Traditional vs. Online Marketing: Which One is Best?

The Pros and Cons of Traditional and Online Marketing

As you now know, marketing is a vital element to generate business success. Before the Internet existed, marketing to the masses was costly and time consuming. The Internet has disrupted the status quo; however, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for both on and offline marketing channels.

What Is Traditional Marketing?

Traditional marketing involves the promotional strategies and tools we used prior to the invention of the Internet and is more commonly known as offline marketing. It includes a range of tactics such as printed media, TV, radio, advertising, brochures and catalogues (or collateral).

Pros of Offline Marketing:

There are a number of good reasons for including traditional marketing in the promotion element of your marketing mix, including:
• Reach: Not all of your audience might have access to the Internet or know to search for your business. For instance, if you are interested in targeting an older age market with your products, they may spend less time using social platforms or searching online.
• Person-to-person marketing can be extremely effective: There is definitely a time and place when direct selling is the most effective way to market your products. Through person-to-person, you can offer demonstrations, let your audience interact with your products and meet you and / or your team. Some customers prefer to do business with people they’ve met personally and who they know.
• Tangibility: Offline marketing offers tangible hard copy proof of your existence and leave behind evidence of what you offer. If you have printed material, your customers can refer to this at leisure or pick up information on the go.

Cons of Offline Marketing:

While offline marketing can be effective, there can be drawbacks, such as:
• Expense: Purchasing advertising for TV, radio, or print can be very expensive for many business owners. These expenses can add up if you have to take into account the postage and mailing costs as well. There is also significant wastage using mass market channels, as not everybody you reach will be your target audience.
• Measurement: Offline marketing struggles to offer meaningful data and measurement in comparison to online media. It is almost impossible to put tracking codes on all activity, so some of your budget may be spent unnecessarily.
• Needs experts: Most offline media needs skills that you as a business owner may not have and employing these can be expensive. Printing materials, graphic design and buying media can add significantly to your budget.
• Monologue not a dialogue: Offline marketing is usually forced upon the customer and provides a one way conversation. Many people don’t like to receive unsolicited  or ‘junk’ mail. Digital recording has made it easier for television viewers to skip the ads.

Whilst online marketing provides a way to target an audience in a cheap, fast and simple way, offline marketing still has a place in the marketing mix. Here are 10 offline marketing strategies you can use easily and affordably to promote your business.
• 1. Business Cards – business cards provide a visual, tangible reminder of you and your business long after a meeting with a potential customer has taken place. A card is a visual representation of your business, so should be printed on a good quality card, but it doesn’t need to cost the earth. Online printers such as moo.com offer a range of styles and finishes that give a great impression at a cost effective price. Your business card can be an effective sales tool and as a bare minimum should have your business logo and name, email, phone number and web address (if you have one on it). To make it more memorable, you could include your photograph or a picture of your products on it or a list of what you offer / key benefits.
• 2. Networking Whilst networking can initially be a scary prospect, it’s a great way of getting you and your business known. It also allows you to meet and share ideas with other business people – which is particularly beneficial if you work alone. Networking not only gives you direct engagement with a potential client, but referral opportunities as well. Both have higher rates of conversion because people prefer to do business with people they know and like. The key to networking is to pick the right network for your business (a place where your potential customers may gather) and to be prepared. It’s a well known fact in networking that ‘givers gain’ – focus your attention on how you can help the person you are speaking to. Ask questions that let you know their wants, needs and challenges so you can direct the conversation to what you can offer. At a lot of networking events you also get the opportunity to talk to your table or the group about what you offer. It’s worth practicing a short pitch (no more than a minute) which concisely outlines the benefits of your product, includes a memorable line about your offer, includes a brief case study on a client you’ve helped and outlines the type of customers you can help or opportunities you are looking for.
• 3. Press Releases Press releases only cost you time and demonstrate your value and expertise as well. Your press release should be newsworthy and not just a glorified CV. You could write about the challenges of starting your business, receiving an award or reaching a critical milestone. Alternatively, you could make it current to the time of year i.e. a maintenance company might promote boiler checks before winter sets in. Once you have outlined what you want to cover, you need to write a press release, this should cover who, what, where, why and how related to your story. The essential element to consider is why would the public be interested in what you have to say – don’t forget this is not an advertisement. Then send it out to local newspapers, industry publications, relevant blogs and websites.
• 4. Vouchers People are always looking to get a bargain or save money. Vouchers are a great way to attract customers to your business and minimise their risk of purchasing from you. You could include a time-limited offer to give the sense of scarcity or to drive traffic to your site by including an online only offer. You can take them to networking events or if you use direct mail, you can put vouchers in your mailings. Another option is to reward loyalty by giving them to your existing customers to encourage repeat purchase and referral.
• 5. Flyers Flyers might seem old fashioned, but they still have a role to play in advertising your business in a tangible way. Any flyer your produce should have a clear call to action to make your prospect do something. This could be ‘visit our website’, a time limited offer or a discounted or buy one get one free deal. Before you create your flyer, think about where you’re going to distribute it. Are you attending a networking event or planning to leave them with a complimentary business i.e. a mortgage broker may leave theirs with a friendly estate agent or solicitor? Or, are you distributing your flyers in local libraries, community centres or other local establishments. Knowing your audience is critical – you may also want to include a code or reference so that you can measure the response rate and identify which flyer offers deliver the best results.
• 6. Direct Mail This can be a useful tool if you have a targeted list and a compelling offer. It’s a great opportunity to remind your customers of your existence, to re-engage them and to build relationships. As people are getting less post nowadays, direct mail has had a bit of a resurgence. If you are putting your offer in an envelope, you should indicate your offer or benefit on the outer envelope, so there’s a higher chance of it being opened.
• 7. Print Articles If your article appears in a print publication, it instantly improves your credibility and you may get paid for your time / input. When considering pitching your article, consider what your target market reads. As previously discussed, you need to make sure your article focuses on an angle that will be of interest to your customers and is not purely a plug for your business. Think about how you can solve a problem for your audience as this will encourage them to not only read your article, but want to find out more about you. Before sending your article out, make a list of media publications that might print your article. Read a few issues to get a sense of what they publish and the tone of the content.
• 8. Giveaways Offering free products in exchange for promotion is a great way of becoming ‘known’. Alternatively, consider local charities or schools who are always looking for raffle prizes, local radio stations who will be promoting seasonal competitions or local publications.
• 9. Seminars / Public Speaking Whilst this can seem like a daunting prospect, public speaking can be another opportunity to present yourself as an expert and the ‘go to’ person in your sector. They also give you a chance to display your products and meet prospective buyers. The most effective way of doing this is to piggy-back on someone else’s audience. Perhaps, you could work with a local charity, a training company or special interest group or use your networking groups to showcase your skills and products / services. Many of these organisations need speakers and presenters for their meetings or other events they hold.
• 10. Trade Shows/Events As well as providing a forum to sell your products, they also offer extensive networking opportunities. Even if people don’t buy at that time, it’s a place to showcase what you’ve got and get information into potential customers’ hands through business cards, flyers, brochures and other marketing materials.

Often smaller businesses rely on the Internet to sell their products, but offline strategies can provide an affordable and effective option to widen your reach and increase your sales.

What Is Online Marketing?

Online or Internet marketing is the process of promoting your product or service online. All businesses can implement online marketing activity even if they have a physical shop or office. Internet marketing encompasses a range of channels, such as a website, social media, email marketing, SEO, website banner ads and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.

Pros of Online Marketing:

Online marketing has made reaching a wider market easier, quicker and more cost effective.
• It’s measurable. Online marketing allows you to be more targeted than ever before. You can see what methods are bringing prospects and leads to your business, and which are leading to sales and which aren’t, so you can focus your efforts on what works.
• Decisions can be made using both real data and qualitative results.
• It clearly segments demographics to better reach your target market. This allows you to target sub-groups of your market directly with more targeted marketing messages to increase response.
• It engages with your customers and prospects. Social media allows you communicate directly with groups or even individual consumers. It’s free, allows you speak to your market and offers a quick and reliable sounding board on what’s working and what your market responds to.
• It’s cheap. Some online marketing methods are free.
• There’s immediacy of data and results. There is no lag between sending out a campaign and the results, so you can clearly see what is and isn’t working and adapt your marketing approach accordingly.
• It’s accessible to any business – whatever your size.
• There’s no need to bring in costly outside assistance. Many online marketing strategies can be easily implemented by a sole trader or owner-managed business.
• It builds direct relationships with your customers via social media and communities.
• It provides the ability to quickly change marketing messages.

Cons of Online Marketing:

While the Internet has made marketing easier, there are still some challenges:
• It relies on customers being active online. If your market isn’t online, it’s not the most effective marketing method. However, this will soon be immaterial, with nearly all consumers being active online.
• It’s time intensive. There is no let-up – social platforms, need to be maintained, content needs to be created, edited, approved and published, comments need to be responded to promptly and pages must be updated.
• Lack of brand consistency – Consistency is needed across all marketing platforms and it’s easy to mismanage such a large number of online channels.

Which type of marketing is best?

There is no exact answer to this as it is product and audience dependent. The key is knowing what type of marketing is the best way to reach your customers and get them to buy.

In our experience, it is best to have a mix of different channels so that you can reach your customers via a variety of different touchpoints. Some channels are better at bringing in sales and providing measurable data, whilst others better at building relationships and repeat business. Too many businesses make the mistake of relying on one form of marketing in the belief that one is better than the other. While one method might be effective at bringing results, that doesn’t mean integrating other options can’t be as effective.

To summarise:

Odds are there are strategies in both traditional and Internet marketing that will work for your business. The key to understanding what works best for you is to consider undertaking market research prior to creating your plan, so you know who and where your customers can be found both on and offline.