Say Goodbye to Traditional Media And Join Hands With Digital Media

The massive rise of social media has been a phenomenal sensation and has impacted our everyday lives. Social media has not only changed the consumers’ way to act but it has also increased the marketing possibility to gain valuable information about their customers. Social media encourages people to share their thoughts and feelings online which could be both positive and negative. This has resulted in that transparency and authenticity of companies has become even more vital due to the arena of social media and this must turn as a priority to all the companies.

Digital media has made it possible for word of mouth to reach a larger audience and is now considered to be one of the most effective communication tools for not just marketers or businesses to boost their advertisements but every single individual too for buying things. It has also been proven that positive word of mouth has a positive impact on brand-purchase probability. Since social media encourage word of mouth  through promotions or advertisements and these  word of mouth have an impact on increasing sales.

Whereas, traditional advertisement can be defined as one-way communication where there is no interaction between the company and consumer. This basic advertising  includes newspapers, magazines, TV, radio and direct mail. These communications channels allowed businesses to choose advertising methods based on their budget and need to target specific market segments. This is often out of the price range for small businesses. However, traditional advertisement has its advantage too, it  allows the company to keep control over the message and it is also easier to measure the outcome of traditional advertising compared to social media.

Digital Media Enables Two-way Communication

Communication through digital media is a two way process, it invites the consumers to discuss, request, give feedback and share their opinions with both the company and other consumers as well. Social media has the advantage of being accessible for interactions and providing the company with consumer insights and encouraging word of mouth. With Smartphones, iPods and social networking, small businesses are able to advertise using website banners, Facebook or Instagram campaigns, texts, tweets, podcasts and other low-cost, real-time methods.

There are many ways through which companies can interact with their customers through social media, such as by creating Facebook pages, blogs, twitter handle etc. Having a Twitter account, a Facebook page is not considered as a billboard, it should rather be viewed as a café where people do not just receive messages from the company, instead they interact with each other and obtain information from others. Rather, if a company chooses to use an advertising banner on their webpage, it works just like a billboard and this is categorized as traditional advertisement since it is one-way communication.

Traditional Advertising Vs Digital Advertising

It is important to distinguish between traditional advertising vs digital media advertising since they can both occur in the same arena but in two completely different ways.  Social media does not focus on a specific sales offer yet develops  an engagement with the consumers and persuades or encourages them to buy their products when there is an arising need or even not. While, traditional advertisement is however famous for targeting a specific segment for a specific product or service offer.

To communicate through social media is relatively inexpensive since companies do not have to pay a huge amount for the marketing space. But, it is easy to be fooled to believe that the use of social media in total is a low-cost alternative towards traditional marketing activities. This is only true to some extent, not all. To maintain a presence in social media, the costs are higher to generate content, since it requires time, creativity, qualified talent and paid software.

It is vital for companies to understand the importance of keeping their doors open for both social media and traditional advertisement. There is no magical solution on how to balance this in terms of percentages, it all depends on what effect the advertisement should have, the specific brand as well as the consumers the company wants to segment and target, yet few drawbacks of traditional advertisements are :

• Static text: Traditional marketing uses static text for advertising to promote a product. For example, if you print an ad in the newspaper for promoting your products and your product runs out of stock, then in this situation you can’t re edit in your advertisement. This condition creates some problems for you because your customers will be unsatisfied and unhappy. The next issue in this method won’t be able to reach the audience and complete the goal.
• Provide less information: In traditional marketing, it is the most difficult to provide pricing list and offer for each product. The message you  deliver with traditional advertising is much more limited as compared to newer forms of communications. Such as  the press or radio does not have sufficient space or time to show all the different variants of the cost and other offers which appeals to the purchaser more in online advertisements. If one gets people to your website with the click of a banner ad or link, you have almost unlimited opportunities to deliver page after page of information to customers. With print and broadcast, you must communicate your message within a few square inches of space or in less than 30 seconds.
• Forced on the consumer: Traditional marketing is mainly forced around the targeted customers since it is a part of their particular daily life. This kind of marketing includes a low response rate.According to research cited in Forbes magazine in 2019, digital advertising was projected to surpass traditional advertising. Modern technology allows marketers to more precisely target potential customers based on the amount of personal information collected about visitors. Small businesses can also determine in advance not only what type of person visits a particular website but how often they view and what information. Programmatic advertising helps get your ads in front of a specific targeted audience regardless of what website they visit, explains digital advertising company Acuity Ads.
• Higher Price: Traditional media are usually more expensive than newer forms of advertising. To seek the benefit from broadcast advertising, you may need to buy many required devices or subscriptions  of thousands of dollars before you can gauge results. Many forms of new media, including Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and websites, let you communicate with your customers using your in-house devices easily.
• Lack of Immediacy: Traditional marketing does not allow you to respond to changes in the marketplace as quickly as newer forms of communication does. You may have to create your message weeks or months in advance. Changing broadcast ads requires time and additional production expense. Small businesses can change Facebook  or Instagram pages, send tweets or update a website in a matter of minutes.
• Limited Audience Reach: Magazines do not have the same reach as television or radio does. Readers are typically narrow segments interested in the given topic of the magazine. This means that magazines are not the best option to reach a sizable, broad, general audience.
• Long Lead Times: Traditional Media normally run ahead of their time and usually require the advertisements four to six weeks ahead of when you want it to run. Discounts for earlier submissions are common. This limits your ability to deliver a timely message or promotion. Instead, you have to go with a more general brand-building message.
• Competing Advertisements Cause Clutter: Traditional Advertisements offer a targeted connection to specific customers, they attract many companies in the same industry vying for those customers. This makes it difficult for an ad to stand out from the crowd in such platforms. Effective design, visuals and color combinations could help to an extent as you attract attention as readers flip through. Then, you need to sell them with your copy. Because of the competitive landscape, you normally have to invest more in color, design and other features to get attention.

Digital media advertising is the fastest growing marketing trend with a reported 9 out of 10 businesses employing some form of a marketing campaign on social media. Social media advertising campaigns bring numerous advantages to showcasing products and services. It has grown to be a favorite advertising  option for many business start-ups and organizations globally. This is due to the ease of using social networking sites to sell products and services with very simple steps. The results are almost always immediate from traditional, which allows companies to gauge the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns through Search Engine Ranking or traffics. Social media marketing has become an integral part of any marketing program regardless of size or nature. It is a great opportunity to increase sales while minimizing costs; one that no company or organization should pass on. This is the time to goodbye to traditional advertising activities.  Social Media advertising over traditional will generate a better outcome and provide the consumers with  the possibility to express their opinions through well managed and unlimited opportunity. If this is managed in the correct way, it will increase sales and generate a more profitable outcome.