Integrating Traditional & Digital Marketing

Getting the right balance between the marketing channels has become a challenge, even more today with the explosion in digital marketing. Marketers struggle to understand the complex relationship between traditional and digital marketing. Marketers should do their best to complement their traditional marketing strategies with online marketing strategies.

When it comes to traditional and digital marketing, instead of thinking ‘either-or’ one should think of bridging the two channels to make sure to capitalise from both of them. Traditional marketing still work wonders especially when it comes to top of mind awareness. On the other hand online marketing is perfect to drive potential buyers to loyal customers and maintaining customer relationships.  If you wondered how the rich and famous thrive in the digital world, this social media verification resource provides a clue about.

So the question is how to balance these two?

Each and every business has its own characteristics which results in different marketing needs. However one of the most important things is that your brand message is the same on all platforms, be it traditional marketing, online marketing and also social media. Choose a brand message, a colour theme and a logo so customers can distinguish your product and services from your competition. Mentioning your website and your social media channels on TV adverts, newspapers and radio is the most common way in connecting the marketing channels together. By directing offline customers to your website and social media you will attract new customers, increase conversions and may also increase search engine rankings. However there are other ways which could be more effective than just mentioning your online presence in traditional marketing.

One of the most effective ways to connect the two channels together is that of QR codes. A QR code is a square box which appears in printed publications such as magazines. To implement this, you can easily generate QR codes online, which ensures quick and accurate creation of these codes. QR codes are also ideal to be used on business cards, which keeps someone in touch with your website or personal social media accounts. Many local businesses are starting to use this type of technology, which is proving to be an ideal way to connect the marketing channels.

While traditional marketing is an ideal way to reach broad consumers, digital marketing can be effectively used to create and maintain customer relationships, resulting in customer retention. Therefore, depending on your specific goals, no one has to look at the whole picture as ‘traditional vs. digital’ but as recognising the opportunity in merging traditional and digital marketing. Communicating online and offline marketing is time consuming, and can also be expensive. However the efforts will help you generate better customer relationship and also increase your revenue.

Daniel Coleiro Kingswell is a Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Alert eBusiness (Internet Marketing Division) – www.alertemarketing.com