Guest post by David Webb of http://www.bizzmarkblog.com

The emergence of the digital forms of advertising has created a massive disruption in the marketing field. Suddenly, marketers could track all interactions consumers have with their ads and commercials and use them to improve their ads’ content and strategy. Digital advertising has become the most profitable marketing field that encompasses everything from Google AdWords to social media and influencer advertising.

7 Reasons to Integrate Traditional and Digital Marketing

The same disruption has pushed the traditional marketing forms into obscurity. Traditional advertising tactics and channels like radio, TV, printed promotional materials and guerilla marketing tactics are becoming much less popular since most companies are shifting to the digital world. Luckily, some marketers have realized that these traditional marketing forms still have enormous potential, especially if combined with the digital marketing tactics and supported by the latest tech. In this article, we are going to analyze the benefits that the integration of traditional and digital marketing can bring.

Increases your public relations

One of the primary purposes of any strategy – and a marketing field itself – is to improve the reputation of the company and its products. While digital marketing offers great possibilities for the PR work, it doesn’t use the direct approach like some more traditional techniques. In the highly digitalized and commercialized world, many people lack and crave human interaction. One of the ways to use this trend to your advantage is to organize traditional live product presentations on fairs, streets, or conferences and popularize them with social media announcements. This way, consumers will be able to connect your products with real people who manufacture and sell them, which will drastically improve your reputation.

Helps you reach both active and passive audience

‘The Audience theory’ has defined two types of audience depending on how they interact with news and ads. The passive audience takes information for granted, and therefore, can be easily targeted through more traditional advertising channels such as TV, radio, billboards, leaflets, and prospects. The active audience likes to take part in the news and product creation and discuss different features. Companies should rely on the active audience if they want to create highly customized and personalized products. The best channels for targeting the active audience are social networks that allow consumers to easily come in contact with the company representatives and discuss product features in the open.

Builds long lasting relationships

Providing excellent customer service is the best way to win consumers’ hearts and minds and build strong relationships that will result in purchases. Customer retention is a critical marketing segment. It is much easier and more affordable for companies to keep the current customers happy than to attract new leads and push them through the sales funnel. The Pipeline marketing group acknowledges this and as they say – 96% of dissatisfied customers don’t complain, they just walk away and you never know why. That is why you need to develop your customer retention strategy thoroughly, besides other aspects of marketing. Although digital marketing offers plenty of solutions for improving customer loyalty, sometimes entrepreneurs simply need to make their effort more personal and reach for traditional marketing techniques. For example, your customers will be much more delighted if they receive a handwritten message and free product samples by post than if you send them an email with a coupon code.

You can spread across multiple channels

Each company has a unique overall marketing strategy, and by combining traditional and digital marketing approaches, you will be able to spread your strategy to more channels and thus target more consumers. Some users prefer Facebook, others prefer Twitter, but there are also people who stay away from social networks and the internet in general. The only way to target them is through traditional marketing channels.

Promote social channels via traditional media

Since we have started talking about spreading your strategy to multiple channels, we also need to mention the benefits that come from promoting your social media pages through traditional media. Promoting your Facebook page on TV can bring some results, but you will attract much more followers if you use the guerilla marketing tactics. For example, you can spread leaflets, paste stickers or even write graffiti. Promote your social media campaigns by writing, posting, and pasting hashtags in visible places. You can also generate a QR code from your website or social media page link, print it on leaflets and hand them out on the street, or during some popular event.

Connects the audience across all the channels

If you already use both traditional and digital marketing channels, you can attract new leads, improve your customers’ loyalty and diversify your marketing strategy by connecting the audience across these channels and allowing them to interact with one another and with your offers.

You can organize events through online campaigns

The integration between digital and traditional tactic is the most visible in the event management sphere. You can improve your event’s attendance and conversion by using social media, video sharing platforms, and AdWords for promoting future events and sharing content from the previous ones. You can also motivate your attendees to share their location and impressions in real time on Twitter or some other social media platform that supports live feeds. This way, you are turning your visitors and customers into journalists and allowing them to promote your brand.

Although digital marketing offers huge benefits, you shouldn’t let the hype that is created around this concept shift your attention from traditional marketing techniques. Combine these two approaches and target your customers both in real life and in the digital arena. That is the best way to make your business stand out.

About the Author:
David Webb is a Sydney based business consultant and online marketing analyst.  With six years of experience and a degree in online business strategy, he is driven to help the people better understand this new digital age. In free time, David enjoys writing, traveling and occasional night out with his friends

You can find him online at:
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