A lot of people have a basic knowledge of the concept of marketing. As a business owner, you will probably have a budget set aside for some marketing for your business. This budget will most likely be used on some strategies that you have been convinced to yield results. If most of your marketing is done outside of the internet, then it will be safe to say most of your marketing budget are being spent on “Traditional Marketing.”
What then does “traditional marketing” really mean? Read on to find out.
What exactly is traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing includes any strategy that revolves around the use of TV commercials, magazines, flyers, radio commercials, yellow pages, etc. This form of marketing relies on their large random audience, and it can be likened to just yelling at everyone passing and hoping that some of them get attracted to your product or service and orders for them. This form of marketing is sometimes referred to as “interruption marketing”.
Look at it this way: one of your audience is just a man who is trying to enjoy some downtime after a hard day at work due to his difficult boss or colleague and all he wants is some time to cool off all that. He is currently not thinking about his faulty toilet appliance or the need for some new tools in his garage or whatever your product or service is. Then suddenly your ad comes up on TV just in time to interrupt his lone time.
Of course, there is a chance that he thinks you might be able to solve this problem. He’ll probably tell himself that he will fix that tomorrow. With that, you have one more prospect who is now familiar with your brand and knows that you provide some services that he might need soon. And he is also aware that your TV ads were responsible for the interruption when all he wanted and needed was to relax and just enjoy the rest of the day.
Traditional marketing as a marketing strategy
Of course, it will be wrong to state that traditional marketing is a bad marketing strategy. Sometimes there are good returns on these forms of marketing. However, that is not the main issue here.
What we are trying to point out is the fact that his relaxation has been interrupted. All he wanted to do was relax and not deal with his problems. Although not all forms of traditional marketing results in annoyance on the part of the audience, if the concept being explained is followed, then you will be able to see how the other forms of marketing tend to similarly interrupt people even if it is to a minimal extent.
For all the troubles caused, people become familiar with your brand. He is still not yet interested in solving his problems, and he may or may not even trust your company just yet.
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What if better marketing strategies exist?
With traditional marketing, you are just yelling at everyone that passes by and also displaying your TV spot to everyone who is following prime time TV. Your billboard on the road even leaves a quite much impression by everyone driving around. Most of the time, all these are ignored by the observer.
What if instead of just yelling at everyone watching the 8 o’clock news and hoping that they do not take their time out to grab some milk during commercials and that they also need your services or product there is a better way out? What if you can just target those who are currently researching their problems and looking for some solution? What if you can get your target at the beginning of their search journey and provide information that is valuable about the problem that they are currently facing while making use of their information to convince them that you have the best solution.
Click here to know the differences between Digital marketing and Inbound marketing
Inbound marketing which is sometimes referred to as permission-based marketing employs the strategy of marketing only to those who are already on the lookout for problems you have solutions to. If you have not been making use of digital marketing to your advantage especially inbound marketing, then there is the need for you to take a sneak peek at where your dollars are going.
Some of the significant differences between traditional and inbound marketing areas summarised below:
Inbound marketing interacts with the customer while traditional marketing talks to the customer.
With traditional marketing, the advertisers just go ahead and tell the customers what they want to say without actually trying to get to know what the audience wants to hear. On the other hand, inbound marketing allows for direct communication with the consumer which gives them more confidence in you. Blogs and social media is a way of interacting with consumers in inbound marketing.
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Inbound marketing is a process while traditional marketing, on the other hand, can have quick results
Despite all odds, the traditional marketing can indeed work wonders and bring people to you within the shortest possible period. If you launch a radio campaign for instance in a day, your ROI can be calculated based on the sales on that particular day. However, when it comes to inbound marketing, the process is much slower. Your authority will over time increase before the result of your inbound marketing finally surfaces. It will also take some time for building your followers on the different social media platforms. However once this is done, the hard part is over.
Click here to know Inbound Marketing Methodology
Inbound marketing helps to solve people’s problems while traditional marketing interrupts an individual’s activities
The term “interruptive marketing” is used when a business advertises its products and services which is not being sought after to consumers. This is precisely what traditional marketing does and why this term is used to refer to it. However, this marketing technique can be described as being abrasive and poorly timed. No one wants to hear about your low priced lawn services while they are busy watching their favourite TV show. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, addresses merely those facing the problem only which also helps them to cut down on wasted marketing efforts.
Inbound marketing is consumer-focused while traditional marketing is company focused
When making use of traditional marketing strategy, the company is trying to have their way through to the consumer’s mind and sell their product to them whether they are interested or not. They blast out direct mail coupons to people hoping anyone will jump on their offer. On the other hand, inbound marketing focuses on transforming a stranger to a prospective customer. Inbound marketing helps to guide the consumers in the right direction even when they are not yet ready to purchase your product or service. Although more time is spent in this marketing strategy, it is usually much more successful.