Traditional vs Online Marketing: How to Advertise Your Small Business

Small business always needs the best possible marketing stint to make its brand is known and visible to their audiences. Companies need to know first which is the most accessible path to success. It can either be traditional marketing or online marketing.

Each of the two has its strengths, weaknesses, available opportunities, and perceived threats to the business. It is always a challenge to pick what is right for the business. Here is a rundown of the two different marketing kinds to know what’s the best for the business and its audience.

Traditional Marketing

Traditional marketing does still work, it does not fade or gets out of trend because it always tends to adapt and adjust time to time. It is also the umbrella term for different marketing strategies such as print, broadcast, direct mail, outdoor, and phone. The generation of higher-ups today prefer traditional advertising because it is what they know.

This kind of marketing is focused more on brand awareness and visibility. It is what we know as above the line advertising. It is mainly to reach the most widespread audience as possible. If the business wants good visibility and to be recognized among their audience, traditional marketing is the right path for you.

Types of traditional marketing 

• Print. Includes materials seen in magazines, brochures, pamphlets, newspapers, and others. It is known as the oldest form of marketing because it dates back to the ancient times where sales messages are written then posted on walls. Now, it is used in many types of materials that are made to be distributed.
• Broadcast. All articles and advertisements that are heard in radios and seen on televisions. It can be in the way of radio plugs, television commercials, ads in theater, and the like.
• Direct Mail.  Includes all fliers, pamphlets, brochures, posters, that are printed and are mailed to the target audience or recurring customers. This kind of marketing is mainly to give personal messages and updates to your customers and build close relationships with them
• Outdoor. Includes billboards and fliers that are seen outside offices, along expressways, etc. This is mainly to attract attention to people who are going to work, school, or running errands. Big billboards outside will help you do the job.
• Phone. This Includes all calling of consumers over the phone to introduce and persuade a product or service. It can be in the form of a phone call or through SMS marketing.

Online Marketing

With the current trend that almost all people are now connected to the internet, every business might want to capitalize on that situation by producing online marketing for their companies. Online marketing is every marketing stint and techniques that are made for and ran on the world wide web, such as optimizations, search engines, social media, contents, emails, and the like.

Online marketing is done for not only increasing the visibility of the business to your audiences, just like traditional marketing but also being able to connect with its customers. It allows every company to communicate with potential and returning customers. Online marketing can help in targeting their marketing message more specifically and more personally than traditional marketing.

Types of online marketing 

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It is the process of making online traffic directed to a particular company’s website. SEO requires many factors and to-dos to maximize every website’s optimization to go to the top of the search engines results page. It is essential to stay updated with the trends and algorithms made by search engines.
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM). It is the process of purchasing ads on search engines so a website can gain traffic on their sites.
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC). It is the same as search engine marketing, but the difference is that advertisers pay a fee whenever the ads are clicked. It can be a technique where a site is buying visits rather than earning visits organically.
• Content Marketing. It is the creation of different relevant contents to grab attention to the audiences. Mostly, content marketing is focused on giving valuable information and knowledge to customers besides from persuading a person to buy one of their products.
• Social Media Marketing (SMM). Social media is an excellent platform to build brand equity, reaching customers, catching new customers, and entertaining feedback and support. It is more of a relationship-building platform since social media is made up of people.
• Affiliate Marketing. It is the process of earning a profit by promoting other company’s products. Most of the time, this is where influencers feature products in their pages.
• Email Marketing. It is used to create direct contact with clients and customers by sending updates, news, and new products.

These two kinds of marketing are always useful in different ways. Each business can pick what’s more valuable to them by knowing their audience, their needs and objectives, and resources available. With this, you should have an idea now what to pick in doing marketing stints for your business.

About the Author

John Vuong is the sole owner of Local SEO Search Inc. John’s mission is to help local business owners improve their online influence so they can dominate their industry. With his business acumen and innate understanding of the local business landscape, John writes articles in Local SEO Search Inc. Blog that delves on how to customize SEO campaigns based on client needs.