Social media marketing or online marketing differs from traditional marketing which historically involves billboards, prints, and television and radio advertisements. It is the utilization of online channels to proliferate information about a business’ brands, services, or products to potential customers or clients. Is it better than traditional methods and which of the following is not an advantage of online marketing over traditional marketing?
To answer that, we will enumerate the advantages of online marketing as well as the reasons why traditional marketing is still better than the contemporary one.
Which of the Following Is Not an Advantage of Online Marketing Over Traditional Marketing
Although online marketing has its own advantages and has become a more popular method to reach a wider range of potential customers and clients, it still has disadvantages which still make traditional marketing a better choice. Among the reasons why online marketing is not an advantage over traditional marketing are the following:
1. Reaching the Local Audience
It is true that online marketing can reach an audience on a global scale, but it might not reach a local audience. When your target group of people is the local consumers, traditional marketing such as radio ads and pamphlets are more effective. These forms of communication are also easy to create and transmit over the local community and radio station.
2. Storing and Recycling
Online advertisements don’t require paper, ink, and other physical resources, so once offline, they will not be accessible. On the other hand, traditional marketing strategies involve hard copies which can be read and taken anywhere even without internet connection. Unlike paper-based ads, online marketing can’t be kept for recycling or reuse.
3. Audience Familiarity and Understanding
Older people don’t require explanation when faced with newspapers, television ads, and other forms of traditional marketing. Flyers and other written advertisements are straightforward; people can easily read them when they have time.
On the other hand, online marketing might require some technical knowledge that the older folks are not familiar with. Additionally, they have little idea on how to explore the internet and social media. In traditional forms, older people can easily identify the ads.
4. Processing and Recall
In a study sponsored by a Canadian organization, hard copy advertisements promote mental process and recall compared to the digital counterpart. In the study, the participants were more engaged and inclined to remember what they have read in the paper-based ads than what they did on an online ad. Hence, paper-based marketing is easier for the brain to process and remember.
5. Success Rate
It is true that online marketing can reach all of your potential clients or customers. Everything these days is going digital from ordering food to booking a taxi. It is easy to wonder why traditional marketing still exists today. One simple reason is this: it has proven success rate compared to the online counterpart.
Advantages of Online Marketing Over Traditional Marketing
Most businesses, no matter how big or small, use the internet to promote their products or services and reach a wider audience. It has gain popularity because of the following advantages over traditional marketing:
1. Cost-Effective
While online marketing also comes with a price, it is not as expensive as the traditional mediums such as television, billboard, and radio ads. For example, the pay-per-click method can cost as low as $5 for every one hundred clicks. Can this $5 buy you a video camera or printer for a leaflet distribution promotion?
2. Allows Interaction Among Audience and Businesses
Social media is an interactive platform where users can react or comment to someone’s post. This is also true when it comes to online advertisements which are an advantage compared to traditional marketing.
It is also easy to disseminate public concerns through email, social media post, and website. It shows transparency to your business operations; thus, building trust to the people.
3. The Same Playing Field
Only big companies can usually afford television ads, billboards, and other forms of traditional marketing. With more advertising budget, they can easily dominate and dwarf the small businesses.
When it comes to online marketing, everyone is in a fair playing field. Any kind or size of business with an effective online marketing plan can contend with even the big, established businesses.
4. Extremely Focused Advertisements
With online marketing, businesses can create advertisements that target particular types of customers. One popular online marketing plan is the Facebook ads that allow you to create ads for different ideal customers based on age, location, demographics, interests, online behavior, and more. Online marketers have gained millions of profits through Facebook ads because of the extremely focused ads on their target customers.
5. Comes with Real-Time Analytics
You can easily know how effective online ads are based on real-time analytics. Businesses can easily track the cost of each ad, which advertisements are performing and those are not performing well, as well as the website traffic and the time of the day the followers are most active on social media. With the analytics that are readily available anytime, you can gradually tweak the ad campaigns until you achieve the right formula that will help your business succeed.
Conclusion
While a lot of businesses are going digital particularly on advertising and targeting their customers, it is not always the most effective. It is true that it is cost-effective and doesn’t require a huge advertising budget compared to traditional marketing. It also allows small or start-up businesses to advertise and compete with big businesses.
However, online marketing is not always the best option. Which of the following is not an advantage of online marketing over traditional marketing? Older folks are not familiar with the technology and have little idea about online advertisements. Online marketing can’t reach the local community, and traditional marketing is an easier and more effective way to reach it.
Online marketing doesn’t have a proven success rate, can’t be recycled, requires digital knowledge, and doesn’t stay in one’s memory for a long time. Regardless of these drawbacks, there are still a lot of reasons why online marketing is worth to try.