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Traditional marketing mediums still have a key role to play

Traditional marketing is done offline and without any digital media sources. This form of marketing reaches an offline audience and is often seen as old school because of the evolution of the internet and digital marketing. But, traditional marketing still has a place because of its many advantages.

What is traditional marketing?

Any media that takes place offline is a form of traditional marketing. Examples of digital marketing are billboards, telemarketing, print ads, and TV ads.

  • Billboards, often placed on the side of buildings or along busy roads, are seen by large audiences each day who are passing by. If the billboard is placed in the right spot, it can be seen by hundreds of thousands of people each day.
  • Telemarketing is still a common practice in marketing. Telemarketing is when a salesperson calls a potential customer to try and sell a product or service. This may be invasive or annoying to some people, but it proves successful, depending on the product and buyer.
  • Print ads are preferred by some people, and advertisers, who enjoy physically connecting with a brand or customer. Examples of print ads are catalogues, newspaper ads, and flyers.
  • TV ads, as well as radio ads, have hundreds of thousands of people see and hear them each day.

The advantages of traditional marketing

Although digital marketing has taken over the mainstream, there is still a place for traditional marketing mediums. The advantages this type of marketing offers are:

  1. Traditional marketing is prominent. Digital marketing reaches wide audiences but can easily be skipped or moved on. Traditional marketing is different as it is often difficult to avoid a large building or ad on TV.
  2. Some customers have shown more trust in traditional marketing than digital marketing, and this has been because many traditional marketing methods require less from customers than digital methods. For example, a TV ad only requires you to watch it. Email marketing often requires the person to follow a link, which may seem like a scam to some.
  3. Traditional marketing does not target a specific target market but as many people as possible. Because of this, sometimes traditional marketing methods may reach more people than digital marketing methods.

Although traditional marketing has its advantages, it also has disadvantages.

The disadvantages of traditional marketing

Businesses should understand that traditional marketing has its downsides. Examples of these are:

  1. It is harder to track traditional marketing campaigns than digital ones. For example, digital marketing campaigns allow you to monitor them. Knowing the number of people that have seen a billboard, a newspaper ad, or a TV ad is difficult to track.
  2. It is difficult to market to a target market with traditional marketing. Digital marketing allows marketers to target an audience or niche community, while traditional marketing targets the general public.
  3. Traditional marketing methods are more expensive than digital marketing methods. Posting an ad online is much cheaper than printing newspaper ads or putting up a billboard.

Traditional marketing should be used with digital marketing methods

By using traditional and digital marketing methods, businesses can reach larger audiences. Digital marketing is more targeted and often works faster to achieve results than traditional marketing, but traditional marketing can reach wider audiences and make a brand more recognisable if the campaign has been successful.

The bottom line

Although traditional marketing has become less of a priority than digital marketing, traditional marketing still proves to be useful to many brands. If brands correctly integrate traditional marketing methods with their digital marketing methods, they would be able to reach larger audiences and increase their profits.

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