There is absolutely no doubt about the fact that marketing is an indispensable part of any business which no business can ignore. A wise entrepreneur, who wishes to see his business expand, will definitely set aside a part of his budget for his marketing efforts. However, these days the debate is not about whether marketing is needed or not but about the kind of marketing effort needed. The debate mainly centers around traditional marketing versus digital marketing and it helps to understand the digital marketing logic too.

What is Traditional Marketing?

It refers to the conventional methods used ever since the concept of marketing or advertisements came into being. Traditional marketing is primarily done through:

• Newspapers
• Flyers
• Radio
• Television
• Magazine advertisements
• Billboard advertisements are seen along roads and highways

What is Digital Marketing?

It is the new-age method of marketing being embraced by more and more businesses. With the internet finding its application and benefit in every aspect of life, marketing too has managed to not only create awareness or promote brands through it, but also give them a global platform to reach a wider customer base. Digital marketing encompasses the following:

• Search Engine like Google and Bing.
• Business networking sites such as LinkedIn
• Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube
• Paid pop-up ads
• Blogs
• Click-baiting URLs for viral content marketing.

Let us try to analyze why digital marketing has gained popularity over the years and left its traditional cousin far behind.

Some of the advantages that digital marketing offers over the traditional forms are:

1. Low cost: Advertising through the internet is quite affordable and because of this, small start-ups can also afford to take on big and established giants like Amazon whose pockets run deep.  Same is not the case with ads in the print media or television where a lot of funds are required.
2. Instant results: Digital marketing gives almost instant results in the form of a number of visitors, conversion rate, busiest period of the day and bounce rate too. This helps the marketing team to tweak the marketing campaign if they feel that it is not yielding the results desired. Same is not the case with traditional marketing where there is a time lag between the ad campaign and visible results.
3. It is not intrusive: Online ads give people the power to choose to see them or not, read or ignore a marketing mail or participate or abstain from a social media discussion group. Thus, they do not impinge on an individual’s feelings of privacy. These ads can also be tailored to a specific audience depending on the product or service being marketed. Thus, these online ads turn out to be more productive. This is in contrast to the ads placed in newspapers and magazines and on television where users do not have the option of ignoring them.
4. Exposure is far more: The reach of digital marketing is far more. An online ad campaign can reach out even to the whole world while the reach of pamphlets or magazine ads or even a TV commercial could be restricted to a particular area.
5. It leads to greater brand development: Traditional marketing is limited by space constraints and budgetary constraints as well and thus may have low frequency. This may result in the lower recall of the product or service and thus, fewer sales. Digital marketing, on the other hand, helps to build a brand consistently and over a period of time. Instead of a small space in a newspaper or magazine, it is possible to own an entire website and showcase your product or service there.
6. It keeps the viewer engaged and thus more interested: Digital marketing allows the entrepreneur or his marketing team to interact with the users. This is a big improvement over the traditional mode where there is usually a time lapse before the user reaction can be gauged. With digital marketing being more interactive, the feedback is almost instant and steps can be taken to tailor the product or service as per the demands of the users. The audience can also be kept engaged in chats and discussions about registering better brand presence. But it should be kept in mind that this definitely means that more time needs to be devoted.
7. Publicity is also quicker: As the feedback is almost instant, the publicity is also instant. Digital marketing works like a chain reaction giving the newer audience and earning the business a newer customer with every passing second.
8. Easy analytics: With the help of Google Analytics, it becomes very easy to see which strategy is working and which is not. Thus, the marketing team can almost instantaneously make the needed changes.
9. It can easily adapt to multitasking: one of its biggest advantages is that it can attend to millions of customers at the same time. A huge number of buying and selling transactions can take place at the same time without diminishing the satisfaction of each individual consumer.
10. 24-hour based marketing: One of the biggest advantages that digital marketing has over traditional marketing is that the online ad campaign can run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is no constraint of opening or closing hours, nor extra payment to the employees for over time. Customers search for the product of their liking at an hour that is suitable for them.
11. Viral: How often do you pass the sale flyers and pamphlets that you receive to others? You hardly do it. In contrast, a Facebook post that you have shared, even if liked by 15 other people instantly gets you, 15 new prospective customers.

Conclusion: This is not to say that traditional marketing has no significance anymore. People still relate to it and it is a fact that physical material is more real to the brain. The two should support each other rather than work in exclusion.