Marketing is constantly evolving and has come a long way in recent years. Marketing began as soon as the first person had something to sell. In this blog, we’re telling you how digital marketing is different to traditional marketing.
The marketing timeline
Traditional marketing consists of print advertising. After many years, magazines started to feature marketing campaigns, followed by billboards. At the beginning of the 1920s, radio advertising began and was followed by TV advertising less than 20 years later. This was very closely followed by marketing to consumers over the telephone.
In 1973, a Motorola researcher developed the first mobile phone, shortly after this introduction, the first personal computer was manufactured. Through the use of personal computers, print advertising experienced a huge growth in 1985. From 1995, the internet became an extremely popular way for businesses to market their products and attract customers.
In 2003, social media began with LinkedIn and MySpace, closely followed in 2004 by Facebook. Since then we have seen the development of search engine optimisation, email marketing, Twitter, smartphones, online video and e-commerce.
So how is digital marketing different from traditional marketing?
When traditional marketing first began, a lot of the marketing was outbound and consisted of businesses talking at consumers rather than involving them in the marketing process. Over the years, businesses started using magazines, posters, billboards, radio, TV and telephones to advertise their products and services. While these methods of advertising were popular and are still used today, other effective methods have been discovered.
Social media
Since the first mobile phone was introduced in 1973, phones have come a long way, we now carry a device that can do much more than they used to be able to. Within this time and until now, other means have been developed, such as social media platforms. Social media plays a huge role in marketing nowadays. Some social media platforms have really pulled out all the stops in recent years to ensure that they are helpful to businesses and not just for personal use. Most platforms also offer a great place to create paid advertisements.
Targeting
Traditional marketing doesn’t directly link to each consumer, it is often one message designed to target as many people as it can. However with digital marketing, due to advances in technology, businesses can target their demographic from the beginning. Some platforms allow you to select specific ages, locations, job titles to target the exact audience that you need. With clever advances, technology can also be used to retarget consumers who may have previously shown interest in a product or service.
It is much easier for businesses to track and analyse data from digital marketing campaigns in comparison to traditional marketing. For example, with email marketing, if a link is visited from an email and a sale is completed, this can be tracked. If someone sees a business in a magazine and decides to visit the website and make a purchase, there’s no easy way of finding out where this person came across your business. With digital marketing being so helpful in situations such as this, it’s easy to see which areas of your marketing are working well.
When deciding which marketing is right for your company you should remember that you don’t actually have to choose one or the other. You also need to consider who your target audience is so that you can be confident that your chosen strategy will actually reach them.
If you need any assistance with your marketing, please don’t hesitate to contact us, we are more than happy to help.
Leave a Reply