Are you curious about what the difference is between traditional and digital marketing? As we become more and more reliant on smartphones and smart TVs, a question that naturally comes up is what the balance between traditional and digital marketing should be. Below, we'll look at the differences between the two types of marketing and how they affect your marketing funnel.

What's the difference between traditional marketing and digital marketing?

Generally speaking, traditional marketing refers to the set of advertising options available to businesses before the internet. Traditional marketing includes direct mail, radio, TV, and print ads. While it may seem counter-intuitive, these mediums for promoting your brand have not been rendered ineffective by the internet, but the internet has changed how they are used and which ones are most effective.

Digital marketing is the new kid on the block. There are several types of digital marketing: search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and mobile marketing. Each of these forms will have varying usefulness in different stages of the buyer's journey.

How do digital and traditional work in the marketing funnel?

Now that we have our digital and traditional marketing definitions, we can look at the marketing funnel and see how everything fits. The marketing funnel represents the stages of a buyer's journey. The funnel is widest at the top, and continuing down includes the stages of prospect, unawareness, awareness, comprehension, conviction, and action.

As an advertiser, your goal should be to guide the buyer through their journey by ensuring they encounter the right messaging for the stage they're in. This is where the cooperation between traditional and digital marketing comes in. You can utilize the tools from each marketing category to maximize your messaging effectiveness during each stage of the buyer's journey.

Radio is a highly cost-effective traditional marketing format, which has an extensive reach. At the top of the funnel, it will be a powerful tool for bringing prospects from unawareness through awareness and into comprehension. You would be hard-pressed to find a more efficient medium than radio for this purpose, due largely to the huge numbers of people who listen to radio (think about the morning commute). But radio also boasts excellent stats for recall because humans' auditory memory is superior to visual.

As the buyer moves down the funnel toward making a decision, other marketing options come to dominate. For instance, by having a good website and employing search engine optimization, you can activate purchases from people who, from the radio, have become familiar with your business and brand. Think about it: Say you have a shop that sells household appliances, and you've been running catchy radio ads. Most people that hear your commercials don't need a dishwasher... yet. But when they do, they search for dishwashers on Google, and your SEO-optimized website pops up first. They recognize your business and click on your website, where they buy a dishwasher from you.

These have been highly simplified examples, and in this brief time, we haven't been able to go over the strength of each form of traditional and digital marketing. However, when working together and targeting the right portion of the marketing funnel, digital and traditional marketing turn prospects into buyers.

Are you ready to build your marketing funnel with digital and traditional marketing?

Zimmer Marketing is the premier marketing firm in the four-state region. We can help build your branding strategy and successfully employ digital and traditional marketing to bring your business sustainable growth. Whether you're interested in a new SEO-friendly website, social media marketing, or radio advertising, Zimmer Marketing is here to make it happen.