If you were to search for articles on building a strategy for your marketing efforts, you'd get a whole heap of advice on how to build a successful digital marketing strategy. That's all fine and dandy, but what about traditional marketing? Has the sun set on its benefits? Or is it possible that traditional marketing can still play a huge role in feeding your digital strategy? To answer these questions, first we need to define what the heck it is we're talking about. Let's take a look at what exactly these terms mean, and how they can work together to build a beefy marketing strategy.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing can be easily summed up as any marketing efforts that are carried out online. It can refer to email campaigns, social media marketing, general SEO and website best practices, and paid advertisements. When digital marketing first showed up on the marketing scene, it was like Elvis had entered the building. Suddenly marketers were able to accurately track their efforts. Through email automation software like Hubspot, they were able to measure email campaign success. Were people clicking on their emails? Were they following the embedded links or downloading the content offers?
How Digital Marketing Changed the Game
It also allowed marketers to speak directly to their audience to gain a better understand of who they were. They could capture names, job titles, age range, email, gender, you name it. Once they had an understanding of who they were talking to, they were then able to craft marketing messages that were more specific to their audience. And best of all, data tracking allowed them to see what was working and what wasn't. Marketers could finally test certain strategies and view the competing success rates.
As a professional who spends his or her time being contracted by another company, it's nice to be able to quantify you're value. Marketers were now able to reach out to potential prospects all over the world with a tailored message, track their results, and prove their worth to their clients through ROI.
WHAT IS Traditional MARKETING?
Think of traditional marketing as your grandfather's marketing. It typically takes the format of television ads, print ads, billboards, radio commercials, and direct mail. But just because this marketing is a little old school doesn't mean it doesn't carry value. From hipster mustaches to sunny day rompers, old school is back in. The same is true for your marketing. Traditional marketing avenues actually pack a lot of punch when it comes to getting in front of your customers.
How Traditional Marketing Keeps Your Game Strong
Here's the secret about traditional marketing: all the technology that made digital marketing possible also made traditional marketing high tech. Let's take direct mail for example. Now, you can use software to personalize your mailers, just like you would an email. If you're thinking that direct mail sounds like a dinosaur, consider the fact that it actually has a response rate of 4.4%, as opposed to email's .12%. Likewise, television and radio ads aren't just a method of yesteryear. Instead, they've grown with the times and still reach a large audience. Radio ads can take the route of actual radio, streaming services like Pandora or Spotify, and even podcasts. The same is true of television. While most millennials aren't investing in cable, they are streaming apps like Hulu and other viewing services that include ads.
What Does a Unified Traditional and Digital Marketing Strategy Look Like?
When it comes to picking a strategy, you don't have to choose between one or the other. In fact, a truly wicked marketing strategy is one that implements both traditional and digital marketing. So what are the real world ways in which you can weave these two together for the ultimate approach? For starters, think of traditional as a means of pushing people to your digital, which you can then measure. If you sponsor a podcast with a radio ad that offers a discount code, you can then track how many customers are buying your products through this particular code. The same is true of any code or hashtag that is applied to print ads or billboard. With the use of QR odes, you can even give people the ability to scan your direct mail and access specific web pages with their phone.
When tracking how well your traditional marketing is pushing people to your digital, it'll help to create unique landing pages for each touch. If you create a direct mail piece that just pushes people to your homepage, how can you track whether or not it's working? However, if you create a direct mail piece that pushes someone to a unique landing page, you'll know the success rate of your campaign. The same is true of creating forms. You can include a field that asks how prospects heard about you, which will tell you where most of your customers are hanging out.
Are you currently using both digital and traditional marketing methods? If so, tell us how in the comments below. We're always game for fresh ideas!
If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy these other, related blogs:
- Why Traditional Marketing Doesn't Get the Job Done
- How to Create SMART Goals
- How to Use Keywords in 2019 For Your Digital Strategy
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