Traditional and Digital Marketing: How to Integrate the Two Strategies
This publication will highlight how people can bring back the traditional marketing strategies and integrate them into the newer digital strategies that have taken the world by storm.
Today, all businesses are embracing pro digital marketing strategies. Whether it is posting a promotion online or having a website or social media page, these efforts are working well in this era. However, this shift of focus towards technology has also seen many businesses forget about the traditional marketing strategies that existed a couple of decades ago. Even though they are old, they still have their advantages and can still boost sales.
What Is Traditional Marketing?
So, some of us vividly remember how newspapers were filled with ads a few decades ago. Still, we can clearly remember how companies would struggle to get a billboard space when they came into the market. Although television ads have been around for many years, they are still relevant after the arrival of computers and smartphones. Brochures and leaflets may not be known by this generation, but they used to be powerful marketing tools for different companies. All these and more are the main strategies used in traditional marketing.
Their main advantage is that they are very responsive and personalized. For instance, people would value and keep the brochures issued to them as a point of reference. Television and radio ads reach many people within a short time as long as they are switched to the channels and frequencies where the advertisements play. Traditional marketing strategies are the best in creating a lasting memory. If you ask elderly people, they can still mention a track that played during their favorite TV ad in the 70s.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Shifting our focus to the current marketing trends, we can highlight all the differences with ease. Today, we have almost completely new strategies that businesses are using to target customers and reach their targets. With a personal website, any business can have a starting point for their digital marketing. This is the first platform they use to create awareness of their existence to the potential clients. Other ways used include backlinking of web pages, social media marketing, direct emails and newsletters among many others.
One good thing about digital marketing is that market targeting is not only possible but more accurate. With an ideally enhanced website and SEO strategies, the company can have a global visibility within no time. Social media marketing is also effective and interactive, especially nowadays when a large population of the world is using one or more social media platforms.
Integrating Traditional and Digital Marketing
- The easiest and commonest approach to bringing these two strategies together is by adding your digital accounts on the printed ads. For instance, we have all seen advertisers including their website address, social media accounts and any other online address on a billboard. As people become intrigued by the colors, images and writing on the printed ad, they also see a Facebook or Twitter page address written below. This is effective because people can always search the addresses the next time they go online using their smartphones or PCs.
- Using TV ads to draw people to the appropriate landing page of your website is becoming common. We all know that TV ads are expensive and run only for a short time. However, they are highly effective and fast. According to reports, over 20 percent of the viewers may become interested in watching a TV advertisement. Therefore, it is crucial to quickly highlight the appropriate page or website they can visit to view more information. This has worked perfectly, and it is predicted to be an effective marketing trend now and in the near future.
- Another popular trend in print media advertisements is the inclusion of a barcode or QR code that leads to your appropriate web page or social media page. People still read newspapers and printed magazines. They are sold all over or placed in barber shops and beauty parlors for people to read as they receive services. If you read the ads section today, you are likely to find a barcode or QR code that you can scan with your phone and be directed to a specific page without having to type any address. This is an effective way of bringing traffic to a webpage for more sales.
- Businesses can also run digital newsletter and magazine campaigns using direct emails. After collecting such contact details from various sources, why not have a newsletter, digital brochure or flyer sent directly to their inbox? Today, most organizations are working hard so that they can convert their printed media into digital media and send the digital media to people’s email addresses. Others are shared on social media pages and websites effectively.
- Lastly, word of mouth, which is an effective traditional marketing method, can be used to inform people of the existence of social media pages or a website. In most cases, this happens at the point of sale where the sales agents make all the efforts to ensure that the customers know this. It is also at this point that people can be informed that the business has an online buying platform, which is convenient.
Conclusion
Even though more businesses are interested in focusing on digital marketing, integrating the two strategies as seen above will have more benefits. It is good to strategize and analyze the benefits of bringing them together. Those businesses that have already done this can attest how fruitful it is. Do not be left behind whether you are a seasoned business or a startup.