Observing digital and traditional marketing as two opposite or contrasting forces is a completely wrong point of view. This is due to the fact that A) you need them both and B) when combined properly, they do a great job of complementing each other.
For this latter part to work, you need to understand how to properly combine then, as well as how to make a strategy that will integrate them both. Here’s what you need to know in order to make this work.
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1. Do Your Budget
The biggest question is not the one of whether you should go for digital or traditional marketing, the truth is that you should go for both. The question is, how big of a portion of your marketing budget each of these two aspects of marketing should receive.
Let’s start with your total marketing budget. First of all, your marketing budget should be, at very least, 10 percent of your average annual revenue.
Depending on if the field is particularly competitive, this figure can go anywhere between 20 and 50 percent. Another thing you need to understand is the necessity of pouring money into your digital marketing.
When it comes to traditional marketing, no one expects businesses to print their promotional t-shirts for free.
When it comes to digital marketing, on the other hand, there’s a long list of entitled entrepreneurs expecting people to promote them either out of the goodness of their heart or for the sake of gaining some exposure of their own.
Quality digital marketing is a costly matter. This is why, before you start, you need to redo your budget and figure out where your resources would give the greatest ROI.
2. Promotional Materials With URL And Social Media Handles
Promotional materials and strategies like banners and billboards can easily be used in order to encourage people to visit you online. How? By adding the URL or your social media handles into their design. The same thing can be done with TV and radio advertisements.
Merely mention your presence on a certain network and give people your social media handle so that they can find you effortlessly.
This probably doesn’t require you to deviate much from your original intention with this merchandise. Also, this digital-world-relevant information should find its place on your business cards.
Still, why stop there? You can also print out some of this information on promotional materials that you intend to hand out.
Why not turn every single person that wears your corporate t-shirt or your branded umbrella into a walking billboard? Sure, you may not have enough space to add your handles in a decent font on every t-shirt but you might not even be forced to do that.
Instead, why don’t you just add icons of platforms that you’re present on? Provided that your brand name is your handle (as it should be), it won’t be hard for people to find you. All you’re doing is reminding them that you have a presence there, as well.
3. Transforming Formats
There are some formats that can be easily transformed from one form to another. This allows you to recycle and old content without any drawbacks. Even the audience that has already read or viewed the piece will, most likely, feel interested in seeing it again.
For instance, an interview in the form of a blog post or a video can turn into a live dialogue, thus serving as an inspiration for a podcast episode. This, however, requires an immense level of adaptability and the necessary technical prowess.
So, what about combining digital and traditional? First of all, there are some formats that have direct counterparts in the analog world.
For instance, an infographic and a brochure serve, more or less, the same purpose. It is, therefore, quite easy to turn an infographic into a brochure and vice-versa.
The reason why the first method is more likely is due to the fact that brochure design, nowadays, is done in the digital world, regardless if you upload the design as an infographic or not. Since you already have this option, why not use it for your own benefit.
4. Office Organization
One of the most important things to keep in mind is that the appearance of your office stands to make a huge impact on your audience.
According to some surveys, showing a real group of people is 35 percent more effective than showing a stock photo, when it comes to the conversion rate of the site on which you’ve displayed it.
What does this mean for you? Well, first, it means that you need to use images of your team and your office space.
Therefore, cunningly branding your office space with banners, wall murals and other promotional means can make a huge difference.
The most important thing you need to work out is office optimization. For starters, the banners and murals in question need to go well with the rest of your office palette. This is why it would be for the best if you were to choose a palette that already consists of your corporate colors.
Other than this, you can place accessories with branded items. For instance, you can place custom logo mats in order to add a branding dimension to the entrance to your premises.
5. Promotional Materials As A Contest Prize
The simplest way to promote your product is to hand out some free samples. Why? Well, because this is the simplest, most effective way for your customer base to get acquainted with the quality of your products.
So, how do you make a seamless integration? Ideally, you would use the online means as a platform to promote your giveaway or your contest.
This way, you’re encouraging your audience to interact with your brand in a digital environment, subtly conditioning them to interact with you.
Keep in mind that giveaways also improve your public image, seeing as how they portray you as someone who’s so confident in their product that they don’t have to hide behind the paywall. A similar thing should be done with merchandise, as well.
Most importantly, for this to work, you need to have a sufficient number of promotional products ready. This is why you need to find a reliable partner to print the volume that you need.
Printing in bulk usually scores you a decent discount per unit, which makes this marketing strategy even more viable.
6. Guerilla Marketing
Guerilla marketing is another way for you to combine real-world marketing with digital means of promotion. For starters, you need to focus on what really matters.
The goal of any decent marketing method is to attract the right kind of attention (while some would claim that any kind of attention really does the trick).
Because guerilla marketing and street art aren’t something that the majority of your competitors are investing in, what you’re really doing is setting yourself apart from the competition. You’re also doing this in a way that’s both simple and ingenious.
As for the integration into the digital world, look at it this way. The psychology of sharing things on social media is quite straightforward.
People share things that they find impactful and visually pleasing and, with the right approach, the street art that you’ve created will fit into both of these categories.
If you make it clear that the art is branded, there are great odds that people uploading these photos online will tag you or use you as a hashtag.
Both of these things increase your visibility, strengthen your brand on social media and, overall, benefit you in every way perceivable.
In Conclusion
Digital vs. traditional marketing is a debate that’s not just impossible to resolve but also quite unnecessary.
Why? Well, because for optimal results, you definitely need both. Sure, digital marketing has one massive advantage over its traditional counterpart – the analytics. If you are eager to learn more about digital marketing in detail, you can invest in a digital marketing training course and become a digital marketing specialist.
When it comes to digital marketing, you can track the ROI of various methods and strategies with much greater reliability.
Still, old-school marketing can help you reach audiences that do not spend that much time online and they can help you diversify your outreach.
