Digital Marketing Vs. Traditional Marketing: Which One is Better for My Business in Dallas

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What is Digital Marketing?

Promoting a brand, product, or service using channels such as email, mobile phones, apps, social media, and websites refers to Digital Marketing.
The content for digital marketing varies for each platform.
For example:

• Marketers use videos and static images for social media marketing.
• For email marketing, they use infographics, survey forms, etc.
• When it comes to content marketing, they use blog posts.

What is Traditional Marketing?

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Any marketing strategy that happens offline refers to traditional marketing. Advertising a product or service through channels, including billboards, television sets, radio, newspapers, magazines, and direct mail, has been widely popular among businesses for decades.
Among the traditional marketing strategies, print advertising was the earliest. It is being said that Egyptians used papyrus, a paper-like material, to communicate sales messages.

Digital Marketing Vs. Traditional Marketing

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Pros & Cons of Digital Marketing

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Advantages of Digital Marketing

1. It is Cost-effective

Digital marketing wins traditional marketing hands down when it comes to cost-effectiveness. For example, you can promote your Dallas business with Google Ads for just $5 a day.
On platforms such as Etsy, the daily budget can be as low as $1 for PPC ads. Some platforms even give you ad credit. For example, Google offers a whopping $500 ad credit when an advertiser spends $500.

2. Can be Optimized Midway

Not every ad campaign is going to be a phenomenal success. While some will skyrocket your sales, some will tank.
This is inevitable when it comes to any form of marketing. The cool part about digital marketing is that one can even turn an unsuccessful campaign into a successful one by optimizing it using user behavior and actions.
Have a look at this Facebook advertising from Har.com. They are rotating the ads and doing A/B testing to find the high converting ads.

3. Gives You a High ROI

Many channels of digital marketing give advertisers a great Return on Investment. To name a few, we have social media, email marketing, and influencer marketing.
For example, in a survey conducted by Campaign Monitor a few years ago, it was revealed that advertisers earned an average of $44 for every $1 spent on email marketing. Isn't it great?
For example, take a look at this email marketing from a web hosting company.

4. Audience Segmentation Possible

Your ads should target customers with a high purchasing intent to make the most out of a marketing campaign as a Dallas-based business.
Segmenting your audience based on their browsing behavior, demographics, device, language, and other criteria is vital for effective targeting. Digital marketing has an arsenal of tools that you can use to categorize your audience in Dallas.
For E.g., Take a look at this Facebook Insights displaying Audience by Age & Gender.

5. Can Measure Results Easily

Scrutinizing a marketing campaign's metrics and key performance indicators are essential to optimize it.
In digital marketing, one can measure their results by tracking specific metrics. For example, you can find your traffic sources, returning visitors, cost per lead, etc.
For Example, Have a look at the traffic analysis data for a website from SEMRush.
Digital marketing tools usually have a centralized dashboard to view the metrics of your campaign.

Disadvantages of Digital Marketing

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1. Need Professional Help

If you are interested in DIY digital marketing, you may face a tough time cracking the code. Because Digital Marketing has many digital channels, a newbie is highly likely to feel lost in their learning journey. This is the reason why digital marketing agencies and freelancers are thriving in numbers not just in Dallas but across the US.

2. High Competition

Since digital marketing gives the best ROI compared to traditional marketing, brands and businesses often prefer the former over the latter.
Understandably, this results in a high level of competition in the digital marketing space. To carve out a niche in the space, you need the right digital marketing strategy.
For Example, take a look at the competition of paid advertising for the keyword “get insurance quotes”

3. Promotional Strategies Are Easy to Copy

The democratization of digital marketing has its flaws. Take any digital platform, for example. You will find ads with similar formats, landing pages, etc.
You have a whole range of digital marketing tools to spy on competitors' keywords, Facebook and Instagram ads, bestselling products, backlinks, etc.
For Example, Take a look at this traffic analysis showing all the details of competitor in SEMRush.

Pros & Cons of Traditional Marketing

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Advantages of Traditional Marketing

1. Face-to-face Interaction

The impact of human connection plays a significant role in building a brand. Whether local or international, human connection in business instills trust and removes the possibility of miscommunication.
Traditional marketing allows businesses to make face-to-face interactions. Such meets will unmistakably ignite two-way communication, which is a key for a good customer relationship.

2. Reaching Locals is Easy

With traditional marketing, you don't need to brainstorm with your business partners to develop a stellar ad campaign.
You have scores of marketing methods that have been tested time after time. Flyers, brochures, postcards, and catalogs are easy to create with local talents.
Advertising in newspapers and magazines is also a relatively easy task since they have in-house designers.

3. Familiar for Everyone

Familiarity has an advantage when it comes to advertising. From kids to elders, everyone has been accustomed to quickly consuming the content of print advertising.
And if your target audience is above 50, it is wise to go with traditional advertising. For obvious reasons, elders do not rely much on digital devices and are fond of good old print materials.
Again if you check this data, barely <2% men and <1% women from 55+ years category.

4. To Forge Emotional Connection

It is time for a quick science lesson. Our brain is wired to connect with printed content emotionally than any other digital form. The palpability has something to do with human connections.
Are you not buying the claim? Here is the result of a study conducted by the US Postal Service and Temple University's Center for Neural Decision Making.

Disadvantages of Traditional Marketing

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1. No Room for Improvement

Perhaps the most significant disadvantage with traditional advertising is the lack of optimization features. Let's say you find a misspelling in a promotional flyer for your Dallas business that you have 5,000 copies printed.
For Example, take a look at this flyer from a Canadian politician
There is no denying that the resources (money and manpower) you put in the flyer go down the drain. When it comes to digital marketing, one can edit an ad copy at any time.

2. Limited Personalization

The personalization options with traditional marketing are limited. Indeed you can put personalized postcards in your orders. But to take personalization to the next level, you need to put in a tremendous amount of time.
But with digital marketing, the possibilities for personalization are high but take only less time. You have intelligent digital tools to take care of the job.

3. Betting on the Wrong Horse

There is no denying the fact that the readership of newspapers and magazines is on a steady decline.
Let's see this from a bird's eye view.
In 1990, the weekday newspaper circulation stood at 63.2 million in the US. In 2020, the number was reduced to just 24.3 million. Bear in mind that this also includes digital circulation. Since everything seems to be going south with the newspaper industry, advertising on this platform may not be a brilliant idea.

Different Forms of Digital Marketing

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1. SEO

Implementing various techniques to make your website appear high on search engine results organically refers to Search Engine Optimization.
SEO is excellent for those who have a long-term vision for their business. SEO is not a sprint but a marathon. It remains the number #1 choice for marketers for organic traffic.

2. Social Media

Social media marketing uses Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and TikTok to promote a business and its products. Though it sounds simple, one needs to tailor-make the content for each platform to make their campaigns stand out. Social media has the inherent nature of letting users share and comment on the content it hosts.
For Example, Take a look at the social media page from ‘’Dallas Mavericks”

3. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Ads

PPC is a form of paid advertising wherein the advertiser gets charged only when the ads get clicked. In other words, you are not paying to display your ads before your target audience.
Marketing agencies adore PPC ads since they are capable of producing high-quality leads at a reasonable cost. The cost-per-click is determined by various factors such as competition, keyword strategy, etc.
For Example, Take a look at this Paid ads advertising for website design in Dallas.

4. Content Marketing

Using content to attract prospects to your website refers to content marketing. The content can be of any form. Depending on the industry and its audience, the content form differs.
For example, visual content such as videos and images works best for the real estate and tourism sectors. In comparison, blogging gives an impressive ROI for high-ticket products and services such as yacht service.

5. Email Marketing

Sending digital promotional materials, including special offers, eBooks, to customers in mass refers to email marketing.
Take a look at this promotional email from Makemytrip.
Businesses also use email marketing to send newsletters and brand updates in time. This channel is also great for taking surveys and gathering feedback on products and services.
Online stores use shoppable emails for retargeting those who have abandoned their carts. Email marketing is one of the top strategies with a spectacular ROI.

6. Influencer Marketing

Hiring industry influencers, including bloggers, vloggers, celebrities, and sportsmen, to promote a brand is influencer marketing.
It is one of the oldest forms of marketing. The concept of making influential individuals promote something has existed since the Roman Empire.
Brands pay influencers a commission on the product price or a flat fee in exchange for the promotion.
Take a look at this influencer marketer in Dallas promoting a food product.

Different Forms of Traditional Marketing

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1. Outdoor Advertising

Promoting products and services on billboards, bus shelters, subways, or any outdoor space for that matter is Outdoor Advertising.
Businesses prefer outdoor advertising for brand familiarization and its longevity. An ad on a piece of street furniture or a cab lasts longer than a social media post. This form of advertising works great at any place as long as the foot traffic is high.
Also, they are easy to sign up. You can just find available space and pricing on websites like billboardsin or adspace.

2. Handouts

Anything printed and distributed to the public to promote a product or a service is handout advertising.
Common handouts are flyers, pamphlets, brochures, catalogs, etc. It is a cost-effective marketing strategy to promote something among a local population.
No business with a physical address can ignore this form of advertising as they will need printed handout material at some point.

3. Radio Ads

Businesses buy advertising spaces, known as spots in radio advertising, to promote their products/services over the air.
Advertising on radio has a unique phenomenon associated with it. By airing a perfect set of audio cues, an ad can make the listeners create imagery in their minds. Radio ads are excellent for reaching a vast audience.

4. TV Ads

Television advertising empowers advertisers to harvest the benefits of both audio and video. A perfect blend of stunning sound effects, upbeat music, and popping visuals can create lasting impressions on the audiences' minds.
Comparatively, TV ads are expensive to produce and telecast. From multinationals to political parties, TV advertising has been exploited by many.
Take a look at this Tv advertising promotion from Joe Biden For President 2020.

5. Telemarketing Advertising

The act of cold and warm-calling a potential customer and soliciting them to buy your goods or services refers to Telemarketing Advertising. It is a direct marketing technique that may leave prospects irritated.
The channel is also being used to generate leads and gather market insights. Businesses use telemarketing to forge a connection between themselves and customers. It is one of the cost-effective marketing methods.

How to Choose The Right Marketing Strategy

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1. Define Your Business Goals

Before zeroing in on a marketing strategy, you must identify your goals and objectives as a business. Split the goals into short-term and long-term.
The categorization will help you choose the right channel you want to promote your products and services. Let's say brand awareness is your short-term goal. This identification will help you go with the marketing channels that are best for creating brand awareness.

2. Do a Proper Research

Questions like where your products or services stand in the market, who your target audience is, and where they spend their time mostly should be answered.
Let's say you sell home decor goods online. Undoubtedly, women are your target audience. Your first objective should be finding the place where women hang out online the most. For example, Pinterest can be your marketing channel since 80% of US mothers using the internet also use Pinterest.
For E.g., Take a look at the Pinterest channel from Maryann Rizzo

3. Shortlist a Few Strategies

Depending on your business objectives and goals, you may use more than one strategy to promote your brand. But the channel(s) you choose should complement and align with your limitations. If a channel seems best for your business, but a competitor already dominates it, you may select another where the competition is less.

4. Optimize the Chosen Strategy

Do not think that your job ends once you find the right marketing strategy and the channels.
As you market your business and its offerings, learn about customer behavior, demographics, conversations around your brand, etc.
The data you gather will help you optimize your marketing strategies further. Optimization will bring the best bang for your buck for the same effort you put in.

Important Digital Marketing Statistics:

• Google Property accounts for 94% of internet searches.
• 51% of shoppers do online research before making a purchase.
• In 2021, mobile phones were responsible for nearly 54% of the global website traffic.
• Every month, WordPress users create around 70 million posts and 77 million comments.
• 70% of marketers regularly invest in content marketing.
• Video marketing has overtaken content formats such as blogs and infographics.
• 18% of all local searches result in a sale within just 24 hours.
• By the end of 2021, mobile devices will influence more than $1.4 trillion in offline sales.
• SEO has a global conversion rate of 14.6%
• Only 30% of brands use personalized emails.

Important Traditional Marketing Stats

• TV advertising revenue is expected to grow from $72.3 billion in 2021 to $81 billion in 2025 in the US.
• Viewers ignore 55% of TV advertising time by multitasking, switching channels, and fast-forwarding.
• Outdoor advertising spending in the US is projected to touch $9.7 billion by 2023.
• Amazon is the leading outdoor advertiser with an ad spend of $72.14 million in 2019.
• Apple spent $69.11 million in 2019 in outdoor advertising
• The global radio advertising market was pegged at $38.1 billion in 2020.
• The global radio advertising spending was $19 billion in 2020. The decline was attributed to Covid-19.
• According to the Department of Labor, there are around 8,850 telemarketing companies in the US.
• The Federal Trade Commission, on average, receives nearly 18,000 complaints about telemarketers in a year.
• Nine out of 10 newspaper readers take action after seeing inserts.

Key Takeaways

• Digital Marketing allows brands to segment their audiences and personalize marketing messages.
• Digital Marketing tools give insights into customer behavior, demographics, etc.
• Brands can start advertising their products and services online at as low as $5.
• Digital Marketing has the ability for precise audience targeting.
• Platforms such as Google and Pinterest periodically give ad credit to small businesses.
• Digital Marketing helps companies engage with their customers in real-time.
• SEO is the most preferred form of the digital marketing strategy by marketers
• Digital marketing allows advertisers to optimize ongoing campaigns, unlike traditional advertising.
• Digital marketing empowers you to take your business beyond Dallas.