Deconstructing the Marketing- Traditional vs Digital?

Are you overwhelmed with the concept of Marketing? Or Do you find it difficult to decide what information should you share with your customers? Or Are you confused in deciding about the methods you should choose to reach out to your customers?

If these are the questions in your mind, this article may help you in understanding the basic concept of marketing and various methods to do marketing.

What is Marketing?

First, let’s start by understanding what Marketing is? In simple terms, you need to provide the information about your product or services to the right audience at the right time — and means or resources you use to accomplish that is “Marketing”. If you are building world-class product/service but no one knows about it- that product/service is of no use. And this is where Marketing becomes very critical.

Types of Marketing

Next, let’s understand- how can we reach out to our prospective customers. There are two ways to reach out to customers:

A. Traditional Marketing

B. Digital Marketing

Now let’s try to understand each of these methods one by one.

A. Traditional Marketing:

You might have seen Billboard displaying ads while driving your car on a highway. You might have also seen cola or chips ads while watching your favorite serial on TV. These are the traditional method of marketing. Some of the other traditional methods are Newspaper ads, pamphlets, etc.

TV ads are still one of the best methods of reaching a wider audience. The positive side of Traditional marketing is reaching a wider audience. Think of locations where the internet is still not that prevalent (-that where digital marketing is) but TV is almost everywhere!

The flip side is that content is static and it is expensive (Think how much Virat Kohli is charging for one Lays ad ! See the brand value of celebrities in picture below). That is why you keep on seeing the same coca-cola ad for a long time — because it is expensive to shoot the new TV ad or change the celebrity for that matter.

Similarly- you see the same billboard, with the same ad, at the same place. (You wish to see different billboards in boring traffic Jam)

A. Digital Marketing

Now let’s discuss what Digital Marketing is.

Do you see the ad for “Adidas shoe” you searched on google, appearing on your Facebook page? Or Do you wonder how are you getting emails about “great learning AI/ML course” every week? — This is through digital marketing done by these companies.

Digital Marketing is the method of reaching out to the audience through the internet. Digital Marketing has been gaining popularity and has become the primary mode of marketing because of the internet’s reach. You can identify your target customers and reach out to them easily. It is less expensive — You can start your product marketing digitally even with $10. You can track the performance of your marketing and modify your marketing content accordingly. because of the ability to reach targeted customers who may be interested in your product. You can personalize your content based on your audience.

The flip side is that you can reach only an audience who have internet access. But this also is getting blurred by combining Digital use of traditional marketing ( have you seen digital billboards displaying changing ads, or see the next generation ad below )

Types of Digital Marketing

Some of the common digital marketing methods are:

1. Search Engine Marketing (PPC)
2. Search Engine Optimization (Organic Traffic)
3. Email Marketing
4. Social Media Marketing
5. Digital Display Marketing
6. Content Marketing
7. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)- SEM is done by paying google (or other search engines) to show your product/page higher on the list when customers search the relevant keyword. This is very effective as you get the filtered prospective customers who are looking for your product and chances of conversion are high. Also, you pay only when the user clicks on your page. The only flip side is the cost. Some keywords are charged $30-$40 for each click. Dropbox was paying $228 for each customer acquisition when they started (for the $99 plan paid by the customer).

2. Search Engine Optimization(SEO)- SEO is the same as SEM but through the organic method (without paying). If you can improve your keyword search ranking through your content, product reviews, or any such method- there is no better way than this! But as the world is not fair- You will have to fight with competitions who can afford to pay for SEM.

3. Email Marketing- Email marketing is reaching out to customers through emails. So you have first collected their contact information(email) through content, subscription, or other lead generation method and then keep them engaged and providing value to them through your emails. The ultimate goal to convert those leads to your customers. The flip side is not to bore your prospects with irrelevant information- otherwise, Un-subscription is just one click away ( Only if you have given the option to unsubscribe- if not — that is another problem in itself!)

4. Social Media Marketing- This is what I meant when I said “do you see that adidas-shoe ad on your Facebook page. This is a very effective method of marketing if done correctly. This gives you a way to identify your target prospects correctly and nudge them at the right time to convert them to customers. Facebook, Youtube, or other social media ads are examples. Another caution here is to keep your ads relevant.

5. Digital Display Marketing- Digital display marketing is like ads on newspapers. You may advertise on an online blog or relevant page for your product. But here again, you need to be careful to provide only relevant ads and not irritate the end customer with your ad. Although even irritation does have some recall value, you have to walk the thin line here. Do you remember the “Trivago” ad?

6. Content Marketing- In my opinion, Content Marketing is the best marketing strategy where you attract your potential customers through the quality content you create and then engage them in a meaningful manner. This is where the “Integrated Digital Marketing” concept comes into the picture. You need to integrate quality content with Email, Search Engine, Social Media, Ads and convert prospects into customers.

Few things to consider while designing an Integrated Digital Marketing strategy:

1. Create content what people want to read or care about, not what you like

2. Make the content enriching by using images, videos, infographics, etc

3. Be active on social media and integrate your content with social media (give the option to share your content)

4. Use email and SEO/SEM effectively to nurture your leads

Build trust with your audience, Trust comes only with empathy and Integrity. Empathy is understanding your audience and Integrity is providing the value you are promising.

Next Steps

These are just the basic things which you can start with. It takes a lot of learning, practice, and experimentation to find the sweet spot to do marketing your product. I hope this gives a basic understanding of marketing. Would love to know your feedback in the comments.