Has Traditional Marketing Died Out?
Marketing is a key element of any business strategy, helping businesses across all sectors to promote and sell their services and products, but there are so many ways to market, how can you know which one works best for you? Below experts at brand agency Champions (UK) plc offer insight into the differences between marketing methods, posing the question: does traditional marketing sill work?
There are a range of different ways in which marketing can take place, and it is likely that people who are running a business in 2018 will take a different approach to those who were doing so 20, or even 10 years ago.
These days it can be easy to assume that digital marketing is the most effective solution. Quick, easy and cost-effective digital marketing has many advantages. However, what about traditional methods? Is there still a place for them in today’s digital driven age? Leading brand agency Champions (UK) plc takes a look at this issue.
Digital vs traditional
The introduction of digital media, which includes social media activity, has seen businesses turn online to conduct their marketing and promotional activity. Digital marketing includes:
- Apps
- Social media
- PPC
- Retargeting
- Content marketing
- Email marketing
- Search engine optimization
- Video marketing
- Programmatic
- Influencer marketing
In 2016 influencer marketing, which uses high-profile social media personalities to promote products and services, surpassed print marketing as the most popular form of marketing with print coming in third. Does this then mean that using traditional marketing techniques no longer works?
Traditional marketing includes elements such as:
- Newspaper advertisements
- Television advertisements
- Radio advertisements
- Flyers
- Brochures
- Newsletters
- Outdoor advertising e.g. signage & billboards
Traditional marketing such as newspaper advertising has seen a decline in recent years, with the circulation for newspapers and magazines dropping rapidly. For example, The Sun is one of the most popular newspapers in the UK and in 2003 had a circulation of 3,364 million but this had dropped to 1,568 million by 2017. Mainstream broadcast media such as television has also seen a drop. A survey conducted between 2012 and 2017 discovered that traditional TV viewing had dropped by almost ten hours a week in favour of online streaming services. This has inevitably had an effect on the type of marketing businesses do, with a big shift to digital and online.
However, this does not necessarily mean that there is no place for traditional marketing methods. These traditional marketing techniques can still have a big impact as long as businesses understand their audience and how they like to be communicated to.
The best of both worlds…
Understanding that there is still a place for both traditional marketing methods as well as digital marketing, is the first step in creating successful marketing strategies.
A mixture of both traditional and digital techniques ensure organisations from all sectors can maximise their marketing success.
As well as this, whenever a business is launching a new product or service it is important that the most appropriate sort of marketing is applied to give it the maximum impact. Both traditional and digital marketing techniques have positive and negative elements but that does not mean they cannot work together. For example, a brand’s television advertisement can be supported on social media meaning their message is consumed by a wider audience.
Audience is everything…
Irrespective of what type of marketing a business decides to use, the most important thing for all companies to consider is their audience. Businesses need to know exactly who their customers are and target them using the most relevant techniques. Companies will need to consider the needs of their audiences and apply a marketing technique that will most effectively get their brand messages across to that demographic.
Ultimately, there is still a place for traditional marketing in 2018, and as long businesses have a clear audience and clear USP, as well as a multi-faceted marketing strategy, then there is no reason why traditional and digital marketing methods can’t work hand in hand.
