The importance of combing digital with traditional marketing

In the past few years, marketing has become a vital part of the way organisations operate. Nowadays, digital marketing is more commonly used, meaning that the majority of promotions, campaigns and advertisements are now happening online. But is that the r

It is quite common for marketers to state that online marketing and advertising is only way to go and that website advertisements, email newsletters and social media campaigns will always offer the best results. However, although there are good arguments in favour and a large amount of the world population is actually online most of the time, a combination of both digital/online marketing methods along with more traditional marketing methods is probably the right approach as not everyone has access to digital platforms and traditional marketing methods still hold a certain amount of sway in some cases.

While some products or services perform better when marketed online, others perform better if marketed offline, in a more traditional manner. Below are a few methods on ways to combine digital and traditional marketing together in order to achieve the best possible results.

Advertising

Both traditional and digital advertising share the same principle, that of attracting different customers towards the business. However, as previously mentioned, abandoning one with the hope of increasing the other would be foolhardy and have less of an impact for the business. Adverts through social media such as Instagram and Facebook can deliver a message very quickly and efficiently to an audience while offline ads through television and newspaper can deliver similar messaging to an offline audience where information is digested in a different manner. It’s important for a marketer to focus on both means in order to attract as many customers as possible.

Online for offline sales

Digital marketing has undoubtedly introduced a wide array of strategies and methods for modern day marketing, besides being much faster, appealing and efficient in reaching potential customers. Although traditional marketing is on a lower scale by comparison, it still has its own sense of power that can win people over. Hand in hand, they can work better. For example using traditional marketing methods such as billboards by means of digital software would show the customer exactly what is being offered through the billboard and can complement both visual merchandising and goods being displayed. Word of mouth marketing is another form of traditional marketing, but thanks to social media platforms such as Facebook it is now much easier for word to spread about one’s business through digital platforms in a tradition manner, which would all result in future sales and customers.

Promotions

A tried and tested method of promotion is when a company decides to use traditional marketing methods to inform people of a website and reminds them to check it out. By doing this, the potential customer would be taking a journey across the marketing funnel. This is a good way to balance out both marketing methods and achieve the best possible results. A user friendly digital marketing platform would also be required to ensure the customer gets the best possible experience and to get the best results in the campaign. If one element is overlooked the whole funnel and chain is at risk.

Content is king

One of the best ways to gain publicity and attract customers, is through good content writing. Both forms of marketing require well written content which should consist of detailed explanations and product/service information and conveyed in an attractive manner. Different methods of content writing are required for digital and tradition platforms. For example, billboard content must be short, sweet and informative whilst a blog post should be longer and more informative to the readers. Out of the box ideas and publicity stunts tend to appeal most to viewers as they catch the customers eye the most.

Overall, one must realise that these two marketing methods are not intended to oppose each other but instead should complement one another and work hand in hand. Using the strengths of both methods will be the stepping stone to a great marketing campaign. The next step is to learn how to maximize your marketing efforts to achieve the best results from each and every marketing campaign.