Let’s get one thing straight—traditional media is not, by any means, dead. Newspapers still get read, magazines are still bought and television still gets watched. But the rising popularity of digital Marketing, paired with a rising demographic of digital natives, means there’s a need to update your approach to marketing.

For all intents and purposes, traditional and online marketing initiatives will share similar goals; so to combine these efforts in an attempt to attract and capture the attention of the consumers and build brand awareness make a world of sense. The secret is in finding the right mix—so that it can complement each other and meet your goals faster and with better efficiency.

Now, with that said, it’s very likely that you already have some sort of traditional media in place for your product or service. Maybe you’ve been running regular ads on the paper or your weekly glossy; a radio ad or an out-of-home marketing strategy such as bilboards or flyer distribution in place. Whatever it is, it’s safe to assume that you already know what traditional media can do for you. So let’s now talk more about how online efforts can give these campaigns you already have in place a boost—

Budgets

Online marketing really expands your reach because it’s based on the Internet. Often, advertising, specifically television ads—which are known to be one of the more effective ways to generate awareness on a large scale—are relegated for blue chip organizations who can afford the production costs and airtime. This makes it more difficult for smaller businesses to generate the same level of interest for a product that could be equally competitive. But online marketing levels the playing field for all contenders in the market. It’s scalable and can be used in tandem with traditional efforts, depending on what your budget affords.

Measure ROI

Not to say that traditional marketing cannot be measured, but the specificity of data that you can gather from online initiatives is very useful and valuable to companies—large or small. You can find out how many times your digital ads were shown, how many people saw it, whther it was clicked or not, where your users saw it, how long they stayed on the site and which sections captured their interest the most. This makes it a lot easier to tweak your content to demonstrate the value of the investment you made. You can now use the same data to adjust messaging and strategy, even on those released through traditional platforms, to make it more effective.

Reaching Different Demographics

Traditional media reaches a wide range of audiences, but take note of the fact that today’s work force (and therefore the demographic with rising spending power) will come from a generation of digital natives. For them, the Internet was always on, social media is essential, and daily must-haves will include smartphones, tablets and laptops. This is a generation that consumes content voraciously, but will do so through platforms they are familiar with. So if you want to support the messaging your driving through a billboard or a magazine ad, for example, it might be worth supplementing it with a blog post or a Facebook post.

Create Interactivity

Interactivity is obviously hard, if not downright impossible, to achieve on traditional platforms, but when you combine TV, print or radio ads with online efforts, you are able to create a level of interactivity that will lend itself to engagement and even loyalty. There are numerous points of interaction online—from social media channels to brand-made microsites that encourage contact and feedback between your brand and your customers.

Build Better Relationships

Jumping off from the previous point, this level of interactivity help brands build better relationships with your customers. Online initiatives run in tandem with traditional efforts means you’re giving your customers you were able to reach through TV, for example, an opportunity to research your brand online. There, you can assure your customers that they are on the right track, convince them to make a purchase and establish trust for your brand by giving them a seamless and informative online experience.

Bottomline?

Traditional marketing will always have a place in a business’ marketing mix. But the need to evolve to keep up with the changing needs of the market and the speed with which they want their information or services delivered to them is just as important as your pitch. Instead of looking at traditional and online marketing as an either/or option, think of it as you being able to leverage on the strengths of both to give your marketing efforts a big boost.

Remember though, that the marketing mix will differ depending on the nature, size and needs of your company. So ask yourself when was the last time you audited your overall marketing campaign or strategy—and is your current vendor angle or budget bursting with no results to show? If that’s the case, talk to us before your competition does. Visit our website at http://www.neoranking.com so we can sit down and talk about the different options available to you that will best suit your needs.

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