Traditional Marketing Vs Social Media Marketing

How much has changed since the emergence of social media marketing! Has traditional marketing taken a back seat? Where are businesses investing their money for ads? A lot of these questions have been on debate for a while now. Many don’t know which option to choose and many don’t know which medium suits their business the most. A decade ago, social media was just about sharing pictures and keeping in touch with friends and family. Remember ‘myspace’? Obviously, a lot has changed over the years. Social media is rapidly becoming the source of almost everything, including news, e-commerce, entertainment, and so on. The rise of social media has inherently changed the game for traditional marketing. According to sources, digital ad spending reached $209 billion worldwide whereas TV brought in $178 billion in 2017. Now, let’s explore the differences between the two.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional media such as television, radio, print, etc. has been the forefront medium for marketing for decades. It has created exposure for many brands, and its simplicity and familiarity makes it a medium that’s easy to understand by many. Posters and flyers are easy to carry around, can be read anytime, and does not need internet connection. Studies have also suggested that hard copy marketing is easier to process mentally and recall.

However, traditional marketing is expensive. The slot that you get, whether it’s television, radio, or in a newspaper, affects the kind of exposure your business gets. Therefore, to get prime spots, one has to invest more money. There is no way to measure how many people your ad has reached though. Most importantly, there is very little to no interaction between the brand and the audience. It is also impossible to save information from traditional media. For example, there is no way people save newspapers for a long time and ads don’t run forever.

Social Media Marketing

Studies have shown that 91% of retail brands uses 2 or more social media platforms for marketing purposes. With a global population of 4 billion active internet users and out of which, 3 billion are active social media users, it is no wonder that digital marketing has sky-rocketed in the last few years. Social media does not limit your brand’s reach or one can even geo-target a particular range of area, the content is easily distributed, and saves money. Through this medium, there is more engagement between the brand and audience since it is a highly responsive community. This also results in better understanding of customers and improvements can be made to products and services. Campaigns are a lot easier to implement and real-time analytics of the project can also be obtained.

Since social media marketing involves constant monitoring, there is a need to hire professional resources. It also requires clear marketing strategies, without which a brand might not see the real benefits. There are many tools that brands can use in order to increase their reach. However, without professional help, there is a risk that paid advertisements maybe targeting wrong audience. It is important to understand that social media marketing is not as casual as just posting pictures and videos. Therefore, it requires familiarity, attentiveness, and education.

In conclusion, one cannot brush off one medium for the other. A multi-channel approach that leverages the benefits of traditional and the convenience of digital marketing will perform the best. Certain marketing strategy can be more successful through traditional media and others fit for social media. Sometimes, a campaign might require both mediums. So what should your brand do? Consider your products and services, target audience, have a clear goal of your campaign, consider your budget, and utilize the medium that’s going to give you the maximum reach in minimum cost.

Contact Clatter Chatter at +1 650-296-2506 for all queries on social media marketing.