Can traditional marketing be effective?

Marketing teams have adapted to changes every decade, but the biggest and most prominent switch marketers have made the one from traditional to digital. Gone are the days marketers solely rely on newspaper features and telemarketing to promote products. Instead, marketing has evolved to a service that has blended the best traditional mediums have to offer with everything digital platforms have.

But, as marketers, a new year signifies new opportunities. So, the big question is: How can we use traditional marketing in a digital world? Is it still effective?

The answer to both those questions is Yes and Yes.

The evolving nature of the Internet and how people consume information allows traditional marketing to be alive and influential in today’s predominantly digital environment. While access to information has shifted online, rendering traditional marketing methods ineffective, some practices can be adapted to work online.

This blog looks at how traditional marketing can be effective in a digital environment.

Connecting with a local audience

Suppose your brand is trying to connect with a local audience or a smaller demographic. In that case, traditional marketing can be very effective, as it helps build a personal connection with your target market. Customers want to build lasting relationships with brands and will choose a business that understands their needs and communicates them through a suitable medium.

Traditional marketing methods like local TV commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, flyers and billboards are designed to be more organic and less corporate. They help place your brand at the heart of local communities, yielding positive results for your product/service.

Establish credibility

It doesn’t matter how technology consumes us or how digital our systems become, for most of us, credibility is synonymous with traditional communication mediums. Traditional marketing offers brands more credibility in the digital world than online marketing. While digital marketing provides greater reach, they can fall back on the credibility of information with the ease of spreading fake news online.

Marketing collateral on printed mediums is trustworthy for most consumers and a sign of an established brand with bigger budgets. When a company advertises its products/services through means like TV/radio commercials, billboards, or magazine ads, it denotes your brand having the financial means to market your product.

Target diverse audiences

Digital marketing has many USPs, one of which is the ability to target and track a specific audience. However, the best way to ensure maximum exposure is to blend digital and traditional marketing methods.

Running a digital media campaign and adapting materials for traditional mediums means you target a more significant and diverse audience. For smaller businesses, connecting with such audiences means exponential growth and a chance to attract potential customers.

Sustainable promotional material

Probably the biggest downside of digital marketing is the reduced attention span among consumers today. We’re easily bored and can’t be bothered if we don’t find a brand genuine or attractive enough. Moreover, digital marketing means constantly reminding customers of your products and services with weekly scheduled content, EDMs and more.

With traditional marketing, you can impress your audience and have more sustainability. Brands can gain more traction from TV commercials, brochures, and flyers than they would on a digital marketing campaign. This also means that marketers don’t need to produce new material daily.

Scalable with longevity

Traditional marketing methods like TV commercials can be expensive, but once executed can target people anywhere in the world. In addition, traditional marketing allows easy scalability of your business because of accessibility and reach.

Moreover, standard forms of traditional marketing, like print ads, are still relevant today. Even with the rise of new technologies, the world still relies on conventional mediums for information due to trust and credibility.

In conclusion, we’d like to say that while digital is the new normal, traditional marketing isn’t going anywhere. Its relevance and influence are the foundation of marketing, even online.

For some brands, digital may be the best approach, while for some, traditional. As marketers, we must ensure our brands receive maximum exposure, and for that, we must use all marketing methods available, both traditional and digital.