6 MERITS OF DIGITAL MARKETING OVER TRADITIONAL MARKETING

This article aims at highlighting a few of the merits that digital market has over and above the traditional marketing approach. But before I go ahead with the merit points of digital over traditional marketing, let me attempt a brief explanation of each method. Let me start with a definition of digital marketing. Digital Marketing can be defined as,   the online and internet collective processes, assets, transactions and activities involved in presenting products, that is goods and services in such a way that they are desirable and acceptable.

Digital marketing channels include:

• Social media (Facebook, Instagram etc)
• Website
• Content marketing
• Affiliate marketing
• Inbound marketing

• Email marketing
• PPC (pay per click)
• SEM (Search engine marketing)

Traditional marketing on the other hand, can be defined as the method that  involves the use of conventional or traditional channels in presenting products, that is goods and services in such a way that they are desirable and acceptable.

Traditional marketing channels include:

• Outdoor (Billboards, bus/taxi wraps, posters etc)
• Broadcasting (TV, Radio etc)
• Print (Magazines, newspapers etc)

• Direct Mail (catalogues etc)
• Telemarketing (Phone, text message)
• Window display and signs

Now lets get straight to the main issue which is the merits of digital over the marketing.

1. Global Outreach : Digital marketing has the entire globe as its constituency and area of coverage almost at the same time, whereas the Traditional marketing approach must cover a specific and limited space at any given time. Even if in the use of the traditional system a company has the vision to reach out to a very large space like a whole country or a continent, it cannot achieve it in one fell swoop like a digital method can do, it has to pursue that large target in bits no matter what traditional channel it uses, including a Television advert which could also be limited by a transmission coverage capacity. But all of the limiting factors that could apply to traditional marketing and hinder it from reaching the entire world almost same time does not apply to online or internet facilities on which the digital marketing are carried out. Generally in business and marketing in particular, volume or number of people reached is of great importance. This is because the number of people reached will not the number people who patronises the product or the business, but yet the number of people reached can determine the number that patronises the product or the business. What this means is that the higher the number of people reached, the higher the number that will likely patronise the business or the product. This is one of the strongest merits of digital marketing, it is capable of reaching people of different ages and status all around the globe within a very short time frame. For instance if a marketing campaign is carried on youtube, everybody that goes to that platform around the world can see that campaign almost at the same time. As at 26 Mar. 2021 the data of viewers of youtube for just that single day  were well over 4.96 billion.   You can imagine the result and response that could be harvested from a campaign viewed by  over 4.96 billion people in a single day. Yes it is not all persons that viewed the advert via youtube that  will be interested or patronise the advertised product, but because this number of people reached by a single digital channel in a single day is so high, no matter what percentage of the viewers that actually patronises the company or its products, it will still be very high compared to any result obtainable if a traditional method was used in the compared to any result obtainable if a traditional method was used in the same situation.

On this merit point of global outreach, let us sum it up by saying that traditional marketing is limited in terms of targeted audience/consumers as it is limited to local customers/consumers (within the given area of coverage of the traditional channel in use) whereas digital marketing grab the attention of customers or the consumers from all over the world and thus through digital marketing companies can reach out to a greater number of consumers/buyers/customers as compared to traditional marketing.

2. Measurable Reach and Measurable Feedback: Digital marketing provide real time data that makes it possible to measure the number of people reached and the number who responded to the campaign. On the other hand it is very difficult to measure the number of people reached or the number that responded to a particular campaign carried out through any traditional marketing channel. Figures for those who visited  most of the digital marketing channels are available, for example youtube as already stated in the previous point, we can know the number of people who logged in to youtube in a particular day or a given period. Whereas there is no single traditional marketing channel that has the features that will make it possible to count or measure the number of people that viewed or accessed the marketing campaign. Apart from knowing the number of those who viewed or those reached by a digital campaign, most digital marketing campaigns are designed to elicit responses and these responses are very measurable.  Although some level of responses can be received from traditional marketing channels, the measurability of such responses and their accuracy are no where near that of digital marketing channels. The responses from digital marketing channels can be instant and accurately measured where as that of traditional marketing can be not only slow but very clumsy.    

• 3. Interactive Communication: Digital marketing channels offers responsive opportunities to its target audience for interactive communications. The traditional marketing channels do not offer any opportunity to interact with the customer. In digital marketing,  there are a number of digital platforms made available to the consumers/customers/buyers like social networking sites, e-commerce websites, different apps for collecting their feedbacks where they can put their views about the product(s)/service(s).     Whereas Very little or no interaction is involved in traditional marketing as the promotion mediums are not flexible enough to incorporate the customer’s interaction. Take for instance an advert on a billboard, the agency that mounted the billboard will not always stand by the billboard to get the comment and reactions of customers, consumers/buyers.

So traditional marketing does not give room for reaction and interaction with the target audience, hence the opportunity for the company and business owners to improve their products and tilt it towards the customer exact needs based on their reactions from interaction with them is very slim. On the other hand digital marketing with forums for interaction with customers, consumers/buyers, offers the companies and business owners huge opportunity to remould or redesign their products to meet the exact need of their target market based on the information obtained from them through interaction.

4.Quick and Easy Update: One of the merits of digital marketing is the flexibility that digital campaigns provides. The campaigns can easily be adjusted without putting out a whole new campaign. Because it is digital, the narrations, the features, videos etc can easily be tweaked to a more current trend, demand or expectations of customers, consumers/buyers. This is unlike the traditional marketing methods which are not that flexible and does not make room for easy adjustments that may suite the current needs of people. For instance, if a marketing campaign has been ran using a news magazine or a bill board as  channels to convey the campaign, if after a few days of publishing, it was discovered that the campaign has omitted a basic feature of the product, or that a new feature has been added to the product, that campaign already published in the news magazine or bill board cannot be adjusted. The company will need to run a whole new campaign for the product. Where as if that situation occurs in digital marketing campaign, it will be an easy thing to adjust the campaign to sooth the current need or situation, all that will be required is to go the platform used and do some editing and continue the campaign in the stead of designing a whole new campaign.

• 5. Less Cost : Digital marketing gives the company and business owners the opportunity to save cost compared to what they will spend on tradition marketing method. Looking at it from the angle of what is spent in a digital marketing campaign, based on the huge number of people and area of coverage of a digital marketing campaign, the cost will definitely be low compared to reaching such a number of people through traditional marketing.  Also looking at it from the angle of logistics involved in traditional marketing, more money is spent in logistics involved in the traditional method than is spent when digital channels are involved. Considering the issue of difficulty in adjusting or amending campaigns where there is a mistake or a misinformation, as stated in an earlier point, traditional marketing will only allow a whole new campaign which will mean higher expenses whereas a digital marketing process will allow easy adjustment of an already existing campaign.  

• 6. More sales / Patronage: Digital marketing campaigns surely leads to more sales or patronages of the companies and businesses that employ it much more than when such companies and businesses employ traditional marketing methods. Lets make this point a little practical. Take for instance a company decides to use youtube to carry out a marketing campaign, and they are able to reach over 4.96bilion people as per data from internet live stat of those who viewed youtube on 26^th March 2021. By using just one digital channel in a single day,  lets say it was only 2% of this number that responded or patronised the advert, that means over 98 million people responded to or patronised that advert.  If on the other hand another company has used a traditional channel like a bill board and the number of people that viewed the advert same day are 2 million people, and 10% of this number patronised the product which means 200,000 people would have patronised the product. Put that side by side with the result obtained from the digital  marketing campaign you will see the huge difference and the advantage of digital over traditional marketing in terms of  patronage as a result of the huge outreach. This explains why most progressive companies resort more to digital marketing than they do of traditional marketing.

Conclusion: Digital marketing stands out clearly just as the day stands out from the night. It is not as if traditional marketing campaigns does not have it’s own merits, but when it is put side by side with digital marketing campaigns, digital marketing usually stand tall and high above it. This is the reason most organizations and individuals are sticking to digital marketing campaigns more than ever. The world is evolving by the day, the digital community seem to be at the center of all the new developments, hence digital marketing is the best way to catch up with the digital trends.