What are the Differences Between Traditional and Digital Marketing?

When your company seeks customers, we call it traditional marketing and if customers seek your company; we term it as digital marketing. In technical terms, Traditional marketing focusses on reaching out to the customer to promote their products and services, which can be termed as outbound marketing. Digital marketing makes customers reach out to the company, making it an inbound marketing strategy.

Let’s find out more about the strategies involved in traditional and digital marketing,

Traditional vs Digital  Marketing
Traditional vs Digital Marketing

What is Traditional Marketing?

Traditional marketing involves the use of print materials to promote the brand, products and, services to potential customers. This includes advertisements, brochures, catalogs, pamphlets, newsletters, magazines, newspapers, radio and television ads, telemarketing and other printed material.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is an emerging way of publicizing and promoting a business or a brand through the internet anchored on electronic devices such as smartphones, iPhones, iPad, laptops, PCs and, tablets. This includes websites, emails, social networking sites, videos, affiliate advertising, content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), social media optimization (SMO) and social media marketing (SMM).

How do Traditional and Digital Marketing Differ in the Outcomes?

Popularity

Even though traditional marketing has been developed way before technological evolution, it has not become extinct still. People still use traditional marketing tools such as newspaper advertisements, radio, and television ads to promote their brand to the public. However, with the popularity of digital marketing techniques, traditional marketing has taken a backseat.

Traditional marketing is a popular technique used by established brands and businesses, whereas, digital marketing tools are becoming increasingly popular among startups and small-scale businesses. With strategies such as, social media marketing, social networking sites and, websites, anyone with a brand can gain massive customers and become globally visible. Therefore, businesses are making digital marketing as their popular choice for brand promotion and recognition.

Cost

For decades, companies have used traditional marketing to gain attention from target customers. By interacting with customers directly, giving posters, pamphlets and posting advertisements and, newsletters, brands have made it big in the market. However, considering the cost of printing, designing and developing ads, it is expensive than the current digital techniques.

Since traditional marketing tools were expensive, many emerging brands could not afford these strategies to promote their products and gain new customers. But, with digital marketing tools, even startups can reach out to potential customers within a budget. Developing a website, creating a Facebook marketing page, writing promotional emails and making videos can be done through various free software and apps. Thus, considering the cost of digital marketing, traditional marketing is very expensive.

Tracking

Tracking the performance and reach of traditional marketing strategies is near to impossible. With posters, banners, pamphlets and, newsletters, we can only know the quantity of the printed material but not the reach of it. We may not know whether the customer reading your brand advertisement actually will ever step into your shop, and even if he does, we may not know their identity precisely. Therefore, it is very difficult to track the reach of your advertising tools through traditional marketing.

With digital marketing strategies, we can track every move through Google Analytics. You can track the reach of your emails, websites, blog posts, social media ads to website traffic and online branding status. With the ability to track the performance of your older marketing strategies, you can develop newer ones to target a different group of audience. The expected to actual results through digital marketing has little difference.

Audience

Traditional marketing ranges from organizing events, posting advertisements in newspapers and magazines, handing out catalogs, brochures to telecasting television and radio advertisements with which we can reach only a limited audience. Local stores, shops and, brands can employ these types of tools to make customers visit their physical store and buy the products. Traditional marketing can only make the brand visible to a limited audience.

Whereas, with digital marketing, it becomes easier to promote your products, offers and, services to many audiences. People from different parts of the world can click on your website, blog post, advertisement and visit your online store and make purchases within a few minutes. It acts as a great way for new and existing customers to recognize and recommend your brand to friends and family. This is a tried and tested marketing strategy for bringing in potential customers globally.

Upgradation

Any information printed on a paper is static and becomes very difficult to change the data once published. Since all the traditional marketing tools are related to print, it is impossible to perform any updates, changes to the information. When you have advertised an offer or discount on a product for a week and by the time, the sale gets over, you cannot retake the offer. People might still visit your store based on the information after a week to avail the discount and may get disappointed. Similarly, it can happen with advertisements, radio ads, banners and, newspapers.

But, with digital marketing, the brand has the flexibility to make instant updates on their products, services, offers, discounts depending upon the availability and duration. They can edit, delete and update any content on their website, blog and social media pages without any hassles. On the same platform, we can make thousands of ads daily, weekly, monthly and yearly with no repercussions. Thus, digital marketing is considered to be a safe, effective and economical way of promoting a brand to the audience than traditional marketing. However, adapting traditional and digital marketing tools totally depend on the brand and its audience.

Future of Voice Search Marketing for Businesses

Ok, Google! What is Voice Search?

Voice Search is the latest method followed by users to search products, services, and information through questionnaires on devices such as smartphones, iPads, laptops and Pc’s. Traditionally, a search was performed by typing the question on the search engine bar, but this method of using voice to perform a search on the internet is getting a lot of attention in the recent years.

Interesting Facts on Voice Search

· By 2022, Voice search-based shopping will escalate to $40 billion.
· About 50% of teenagers perform a search through voice every day.
· Most prefer voice-shopping for grocery online.
· Voice-based smart speakers demand is increasing globally making its market worth up to $30 billion.
· 60% of users manage weekly shopping through voice-based speakers.
· 50% of searches will be voice-based in 2020.
· 20% of voice-search is mobile-based.

Voice search optimisation
Voice Search optimisation

What People Search Frequently Through Voice?

· Local News and Information:

Google, show me the nearest coffee shop; is the grocery store open and how’s the weather?

These are the most frequently searched questions on Google voice search. People prefer screen-less searches while driving and doing chores. They just ask questions to their mobile phone or voice assistants to get instant information without the need to touch their devices. 40% of voice -searches were related to local news and information on Google.

· Recipes and Cookbooks:

Do I need to add paprika? Show me the recipe for apple pie and get the latest edition of this cookbook.

These are some questions users asked their voice assistants frequently while cooking at home. Voice-search helps people multi-task and most users search through voice while performing household chores. 35% of voice-searches were related to recipes and cooking on Google.

· Entertainment:

When will the movie release? Is the booking for the concert open? What’s the score?

People want to get instant answers to their questions and voice search helps them achieve it with no hassles. They can know the score, play an album or ask details of their favorite movie through voice. 60% of teenagers use voice-search for getting information on entertainment.

· Personal Assistant:

Show me my missed calls list, at what time is the meeting scheduled and call “Jim”.

These are the frequent voice search questions on personal assistant devices. People can perform their basic tasks without even picking up their devices through voice-search. 35% of older people use voice search to make a call to their loved ones and check their calendar.

· E-Commerce:

Order me a new phone, show me the latest makeup products, Is there a discount sale?

60% of people use voice search to shop for products and services online. Shopping tops the list of voice search as more than half of the users search for a product through voice assistants and mobile phones. Voice-based commerce is becoming the next revolution in the global market.

Why Brands Need a Voice Strategy?

As far as digital marketing for startups and established business is concerned, brands rely on web traffic and Google rankings to improve their sales and revenue. But with the increasing popularity of voice search, brands must develop a voice-based strategy for sustainability.

People search for the nearest restaurant, gas station, grocery store, and other utility centers through voice on their mobile phone. The results that appear on the screen are more likely to be accurate based on the location and distance of the user.

For example, when a person searches for electronic devices or makeup products, the mall closer to the person’s location appears as the first result. Even if there’s a popular store at a distance, the chances becomes much less for it to appear as the first result. Therefore, brands need to develop their SEO marketing strategies to generate precise results through voice search.

Some strategies that can be adopted by brands include,

· Using less and precise keywords
· Relevant Answers to questions
· Search Engine Optimized Content
· Text-to-voice conversion
· Voice-enabled commerce

The quality of voice-search technology is improving every year and brands need to opt for voice search SEO techniques as early as possible. Statistics show that voice-search is habit-forming and people who have once used this technology get repetitive with it. If this continues, brands can expect to generate greater revenue through voice-search marketing in 2020 and beyond.

4 Ways Email Marketing Agencies Will Help Own the Inbox in 2020

With plenty of focus on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other social media marketing platforms, people have assumed that email marketing is dead. But the thing is, even in this century, emails are still powerful and effective way to promote your brand and land lucrative business.

Most businesses hesitate to send direct sales offers through emails because they land in the spam folder and never get opened. But if applied correctly, email marketing is an effective tool to target specific audience and attract the right people for your business.

Over the years, email marketing practices have gone through major changes and companies have started adapting various strategies to grab audience attention. But the results have not been great due to several marketing mistakes. They tend to overdo email blasts, attach plenty of images and even beat around the bush to convey a message making people to unsubscribe from the brands.

If you have tried sending emails to your customers but never heard back from them, then handing over your brand promotions to an email marketing agency will do the trick for you. Here are the 4 ways email marketing agencies can take your business to the next level in 2020.

1. Creating Catchy Headlines

No more boring emails! The attention span of people is getting reduced in the digital world, they want everything right in their face without any suspense. Statistics show that 50% of people don’t open the mail if the subject doesn’t spark their interest. Therefore, the chances of consumers reading your promotional mail becomes low if you don’t have a catchy headline.

An email marketing agency will thoroughly research your business and understand the motive before writing an email to your loyal customer. They will create simple, catchy headlines with the type of content your user will be interested to read.

By announcing offers, deals, discounts, workshops, podcasts and other promotional information in the headlines, the consumer will definitely pause for a second to open and read the mail. Quirky, funny and trendy headlines will not only catch the attention of the user but will make them smile when they get a notification.

2. Formulating Mobile-Friendly Strategies

Go Mobile in 2020! The debate has finally been settled; people turn to both mobile-friendly websites as well as apps to find what they want. If you want your customers to look at your emails, then you need them to be mobile-friendly.

When your emails are purposeful and mobile-friendly, customers will read the information, visit your website, like your Facebook page and follow your brand on Twitter, Instagram and even make a purchase from your online store. Customers prefer to read mails on the mobile platform because they can easily navigate to other sites through links such as “learn more” and “app store download”.

Email marketing agency will successfully earn the attention of users and grab additional subscribers by developing mobile- friendly strategies suiting smartphones. By creating mobile-friendly content, images and links for email marketing, the chances of your brand emails landing in the spam folder is nil.

3. Sending User-Relevant Content to Right Audience

Right people matter the most! The millions of followers on twitter, Facebook or other social media platforms don’t matter unless your brand revenue hits the million charts. Promoting your brand on common platforms may help gather a lot of followers but when it comes to making purchases only loyal ones will count.

When email marketing agencies promote your brand through emails, they will perform analytics to know the user community better. By knowing your customers activities, they will send user-relevant content to attract and keep them engaged with your brand for a long time.

There’s a place and time to send emails, newsletters, updates, products, services to strike a good balance with your consumers. And agencies will ensure to send relevant links to lead customers back to your business. Communicating with right audience in the right way will be the best email marketing strategy of the agency.

4. Customizing and Limiting Email Blasts

More is not Merrier! You cannot send ten different emails everyday to your customers as it can annoy them and make them unsubscribe from the newsletters. Email marketing is a great way to educate potential customers to new offers, products, sales, discounts, questionnaires, newsletters and services to customers. When you follow the right customization and send only useful emails to them, you can establish healthier relationships with customers.

When you partner with an email marketing agency, they can assist in customizing and optimizing emails for your potential consumers. These emails are made enjoyable and informative without making them unsubscribe from your brand. Instead of sending plenty of emails regularly, occasional yet informative email blast can work like a charm.

Try partnering with an email marketing agency to increase click-through rate, subscription rate, sales and revenue percentage of your brand in 2020!

5 Ways Digital Marketing Boosts Startup Businesses

If you have planned to launch a startup in 2020 or looking to establish yourself in the global market, then you must follow the latest trends to get there. Business is a competitive field and marketing your brand becomes an absolute necessity to reach the global audience. In the initial stages of establishing a startup, you might incur unexpected expenses which can derail your motive to get an elaborate marketing campaign. But there are plenty of digital marketing companies that can promote your brand on a budget.

Is Digital Marketing important?

Every company, small or big, needs sales and profits to grow their business. And the world has become a hub of digital platforms attracting millions of customers through the internet. Online businesses are becoming popular and profitable than the offline ones. So, marketing your startup brand is the ideal way to build your brand and target potential customers.

How Digital Marketing Works?

Digital marketing is a strategic approach to market your brand, services, products in an online setting such as the web, mobile and social media platforms. Digital marketing consists of,

· Search Engine Optimization (SEO),
· Search Engine Marketing (SEM),
· Social Media Marketing (SMM)
· Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC)
· Affiliate marketing,
· Email Marketing
· Mobile Marketing
· Content Marketing

Most startups require a combination of digital marketing strategies to boost their brand recognition and success. Choosing a digital marketing company like us can help in customizing top strategies for best results. Here, you can find the different ways in which digital marketing can help boost your business.

How Digital Marketing Boosts Startup Companies

1. Enhances Visibility

If you’re a startup, the first thing you must work on is, brand recognition. Since you are new to the market, only few people will know about your brand. Without enhancing your visibility, you cannot expect people to search for your services or products. So, you need to create a strong online presence by increasing your reach to the target audience. The best way to establish brand identity is through the search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM) and content marketing strategies.

2. Lowers Marketing Costs

When you have just started a small business, the funds are a concern. It becomes difficult to invest in big marketing tools and techniques as they are expensive. However, digital marketing strategies can be customized based on the business making it an inexpensive way to market a brand. Some techniques can be adopted without burning a hole in your pocket as they are cost effective. You can approach a digital marketing company like us to customize low-cost marketing tools to enhance your brand.

3. Boosts Lead Generation

Customers are the backbone of any business but clients make up the skeleton. Network becomes vital for startup companies to reach a newer audience and establish their brand. Digital marketing helps in lead generation using several tactics like email marketing, content marketing and social media marketing. You can augment new leads through newsletters, e-books, webinars, podcasts, videos and emails. By partnering with the right digital marketing company, you can easily convert potential leads into profitable clients.

4. Drives Sales and Profits

The growth of the business directly depends on the quantity of sales and profits made every year. If you have a business website, then doing SEO will increase traffic and bring newer customers every day. The more traffic your startup website gets, the more sales it makes. If you are thinking about increasing revenue, then implementing good digital marketing strategies can drive sales and profits to your company.

5. Opens a Wider Audience

By promoting your products and services through digital marketing tools, you get to connect with a wide range of customers from several parts of the world. It is one of the best tools to develop long-lasting relationships with target customers and secure brand loyalty. Once your brand connects with potential customers on a deeper and personalized level, you can definitely outrank your competitors. People prefer brands that connect with them personally than less personal multi-national companies.

What is Social Media Marketing ?

“How can you squander even one more day not taking advantage of the greatest shifts of our generation? How dare you settle for less when the world has made it so easy for you to be remarkable?.” – Seth Godin

We are at a point of time where technology has completely changed the way we communicate.

Social Media is not ‘just another fad’. In fact, it is an integral part of millions of lives today.

The number of sign-ups and visits on these networks seems to be increasing everyday.

This means that more people getting connected online today than there were yesterday, and the number will only increase. Even people who were not using internet actively seem to be bitten by the Social Networking bug.

What does all this mean to people like you who are trying to reach customers? 

This means opportunity! It has become very easy to reach out to your potential customers. The process of  setting up accounts on these sites is so simple, it hardly takes few minutes to register. It is very easy to share information about your business or brand or cause. The best part is that all this can be done with almost zero monetary investment ! Reaching targeted people has never been this cheap and easy!

But there has to be a catch right? Yes, unfortunately, there is. You have to remember that it is easy for *anyone* to do all this. This has led to a huge surge in spam and irrelevant stream of information. There is way too much chaos. And your message can easily get lost.

How do i get noticed on social media ?

This is not an easy task anymore, owing to the sheer number of people sharing and publishing information online. Every day billions of photos, status updates, videos etc are being shared by millions of people. There is way too much information(useful and otherwise) floating around the web.

To worsen the matters, the average attention span of people in general has reduced so much, that you would be lucky if you can hold their attention for a few moments. So how would someone get noticed in all this chaos ? How can you get the attention of your potential customers ?

Say hello to Social Media Marketing. One of the newest kids on the marketing block.

Social Media Marketing, what ?

Social Media Marketing is one of the latest buzzwords in the online marketing industry. It is the term used to represent the set of activities that one does to reach out to potential customers on Social Networking sites. Lot of businesses (of all shapes and sizes) use social media to interact with their costumers and engage them in some way or other.  If done right, social media marketing can actually help you increase sales (See this article on Bloomberg about Dell’s increase in sales).

Things to consider when marketing online

There are a few things that you should consider when marketing your business online :

  1. Be careful. Once you put something on the internet, you can very rarely take it back.
  2. Be original. Don’t plagiarize content for your blog or status updates. If your customers find that you use plagiarized content, they will surely not think very highly of your business.
  3. Be consistent. Make sure that you are conveying a consistent message everywhere (even offline). Don’t confuse your current and future customers by sending confusing messages about your business.
  4. Be patient. Don’t fall into the shortcut trap. There are a lot many “businesses” that sell “software” or “services” that can increase your traffic, followers, likes, fans etc. Stay away from them or face the risk of being penalized or banned.
  5. Be precise. People don’t have time and attention span like they used to. Make sure what you write is short and easy to read and follow.
  6. Be focused. Don’t write stuff that is not of any concern to your business and more importantly to your customers.
  7. Be useful. Give your customers a reason to keep coming back for your updates. Try to be as useful as possible.