Traditional vs. Digital

By Stephanie Ross, Interactive Business Strategist

Published: June 22, 2015

You are probably familiar with traditional forms of advertising. Traditional advertising includes newspaper and magazine ads, billboards, radio, and television ads. And now, most everyone has heard of digital advertising, and you are likely familiar with some of its forms — social media advertising, email marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing and pay per click advertising, just to name a few. While advertising in general has some common goals, there are some key differences between traditional and digital advertising.

The Key Differences

The biggest difference between traditional and digital advertising lies within the relationship you create with one versus the other. With traditional advertising, you are creating a one-way relationship with the consumer. Traditional advertising may allow you to create brand awareness to a mass audience, but typically, there is nothing reciprocal about this type of advertising.

On the other hand, digital advertising allows for a two-way relationship with the consumer. Take social media for example. According to an article from digiday.com, “social is digital word-of-mouth at scale — and, after all, consumers trust word-of-mouth above all other marketing media.” It’s a way for us to build deeper relationships with consumers through direct conversations. Businesses are able to gain direct feedback and customers are able to express their likes and dislikes and feel that they’ve been heard.

The Key Advantages of Digital Advertising

One key advantage to digital advertising is the ability to personalize and target messaging more effectively. Social media advertising allows you to target certain audiences for different campaigns. The ability to build a community around your brand is invaluable, especially when your fans become your brand advocates!

Other forms of digital advertising, such as pay per click, search engine marketing and behavioral targeting allows you to attract prospects to your website, with a lower investment and higher return on investment than traditional advertising methods.

In the digital world, we can analyze users’ behaviors and enhance their online experience by bringing them more relevant, targeted ads. To find out more information, check out our blog post: The Keys To Success In Digital Advertising.

Start with a Strategy

It’s important to start with a strategy and have clear strategic goals to determine the right mix of digital and traditional advertising for your business.

Stuck on developing your strategy? Let’s chat!