Marketing serves a range of objectives. From building brand awareness, to increasing product consideration to promoting more conversions, marketing allows more consumers to become more familiar with a business’ product or service. The ultimate goal is for you to lead your target consumer down the inverted marketing funnel, letting them know more about who you are as a brand and what you can do for them.
Some examples include print ads, radio commercials, television spots, billboards, direct mailers, and more. There are many different ways to approach marketing, but they tend to fall under two broad categories: traditional marketing and digital marketing. In this article we take a look at these two types of marketing and find out how you can select a strategy that is most effective for your brand.
What is traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing is any type of advertising that doesn’t involve the internet. Examples include television, radio, billboards, print ads, etc. It also involves creating advertisements and marketing collateral like brochures, flyers, catalogues. In a digital age, many businesses still rely on these traditional forms of advertising.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is a broad term that describes any form of marketing that takes place entirely online. It includes email marketing, social media marketing, website development and optimisation, and much more. Social media marketing is a form of digital marketing that involves posting messages on networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
There are two primary ways that businesses use digital marketing: paid ads and organic search. Paid ads are advertisements that appear in different places on the internet, such as search results pages and blogs. These ads aren’t always sponsored; sometimes they’re paid placements that appear organically within search results. Organic search refers to the unpaid listings on search engines like Google. Businesses pay for these organic appearances, which means that they appear above the fold on the search results page.
Comparing digital marketing and traditional marketing
Digital marketing and traditional marketing are different in many ways. Firstly, digital marketing doesn’t require any physical assets. Traditional marketing requires physical collateral like brochures, flyers or billboards. Printing and producing these types of collateral can be costly, time consuming and not environmentally friendly. Digital marketing allows you to reach a wider range of audiences with a lower campaign budget. It is also more effective in targeting consumers based on their interests and behaviours. While the benefits of digital marketing are numerous, it doesn’t mean that traditional marketing is obsolete and should be completely removed from marketing campaigns.
Selecting the best strategy for your business
Is traditional or digital marketing more effective? One marketing strategy is not inherently better than the other. It depends on several factors. One thing to consider is your overall marketing campaign’s objectives – are you trying to build brand awareness or are you aiming to increase conversions and want to have more people buying your products? Traditional marketing can be effective in building brand awareness. For example, by having advertisements displayed on pillars in MRT stations or within trains, you increase the exposure of your brand immediately. By increasing brand awareness, you increase the chances that people buy your products.
It also depends on your target audiences. If you’re marketing to Gen Z consumers, focus more heavily on a digital strategy. Leverage social ads and build a strong social presence. This way you tap their voracious appetites for social video content and social commerce.
Devise an effective marketing strategy with BDSA
BDSA is an integrated marketing agency in Singapore that helps you develop a brand strategy. Read more about our case study on Be Ware Waxing and how we merged traditional marketing strategies with digital strategies. Learn how you can offset marketing costs with Enterprise Singapore’s Enterprise Development Grant for SMEs with BDSA.
Speak to us today to learn more.
