Impact Of Traditional Advertising Media Vs Social Media Marketing

Sophia Harris

Sophia Harris is an educational and marketing consultant. She loves to write about new insights and information regarding education, learning and management tips.

Sophia Harris has written 4 articles for PromotionWorld. View all articles by Sophia Harris...

Selecting the right advertising platform in today's time is no less than puzzlement. There are numerous advertising options available for your brand like print, television, radio, outdoor, commercials and of course the internet. Traditional media has contributed to thousands of businesses for decades. With the help of Internet, you can take the advantage of social media, content marketing, search engine marketing and other online marketing methods.

In this article we are going to understand the impact of traditional advertising and social media marketing for the brand.

Typically below are the contents of both the advertising methods:

Includes…

(Magazines and newspaper ads, newsletters, brochures, pamphlets and other printed material)

(Such as radio and TV ads)

Outdoor media

Telemarketing

Direct mail

(Including fliers, catalogs, post cards)

Includes advertising on various social media platforms such as…

FaceBook

Instagram

Twitter

LinkedIn

YouTube

Pinterest and many more

Traditional advertising:

Typically, Traditional advertising is defined as any type of advertising, promotion, campaign that is used by the companies till years and has wonderful effect and success rate. There are various methods of traditional marketing like print media & hoarding advertising that includes newspaper & magazines ads, billboards, flyers, brochures, etc Other category of traditional advertising includes television commercials, radio advertising, etc.

Some interesting stats about Traditional advertising:

Television is considered the most effective method of advertising till, it has the highest advertisement  revenue in the US; $78.5 billion in 2011

In UK, 57% consider television advertising as the most impactful. Newspaper advertising comes second with 15%

 Radio advertising generated approximately $17 billion ad revenue during the year 2011.

Print advertising generates about $30 billion ad revenue every year.

(Source: Nielsen, GfK; ON Advertising)

Merits of Traditional advertising:

 

Maximum Outreach: It is possible to target/reach large number of audience simultaneously.

Brand endorsement effect: Psychologically the traditional media has larger and personalized impact due to various brand endorsements by the famous celebrities.

Tangible Offers: It offers tangibility. Also, some form of traditional media is difficult to ignore, like outdoor hoardings, gantry, etc.

Product Testing: Depending on the service or product, it can offer product testing to prove the quality.

Demerits of Traditional advertising:

Expensive: It's very costly to purchase television, radio or other traditional advertising ads for both small and medium sized business.

Difficult to track the conversion rate: Unalike digital Marketing, it is difficult to track or measure the conversion rate of the ads

Forced Strategy: The traditional marketing is also considered as forced method of selling a service or product, since the customer might not necessarily seek the product.

One-way approach: Mostly one way communication is included in traditional marketing, which may not necessarily attracts audience.

Social media marketing:

Social media marketing is a form or method of internet marketing that equips various social media platforms like FaceBook, twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, etc. in order to achieve branding and marketing goals. It usually covers the activities like social sharing of content, images and videos for promotion purposes.

Social media marketing stats:

According to AdWeek, More than 50 million small businesses have started using FaceBook pages.

The revenue of Social media advertising will reach $9.8 billion in 2016.

Within the top 50 companies on the Forbes 500 list, 40 of the CEOs of top 50 companies on the Forbes list are have an active social media presence. Previously it was just 18 in 2010.

92% of small businesses agree that social media networks are crucial to their business. (Source: Social Media Examiner)

95% online adults that are aged 18-34 prefer to follow a brand through social media platforms. (Source: MarketingSherpa) 

By spending around six hours per week, approximately 66% of marketers can observe lead generation benefits with social media. (Social Media Examiner, 2015)

6 out of 10 small business owners agree that they are not able to track ROI from their social media activities. (Source: Hubspot)

Merits of social media marketing:

Comparatively cheaper: Unlike traditional media, social media marketing is less expensive and affordable for small and medium business.

It increases brand awareness: Due to paid advertising and other method social media methods, social media marketing succeeds in increasing the brand awareness online.

Help to improve search engine rankings: As the online presence increases of the brand, it also benefits search engine rankings.

Higher conversation rate: It has higher conversion rates rather than traditional advertising. Also, it is quite possible to track the conversion rate to analyze ROI.

Better customer satisfaction: Customer can see the brand they are using on social media, not only that their complaints, suggestion are heard on social media which creates two-way relationship. As a result customer satisfaction increases.

Demerits of social media marketing:

Time demanding: It takes time to build the online presence, therefore it demands more time unlike traditional advertising.

Lack of feedback control: Social media has also power to ruin the image of any brand, and the worst part is the brand cannot control the dishonest or negative feedback.

Comparatively limited audience: Unlike traditional advertising, mostly it is not possible to target larger number of audience. Also, not necessarily every customer is active on social media, therefore it has limited target audience.

How can you select the right advertising media for you?

Before selecting the right advertising platform, you need to ask following question to yourself like:

Who are my target audience?

What is the objective of advertising?

What will be the cost per thousand?

Geographical and demographical environment of your target audience

Budget of advertising and plan for ROI

Once you analyze the purpose, need and budget of your advertising it becomes easy to choose the correct platform for your brand and you can predict which will leave more impact on the target audience.

The Last Word:

The both the category of advertising have their own charm, it's you who need to decide which will be most suitable for your brand and which will best fit in your budget.

Source: Impact Of Traditional Advertising Media Vs Social Media Marketing