Marketing is one of those crucial aspects of a business that can make it go high or low in a small time interval. If one knows a few basic things such as – ‘Who to target’, ‘How to Target’, ‘When to target’ and finally ‘Best way to target’ the consumer base; he or she has configured the way to transform his or her business into something BIG. Though Marketing is one of the key things that can make difference in the business, it is easily said than done. People change and over the time, their requirements change as well which is why it gets difficult to find out the best way to understand their needs and market your product accordingly.

Hopefully, there are things like market surveys, data, statistics and the experience one acquires over the time in the field of marketing; that helps.

The following post shall be reflecting on the differences between the traditional forms of marketing and the Digital Marketing. How both of them work, the basic principles and exploring whether there is a better one between both of them.

Traditional Marketing – Ways and Means

• Communication

The communication in traditional marketing relied on the PHYSICAL means; i.e. the companies or brands that needed marketing for their products, used to go to the marketing agencies and they sent the trained professionals to do the field job. They would go from one house to the other and talk about the product.

There was a vis-à-vis interaction between the seller representative and the consumer.

• Schedules and time shifts

There was no question of time shifts and schedules; as the marketing professionals used to go from one person to another and that was possible only in the day-time. The regional conditions, weather, times and the political conditions used to play a major role in traditional marketing campaigns.

• Availability for the consumers

The availability of the seller or the marketing professional for the consumer was limited as the time that can be spent on one consumer was limited. Further, once the marketing professional left, the consumer had no one to clear his or her doubts with. This affected the business highly as most of the problems surfaced only after the individualized usage of the product.

• Understanding

One just cannot deny the fact that one is able to convey oneself in a better manner while meeting the consumer in a physical manner. Hence, it was easy to understand the consumers, their requirements and preferences and their feedbacks in a better manner in the days of traditional marketing.

Having read some of the facts about the traditional marketing, let us explore the Digital marketing.

Digital Marketing – Ways and Means

• Communication

The communication in the digital marketing is done not only by the trained marketing professionals on a physical basis. There are various channels such as electronic media, phones, tablets, laptops, computers and any other device that has an access to the internet.

People can talk to the consumer care representatives at any time of the day that suits them as most of them work round the clock.

The physical meetings have reduced as people can also find the reviews and feedbacks of the other consumers over the social handles of the product sellers.

• Schedules and Time Shifts:

As mentioned above, there are no limits to the time shifts and schedules as the sellers can go for round the clock shifts by exploiting the time-zones around the world. What makes the digital marketing even better is the fact that the consumer can get personalized service at any time, in the regional manner and without having to worry over having a stranger talking to them.

The scheduling has greatly improved with the advent of the Digital Marketing as the seller can hire a Digital Marketing Agency that deals with more than a single task at one time. For example, social media marketing, print marketing, electronic marketing etc. It has become easier to accomplish more in a lesser time.

• Availability for the Consumers:

The sellers and consumers have come closer to one another with the introduction of digital marketing. The consumers are able to talk about any problem or issue at any time with the consumer representative and thus will never feel out of help. The agencies have a number of channels such as social media handles, forums, and various other internet based and electronic resources that allow the consumers to submit their queries and get fast response as well.

• Understanding:

Though some people might argue that the digital marketing imparts a ‘fishy’ character element to the products; personally, I feel that the understanding of product, it’s working and functioning has become easier and better with the digital marketing. People don’t have to rely on their personal skills to identify whether the person marketing the product is genuine or not. They just have to log on to their official handles and forums to find out the reviews, ratings and feedbacks of the other consumers which implants more trust in them.

Though the fact that the professionals that have been given Digital Marketing Training are better equipped to deal with the consumers and are apt for collecting the market information over the time, but the ease, the benefits and overall positive impact of the digital marketing on the growth of a business can just not be ignored.

Digital Marketing – Extra Inputs:

• The digital marketing seems to be a better option than the traditional marketing and frankly speaking is actually better. But it also requires extra inputs such as internet resources, websites, forums, feedback channels, customer care representative with 24 hour chat availability etc.
• Another costly ‘One-Time’ investment in the field of Digital Marketing is the Digital Marketing Training that varies from scenario to scenario and requires a deep understanding of the market. For example, there will be different training scenarios for the marketing agencies focusing on food items and healthcare products. The knowledge base required in both of them will be different and the ways of training the marketing professional will also vary.

Well, having understood the ways and means of both the digital and the traditional marketing, it can be very easily inferred that the digital marketing is better; especially as far as the current lifestyle and trends are concerned. But employing some of the useful aspects of traditional marketing such as consumer care representatives for the scenarios when a ‘PHYSICAL’ meeting is required, will be beneficial only and will be the best of both the worlds scenario.

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