Digital vs Traditional Marketing

Digital marketing has revealed an avenue that could not have been fathomed by 20th-century

advertisers. In fact, global ad spend has taken mobile devices from last place standing at

35,473,645 in the year 2000 to now thriving at a staggering 221,439,059,583 in 2020. Even

desktop ad spend has surpassed radio, newspaper and magazines. (DataPool) This gives insight

to the mentality and direction of businesses who are reaching consumers digitally as technology

and innovation advances.

One benefit of digital marketing is the ease of tracking website traffic and results with Google

Analytics and other built-in social media metrics. Traditional media does not have the benefit of

observing the immediate tangible effects of marketing strategy. This can be a catch 22 for

marketers because it is easier to obfuscate negative results when they are not quite as specific

and easily tracked. However, even when business is good, there is not always a direct correlation

between a company’s success and its marketing strategy and implementation. Sometimes this

causes marketing agencies to be perceived as expendable. However, digital marketing cuts

through this haziness because engagement metrics often provide direct indications of

performance. Landing pages that directly generate sales and leads are an example of this. “When

you link a landing page to a specific campaign, piece of content, action, or source, you can see

which channels are bringing in the most leads, which topics and offerings are of most interest, or which campaigns are the highest performing.” (Thrive Hive) Although digital marketing does

not always clearly show a translation to sales, it does usually show the effects of service.

Because digital marketing is encompassed by email marketing, display ads, search engine

optimization, viral campaigning, and many other innovative approaches, it is difficult to quantify

its overall effects. Not only can marketers use these tools to reach the masses. They can also

utilize them to study the habits of consumers. By saving cookies and other forms of stored data,

companies are able to identify likes, dislikes, patterns, and buying behaviors. This practice has

also proven to be controversial in recent years due to questions about invasions of privacy. An

example of this was in a congressional hearing where Texas House of Representative member,

Ted Poe, questioned Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, “I have an iPhone," Poe said, brandishing the

device for all to see. "If I go and sit with my Democratic friends over there, does Google track

my movement?" (BuzzFeed News) This concern can be connected to geo-targeting. Mark

Zuckerberg received similar scrutiny while before Congress in 2018.

As I noted initially, digital marketing has greatly surpassed that of its counterparts.

However, while working with media buyers over the years, I have learned the importance of fusing together various forms of advertising, digital and traditional, in order to target market segments, build brand awareness, and deploy strategic ads that provide the most reach and engagement. They

can often work in conjunction with one another to drive customers to a product or service. “Customer acquisition, reputation management, brand recognition — it’s all there when you use

every marketing strategy you have at your disposal. And when you build a strategy that allows

them to work together, the benefits can be huge.” (Web FX) It is important to acknowledge the supremacy of the digital age, but it is just as important not to negate the fundamentals of

traditional marketing.