For a long time, traditional advertising was how everyone marketed products, but today we’re going to give you five reasons why you need more than traditional advertising if you want to succeed.
The fact is that traditional advertising has been dying for years, and yet even now, it feels like the concept persists in Africa, more specifically in Cameroon. While the concept worked easily years ago, that was before our culture experienced a communication boom that left consumers wanting more than just to listen.
The drawbacks of tradition
Traditional advertising is very direct. Most ads try to put themselves in front of you, explaining why you need the product. A billboard is a good example, along with magazine ads or even radio ads. Back then, these types of ads were classified into the outdoor, print and broadcast categories.
The advantage of these methods was exposure. A billboard or an ad on the side of a bus is seen by a multitude of people. Radio ads are heard by all listeners. This same style of advertising also made its way onto the internet with banner ads that appear when you read an article on your favorite website (a bit like a magazine) or ads that appear on streaming sites.
So why is it bad or outdated? One of the main reasons is that this style is very interruptive (pops up in your eyes) while not being targeted. In general, this ends up being a very negative experience, because today’s consumer has been so overwhelmed with ads that they learn to ignore and block the interruptions.
Unless that traditional ad is very clever and appealing, it probably won’t have an impact and, worse still, it may be very difficult to assess the impact it has.
The rise of digital marketing
In response to the digital age, digital marketing developed. It makes sense; the medium evolved, so marketing must evolve too, right? Here are five reasons why you should use digital marketing rather than traditional advertising alone:
1- A greater reach
Everyone uses the internet. Because of this simple fact, digital marketing is going to have a greater reach and put your business in a better position to be in front of a larger share of your customers compared to other marketing models. An ad or a banner simply can’t offer global reach.
Digital marketing can also easily work across multiple channels, promoting not only your business, but also your brand, being as inclusive or exclusive as you want. This expanded reach will improve your ability to influence your target consumers.
2- Better interactions
Traditional advertising is very direct and actually only offers one-way communication; you talk to the customer. Digital marketing allows two-way communication because of the way you can use web pages and social media. People can respond with comments or use an email link for questions or contact information.
This kicks off the important dialogue that leads to comfort and trust between the consumer and the business. It also opens the door to feedback and a better view or understanding of how you can improve your business model and increase customer satisfaction.
3- Much more precision
You really can’t control who sees a billboard or who hears an ad on the radio. But with digital marketing, mechanisms are in place to help you target specific demographics, which makes your marketing more effective. You can adjust age, location, interests, search patterns, popular platform and more. All of this ensures you get the most out of your efforts rather than using any method at random.
4- Tracking results
What’s the return on investment of a traditional marketing plan? It can be very hard to tell, because unless someone specifically tells you, “Oh, I saw that giant billboard,” you may never know how people found out about your business. This isn’t the case with digital marketing, where campaigns are more easily tested and then tracked. You can then analyze the results and compare them to other campaigns, which lets you adjust the strategy and even modify an ongoing campaign to better reach your audience and increase conversions.
5- Nearly instant operation
A huge advantage of digital marketing is that it can happen now. When a campaign is launched, it’s instantly in front of a large part of your target audience. Traditional approaches take time to develop.
You can be sure someone will buy a magazine or newspaper after its publication date, but people surf online and use social media platforms 24/7. Timing is essential in marketing, and the digital option removes the guesswork and lets consumers access your campaign faster, which then leads to faster results at the next stage of the process.
Traditional advertising still serves a purpose and can be part of the overall marketing strategy of some businesses, but it’s not the big part it used to be. We hope these five reasons why you need more than traditional advertising have demonstrated how important it is to have a good digital marketing campaign to promote your business.
If you’d like to use digital marketing to raise awareness of your business and reach your goals more easily, don’t hesitate to contact us.