Should You Replace Traditional Marketing Practices with Digital Marketing?

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During the drafting of a marketing plan, businesses are usually torn between two categories of marketing – traditional and digital. In a nutshell, traditional marketing makes use of manual, tangible and visible strategies to reach out to target customers. Digital marketing, on one hand, is technology-driven and can only be measured online.

As these two types of marketing are on opposite sides of the pole, there appears to be a competition between them. More often than not, business owners are inclined to use digital marketing to save money and resources. But can you really replace traditional marketing and completely focus on online promotions?

Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing: Who Will Win?

While the market share of traditional marketing has dropped over the years, it is still indispensable in certain industries or niche markets. Companies that are located in areas beyond the reach of the Internet, have a bigger budget, or intend to pursue specific marketing goals, may find traditional marketing more effective than digital marketing.

Billboards are still very much used by companies across the globe. They are particularly effective in areas with high traffic rates or where they are clearly visible to people driving cars. As long as people have the time to go outside of their homes for work or personal reasons, outdoor advertising will not go out of fashion just yet. This traditional marketing strategy will continue to be in demand especially among established brands.

Digital marketing is the best choice for start-ups, e-commerce businesses and companies that want to run their business with little to zero overhead costs. But the trend these days is not to completely get rid of traditional marketing so digital marketing can take centre stage.

Collaboration and Hybrid Marketing

Marketing is evolving. It’s no longer a question of what to retain and what to discard. If you can accommodate both through innovative efforts, then why not?

Outdoor advertising, for instance, is forming an allegiance with the digital world to generate a hybrid form of marketing. In Times Square and many parts of the globe, digital billboards are a huge hit. They are able to convey a message that static billboards cannot. Innovative as electronic billboards may be, they still retain the primary features of traditional billboards (e.g. placement, location).

Furthermore, many people still trust broadcast marketing and find traditional ads crucial to their purchase decisions. Old school marketing that everyone grew up with will not die any time soon, but they could take on a new form over the years.

Final Thoughts

Digital marketing may have the lion’s share in the current era but it can never replace traditional marketing in specific quarters. More innovative forms of marketing are likely to rise in the future where the digital and the traditional meet half-way.

Lancey Clemons is a web marketer and Seo specialist at a reputable Seo company near me based in Canberra, Australia.