Difference between Internet marketing and Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing:
Traditional marketing refers to the conventional methods of marketing used ever since the concept of advertisements or marketing came into existence. This primarily includes the following modes for brand promotion:
- Flyers
- Newspaper
- Radio
- Television
- Billboard advertising along roads and highways
- Magazine ads
Internet (Digital) marketing:
Digital marketing is the new age marketing method of the global realm. With internet finding its application and benefit in every aspect of life, marketing too has managed to not only create awareness or promote brands through it, but also give them a global platform to reach a wider customer base. It includes the following:
- Business networking sites such as LinkedIn
- Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
- Email marketing Paid pop-up ads
- Blogs
- Click baiting URLs for viral content marketing
Although all the marketing techniques used in digital marketing appear similar, online marketing is far more versatile mode of marketing than conventional one.
Difference between Internet marketing and Traditional Marketing
Internet marketing differs notably from conventional marketing communications because of the digital medium used for communications. The Internet and other digital media such as digital television and mobile phones facilitate new forms of interaction and new models for information exchange. A useful summary of the differences between these is as below:
1. Interactivity :
The following characteristics inherent in a digital medium which are true for online marketing activity.
- The customer initiates contact
- The customer is seeking information (pull)
- It is a high intensity medium – the marketer will have 100 per cent of the individual’s attention when he/she is viewing a website
- A company can gather and store the response of the individual
- Individual needs of the customer can be addressed and taken into account in future dialogues
2. Intelligence :
The Internet can be used as a relatively low cost method of collecting marketing research, particularly about customer perceptions of products and services. A wealth of marketing research information is also available from the website itself. Marketers use the web analytics approaches to build their knowledge of customer preferences and behavior according to the types of sites and content which they consume when online.
3. Individualization :
Another important feature of the interactive marketing communications is that they can be tailored to the individual at relatively low costs, unlike in traditional media where the same message tends to be broadcast to everyone. Importantly, this individualization can be based on the intelligence collected about same visitors and then stored in a database and subsequently used to target and personalize communications to customers to achieve relevance in all media. The process of tailoring is also referred to as personalization – Amazon is the most widely known example where the customer is greeted by name on the website and receives recommendations on site and in their e-mails based on previous purchases. This ability to deliver ‘sense and respond communications’ is another key feature of Internet marketing.
Another example of personalization is that achieved by business-to-business e-tailer RS Components (www.rswww.com). Every customer who accesses their system profiled according to their area of product interest and information ascribing their role in the buying unit. When they next visit the site information will be displayed relevant to their product interest, for example office products and promotions if this is what was selected. This is an example of what is known as mass customization where generic customer information is supplied for particular segments, i.e. the information is not unique to individuals, but is relevant to those with a common interest.
4. Industry Restructuring :
Disintermediation and reinter mediation are key concepts of industry restructuring that should consider by any company developing an E-Marketing strategy. For the marketer defining their company’s communications strategy it becomes very important to consider the company’s representation on these intermediary sites by answering questions such as ‘Which intermediaries should represented on?’ and ‘How do offerings compare or competitors to those of competitors in terms of features, benefits and price?’.
5. Independence of Location :
Electronic media also introduce the possibility of increasing the reach of company communications to the global market. This gives opportunities to sell into international markets that may not have been previously possible. The Internet makes it possible to sell to a country without a local sales or customer service force. In such situations and with the restructuring in conjunction with disintermediation and reinter mediation; strategist also needs to carefully consider channel conflicts that may arise. If a customer is buying direct from a company in another country rather than via the agent. This will marginalize the business of the local agent who may want some recompense for sales efforts; or may look for a partnership with competitors.
Benefits of Digital Marketing over Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing has its own advantages but there is no doubt that internet marketing has set a revolution ablaze. It has some clear winning benefits over traditional marketing and some of those are mentioned below.
1. Low Cost:
While newspaper, television and other such media ads cost a lot, advertising through the internet is quite affordable. This in turn means greater fraction of the budget to enhance business.
2. Real Time Result:
Digital marketing has an edge over traditional marketing since it is able to give quick results, while the latter keeps you waiting for long before showing any results. With online marketing you can measure and view everything from number of visitors, conversion rate, busiest period of the day and bounce rate too with ease.
3. Brand Development:
When the question of brand image arises among digital marketing vs traditional marketing, digital marketing has an added advantage. Due to the limitation of space and low frequency of advertisements as is the case with conventional marketing, it loses at the hands of the online marketing. Instead of a small column in a newspaper, you can own an entire website and showcase your ads or promote your brand whenever you want with the help of a social media page or your blog, unlike traditional marketing. This helps to build an image of your brand consistently.
4. Non-intrusive:
People do not purchase a newspaper to look at the ads or watch a television to be interrupted by commercials, hence usually advertisements featured through such media go ignored. However, with online ads, one has the power to choose to see an ad or not, participate in a social media discussion group or read or ignore a marketing email. Besides, you can also target a specific audience for these ads which. All of this makes these ads more wanted and far more likely to generate leads. Hence by being non-intrusive and non-annoying as opposed to the traditional marketing, digital marketing has more potential to give desirable results.
5. Greater Exposure:
Any traditional form of marketing device, be it television commercials or a newspaper ad, can only cover a certain area or population sector of a region. As opposed to this, an online advertisement has the ability to reach out to a widespread population, even the whole of world.
6. Better Engagement:
No traditional marketing mode, allows you to interact with your audience and really engage them with your brand. With such marketing channels you have to wait to gain response only after which can you take any further step. However, with digital marketing strategies, you can not only interact with your targeted audience in the real time, but also make prompt and fruitful steps based on their quick feedbacks. You can also engage your audience in chats and discussions for registering better brand presence and gain passive advice to improve your product or service. Of course, the latter means that you need to be available and invest in more time for the engagement through a PR team.
7. Quicker Publicity:
Owing to real time results with digital marketing, you get instant publicity and even if you do not, you can instantly know which of your ad isn’t working. The debate for traditional vs. Digital marketing is out of question here since the former falls way behind in this regard due to to lack of such a scope. On the other hand, the latter works like a chain reaction giving you newer audience and earning you a newer customer with every passing nanosecond.
8. Works for Every Stage or Field:
Digital marketing vs traditional marketing battle often falls in the winning hands of online marketing arena; with certain benefits you cannot ignore with the former. Digital marketing allows even small businesses with a handful of staff members to expand their brand presence and manage advertising and marketing front; which of course cannot be held true with traditional marketing methods. Which renders the small businesses and start ups at disadvantage.
9. Easy Analytics:
With digital marketing measuring the your marketing efforts becomes very easy and quick. You can instantly see which strategy is working and which isn’t through Google Analytics; besides other aspects too such as general trend, inbound traffic, conversion rate, interested audience, bounce rate and profit. This all makes the digital marketing vs traditional marketing debate; highly unfair by putting the former on the winning side by a wide margin.
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