3 benefits of digital marketing over traditional methods

Advertising has had a long and interesting history, and can be found as early as the 1660s, with original advertising being quite untrue and exaggerating the uses and effectiveness of products. Today, marketing is without a doubt one of the most essential aspects of any aspiring business. It provides necessary information to potential customers about what a product does and how it works. It provides businesses with the opportunity to engage with their customers when not in the store, in the comfort of their home or when working. Most importantly, it sells products by making customers aware that the product exists in the first place. Advertising is extremely effective and can shape the needs and desires of people. When you consider that you probably see or hear an average of 5000 advertisements per day, you may realize how much of an effect it has on the decisions you make. This is predominantly due to the development of technology, as it has given businesses even more ways to advertise, such as through social media, breaking away from traditional methods.

Ease of access

A decisive benefit that digital marketing has over traditional marketing is ease of access. Consider the process of marketing using traditional means. Let’s imagine it was for an advertisement in a newspaper. You would have to find an advertising company in your area, describe what you want done, have a rough draft be reviewed, then go to the newspaper in question, query if it meets their standards, pay for the advertising space, wait for the newspaper to be printed and then hope that most people don’t just glance over the advertisement. It is such a lengthy process. Compare that to finding a digital marketing agency anywhere in the world, reviewing a design, approving it and then let them handle the rest. The other benefit is that you are not limited to marketing companies in your area which might either be expensive, out of your budget or provide a terrible service.

Online visibility

As mentioned, traditional marketing lacks visibility. If you have advertised in a newspaper, there is a high probability that the target market the advertisement is meant to be seen by might not read that newspaper. You could do intensive research and surveys to find out which newspaper your target market reads, but this is an additional expense and studies show that it is often not very reliable. Contrast this to digital marketing, which uses accurate statistics gathered from thousands upon thousands of internet users, and you can accurately target your audience. In addition to this, digital marketing provides a global reach that can be seen by people all over the world. This means not only can you accurately target your audience in one city, or a country, but multiple countries by advertising on just one website. Finally, digital marketing operates 24/7 since it can run on websites, applications and be embedded in videos on platforms such as YouTube. This infinitely increases your exposure in comparison to traditional marketing.

Pliability 

With technological advancements, and the sophisticated programs at the disposal of digital marketing companies, content can be edited and changed until it is absolutely perfect before being released to the public. More than that, it also offers the benefit of being edited even after the release. For example, an article that is promoting a product or the banner ads at the bottom of a website. Compare this to traditional methods, which can cost time and money to edit multiple times before being released, as well as not being able to edit it once it has been released. Digital marketing also offers the benefit of an almost infinite lifespan of an advertisement, which at most need only be edited for price changes.

Digital marketing allows you to easily find companies around the world to advertise your product at a potentially cheaper cost than traditional marketing. Digital marketing gives you the ability to choose from an abundant source of marketing agencies, and not be limited to those in your area. Advertisements would easily be viewed by the desired target audience since they are online, and also offer the benefit of being seen 24/7. It is easier to edit content many times before release, and even after, with the sophisticated programs used by digital marketing agencies. 

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.