Companies of all sizes engage in marketing for the products and services they offer – and for the brand itself. The idea behind marketing is to make products and services more appealing to consumers, by showing them what they have to gain by using an item or service. When marketing works, it makes consumers want to buy the product or service for the listed price. Marketing is crucial for companies to stand out against the competition, especially if they are in a crowded market. And it is just as important for major companies as it is for new comers.
There are two main methods associated with marketing in the modern era. There is traditional marketing, which includes methods that were as popular 20 years ago as they are today. Then we have online marketing, which has become more prominent with each passing year. What method is best? And how do these methods differ? Here is our analysis:
Traditional Marketing
Types of traditional marketing include radio ads, television ads, newspaper ads, billboards, flyers and leaflets in mailboxes, and magazine ads. If the product or service that you are offering is going to generate sales from a target market that uses traditional means of consuming information, you are going to want to use these marketing strategies.
For instance, if you are targeting women aged 40 to 65, your research may show that most of them get their information from the television, radio, newspaper or magazines. If that is what your research is showing, the ads that you display on those platforms will generate very good results for you.
The downside to traditional marketing is the cost. Buying TV or radio ads is expensive and even advertising in the newspaper comes with a significant price. For major companies, creating and putting out a TV ad or buying a billboard barely registers in the marketing budget. However, smaller companies do not have as much money to play with – and they need a more cost-effective approach. That is where online marketing is useful.
Online Marketing
There are so many forms of online marketing, ranging from search engine optimization to social media marketing. Even the act of adding your business profile on linkedincom means that you are marketing your organization and hoping to lure new talent from the site.
Online marketing is great because you can target as many or as few people as you want. If you are only selling something for people in one city or town, you will focus your marketing on local search engine results, social media and perfecting your website. If you are targeting those around the world, you will be more worried about overall search engine results and social media interactions.
Some online ads can be expensive to buy. But in general, every aspect of online marketing is far cheaper than a comparable traditional marketing campaign. The return on investment is much better, and the tools to measure the success of these campaigns are very accurate. It is easy to see how much you are spending, and what result that spending is giving you.
