find the right combination of tools. There are several comprehensive platforms designed for digital marketers, search engine optimizers, and social media managers (the people who help others with their marketing on social media).

On the topic of email marketing, platforms like HubSpot and MailChimp allow you to create highly targeted email campaigns that can be managed from a single interface. With these tools, you can segment your audience by gender, age, and location, and can even adjust the frequency of your emails based on the behavior of your subscribers. 

On the topic of social media, platforms like Hootsuite and Sprout Social allow you to manage and track all of your social media platforms from a single dashboard. You can have one profile on LinkedIn, one on Facebook, and one on Twitter. And the best part is that these tools allow you to target, engage, and analyze each platform independently, so you can make data-driven decisions about which one is working best for your business.

In addition to these platforms, you can use services like Google Analytics to track the results of your digital marketing efforts and optimize your site based on which techniques are delivering the most value. For example, if you notice that YouTube videos are generating the most traffic and leads, you can experiment with video marketing on your own site or social media platforms to see if that’s the case.

Whether you’re looking to combine digital and traditional marketing to attract new customers or to increase engagement with existing ones, there are tools available to help you get there.