The primary difference between digital and traditional marketing is the medium by which an audience receives your marketing message. Traditional marketing means communication goes through traditional media such as TV, magazines, or newspapers. Digital marketing means your followers receive the message via digital platforms such as social media, or your website.

There are other key differences as well:

1. Cost

Traditional marketing tends to be more expensive. After all, it promotes products through TV, radio, and print—all of which are known to be expensive platforms. Other platforms such as out-of-home advertising like billboards, banners, flyers, sponsorships, and door-to-door advertising, are similarly expensive.

Promoting products via digital platforms is more cost-efficient. Advertising on your own website won’t cost you anything, nor will using your own social media platforms. If you choose to advertise, the cost is scalable according to your budget. This means you can spend as much as your budget currently allows—and down the line, when you have more money to spend on ads, you can boost your ad reach.

2. Metrics

The effectiveness of traditional marketing can be difficult to measure. For TV, radio, and print, you have to depend on the station’s or publication’s computation to get accurate results. On the other hand, digital marketing platforms have built-in analytics tools that can provide in-depth reports on how your marketing efforts are doing. This allows you to improve your strategy and tweak them depending on the data you gather.

3. Engagement

Traditional marketing is known to be prominent and visible, but it doesn’t allow much opportunity for your brand to actually engage with customers. So, while any marketing effort that you produce will definitely be seen, you’re not quite sure how impactful it will be. On digital platforms, your audience can easily interact and react to whatever you post. They can show their approval or disapproval, engage in conversation, ask questions, add comments—basically giving you a clear picture of the impression your advertising and marketing efforts have on your audience.

4. Longevity

Given the cost of traditional marketing, it only makes sense that their platforms are more permanent than digital platforms. As long as you have the budget to keep your commercials running on TV and radio, or the money to keep your billboards up, then your message will basically be visible. Digital ads tend to be more fleeting and have a shorter shelf life.

However, it’s easier to evolve your digital marketing efforts to keep them more relevant. It’s also much faster to amend your messaging so that it remains informative and appropriate for your target audience, and extends its relevance.

Bottom Line…

The key differences between both platforms are advantages and disadvantages for your business. Figuring out what works for your brand is tied to your understanding of your unique marketing needs.

If you have questions, feel free to comment below or join the conversation on Twitter or LinkedIn.