10 Ways Digital Marketing Is More Profitable than Traditional Marketing

You have just started your own business and you have a little to spare for your marketing budget yet you do not know where to invest and even where to start with. In order to ensure that your efforts and budget will not go to waste, it is important that you spend your budget on the method that would work for you and your business best.

Choosing to spend it between traditional marketing and digital marketing is not an easy feat. Making the right decision is hard, oftentimes confusing and requires a bit understanding of how each of the strategies works.

Traditional Marketing

The advertising world is experiencing an influx right now of many advertising channels.  Technology has paved the way for many opportunities to showcase and promote your brand adding to the list of the more traditional methods.

Traditional marketing is anchored on the methodology of the 4 Ps – Product, Price, Promotion and Place. These methodologies have been used decades ago and are still being applied to different offline advertising strategies.

Traditional marketing helped a lot of businesses grow over the years and has been tried and tested to grow brands into household names.  Methods for traditional marketing are:

•    Billboards

•    Posters

•    Print – Newspaper, Magazine, Gazette, Brochure, Flyers

•    Direct Mail

•    Telemarketing

•    Broadcast on TV and Radio

•    SMS Marketing

Digital Marketing

When technology started to take off and began changing the landscape of the advertisement industry, digital marketing emerged. It has shifted the way people promote their brands, products and services.

Digital marketing or sometimes referred to as online advertisement has also been around for a few years already with no sign of slowing down any time soon. With an estimate of 2.05 billion digital buyers this year, digital marketing is comprised of all the promotional efforts done online.

Many business owners have started leveraging on digital marketing which has the following advertising channels:

•    Email

•    Social Media

•    Website

•    Paid ads (Social and Pay-Per-Click)

•    Blogging Ads and Sites

•    Search engine optimization

As digital marketing started to take the world by storm, many have guessed that it will overshadow traditional marketing and it did quite a bit. Though traditional or offline advertisement methods are still thriving and still produce good results, many businesses especially those are just starting to rely mostly on digital marketing. 

Here are some of the reasons why many business owners rely on digital marketing to grow their brand and consider it a better option.

              Reasons Why Digital Marketing is More Profitable

1.    It is Cost-Effective

Whether you are just starting your business or you just have a minimal budget for your promotional activities, digital marketing allows you to spend less but gives you the potential of gaining more.

Growing your brand’s visibility online has been one of the most effective ways to reach your target audience yet it does not hurt any of your pockets. Platforms for digital marketing like social media channels, email, and search engines offer free and paid options. Spending on paid ads like social ads, pay-per-click, websites and blogging sites does not usually cost a fortune and is just a fraction of your expenses in doing traditional marketing.

2.    Easily Identify Your Target Market

One of the reasons why a lot of business owners and marketers seem to lean on digital marketing to elevate their brands is because of its ability to reach your target audience. In digital marketing you can find your desired customers, listen to their needs and provide answers by offering your products or services.

Though traditional marketing also offers a lot of opportunities to become visible in the market, it does not give the same assurance as digital marketing that the right consumers are viewing your content.

3.    Makes Your Reach Wider

Social media plays a big role in digital marketing and perhaps one of the biggest advantages over traditional marketing. The number of people online and using social media gives you a vast opportunity to expand your presence. As per the study, there are already about 3.8  billion people or 49% of the world’s population that can be found on different social media channels.

Image from Smart Insights

Whatever your industry is, you can always leverage the different digital marketing medium especially social media to widen your reach.

4.    Measurable

Digital Marketing is measurable and one of the reasons why it is highly favored by many.  Not only that you can gauge its effectivity, it can be done in an instant and with accuracy. Tools like web analytics and social media metrics make it easier for you to know if your efforts have been paying off or you need to make necessary adjustments.

5.    Promote Consumer engagement

When you print brochures and give it away to people or you purchase a billboard space for your latest ad material, there is no way you can start engaging with your future clients. Digital marketing allows you to do that. It allows you to share an interaction with your clients and initiate a two-way conversation the way offline advertising does not.

Utilizing different channels like email, comment sections, chatbox and instant messaging platforms can help your customer connect easily to you while doing tactics like short clip videos, stories, polls and surveys encourage engagement from your audience that help build connection and deepened relationship with your clientele.

6.    Enhance Customer Service

When technology emerged, it has broken the barrier between companies and their consumers. It has allowed ease in reaching out and connecting with your existing and potential customers.

Online platforms serve as an avenue to provide relevant and correct customer care that earn your client’s trust and help build your online reputation. Enhanced customer support is essential and after your business’ growth.

7.    Lead Generation

Most people start their purchasing journey online. These people usually turn to Google or other search engines to fetch information they need. As people are already online, it makes it easier for you to gather possible leads. In doing so, you need to build your online reputation which you can achieve in several ways. You can do content marketing though regular blog postings news and articles that offer favorable tips in your niche industry.

You can also create an online contest or promotional giveaways in which you can collect data from your audience where you can enroll them into lead programs that can eventually turn them into customers.

8.    Fast ROI

The return of investment for your marketing spends can be achieved with digital marketing strategies. Because it can be tracked and can be monitored, it can offer a better stretch of ROI than traditional marketing. If done correctly, your digital marketing efforts can give you a steady flow of quality traffic that can be converted to leads and sales. It also lets you do necessary adjustments in your advertising campaign that maximizes your budget to ensure good results.

9.    Let you Know your Competitors

The internet allows you to check on your competitors’ online tactics. As you study their strategies and campaign, this allows you to capitalize on your own marketing strategy and help you gain a competitive advantage.

10.    Provide Real-Time Results

When you place an advertisement over the radio or on the television or you have given out flyers to public places, it will be hard for you to know the results in real-time. Though it can create recall to all those reached by the placement or by the leafletting material, it will take time before you can gauge the effect. With digital marketing you can what is working and what is not in real-time.

Online marketing lets you know the number of clicks, increase in your subscriber’s count, the number of visitors or even those who were able to see your promotional activity and content. It also allows you to know your peak times, your conversion rates and even your bounce rate with just a few buttons. Knowing all of these results in real-time can give you an opportunity to make adjustments and choose carefully your next strategy to get better results.

Final Thoughts

Knowing these facts can help us conclude that digital marketing is beneficial and profitable for small businesses and startups. Depending on your budget, you can always leverage on many digital marketing methods to grow your brand and expand your business. Though traditional marketing still produces a good result and still dependable for most businesses, it can work best for you if you have the right budget.

Once you are able to grow your business from a start-up to an established one, you can then create a good marketing plan that will utilize both digital and offline efforts that will ensure your efforts a success. 

Author’s Bio

John Ocampos is an Opera Singer by profession and a member of the Philippine Tenors. Ever since, Digital Marketing has always been his forte. He is the Founder of SEO-Guru and the Managing Director of Tech Hacker. John is also the Strategic SEO and Influencer Marketing Manager of Softvire Australia – the leading software eCommerce company in Australia and Softvire New Zealand.