What's that one thing you always hop on to on social media when you want to stand out among others and show your creativity? Instagram trends, right? The likes, the comments, and the reach amaze us! What is your go-to place when you are hungry? Zomato, isn't it? What's your favourite comfort for listening to music? Spotify, that's the vibe!
Well, that's how digital marketing techniques captivate the audience's attention to dive them into deep thinking about the brand, which ultimately raises curiosity among the buyers. We have come far away from BillBoards to Instagram and Facebook. No doubt, traditional advertising continues to maintain its legacy; it is the backbone of advertising. Many brands have achieved gigantic success through traditional advertising when the social media era did not exist. But now, we have stepped into a new era of marketing where both - traditional marketing and social media marketing go together. One such type of social media marketing is Influencer Marketing. This article will help you gain insights into traditional advertising and influencer marketing.
Traditional Advertising - an elaborative closeup
Traditional advertising is a comprehensive process of creating brand or product awareness through offline channel mediums. This type of advertising is used even today by various brands to continue promoting their products. Amul, India's largest dairy brand, still has its top place in traditional advertising through TV and print ads. Over the past several decades, traditional advertising has increased to a larger extent.
The various types of traditional advertising are handouts, billboards, TV ads, telemarketing, flyers and brochures, pamphlets, newspapers, referrals, cold calling, direct mail, event marketing, outdoor advertising, conversational marketing and radio advertising.
Advantages of traditional advertising
Channels like print ads, TV ads and billboards cater to a larger audience. This gradually enhances the awareness of the products among the audience. TV ads especially add value to the exposure of the brand by placing it on a large platform where the potential customer already exists. For example, a TV channel that broadcasts cartoons for young kids can place advertisements related to child products.
Pamphlets, regional newspapers and referrals give opportunities to local businesses to promote themselves on the initial level. A newly established business can always opt for such media so that it can create awareness among the local audience.
Likes, comments and shares boost the visibility of a social media post, and changing trends often replace each other; in traditional marketing, there is no such fear of disappearance. A brand can create its image and develop well-built strategies to remain in the market for a long time. Creative ad copies and TV commercials, when repeated continuously, create a place in consumers' minds. This leads to a better market position for the brand, leading to a more prolonged survival.
Disadvantages of traditional advertising
There are brands in the market that have already established their brand image through traditional advertising. Hence, it becomes difficult due to the tough competition in the market.
A small business cannot quickly invest a large amount of money into traditional advertising, as TV commercials and broadcasting take up more money. While pamphlets or magazines might be much more pocket-friendly, their scope is not as high as TV ads or broadcasting commercials.
In traditional advertising, there is no exact way to measure the returns on the investment; it can be challenging to assess and analyse the data and information.
Influencer Marketing - a quick glance
Influencer Marketing is a type of social media marketing where an individual who is a content creator produces content for a specific brand to promote their products to the audience. These influencers have an engaging audience on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. The main focus of influencer marketing is to attract the influencer audience and convert them into potential consumers.
Advantages of influencer marketing
Content creators possess the creativity and passion to create engaging social media posts for the brand. This catches the audience's eye. They effectively communicate the brand's voice through the content.
Social media enables the tools to calculate and measure the Return on Investment factor. The same can be traced by analysing the number of likes, shares, comments, saves, poll answer clicks, etc. Audience engagement concerning every social media post changes often, hence, such tools make the task easier to measure the growth of the content.
Social media encompasses trends and exists in a variety of niches. Every influencer specialises in a niche category, like beauty bloggers, fitness influencers, tech influencers etc. This fosters in creation of a personal identity for the influencers and with creativity, the content goes viral.
Disadvantages of influencer marketing
A brand must know what type of influencer they are looking for. The influencer's niche and the brand theme must align to create an impactful partnership with good returns. Without this, the progress is low. This might be time-consuming, but it is an essential process in marketing techniques if the brands want to opt for influencer marketing.
In terms of money, partnering with an influencer can be costly if the influencer is already a well-established and famous person on the internet. A brand can always reach out to micro-influencers, UGC creators, and nano-influencers who fit into the budget.
A comparative analysis - influencer marketing and traditional advertising
With both perspectives put forward, traditional advertising is more inclined towards broad reach but doesn't consider engagement, and it becomes a tedious task to calculate ROI. Companies that have indulged in traditional advertising may continue to do the same in the future if they see valuable output from it. Tanishq Jewellery, Amul, Reliance, etc., have levelled themselves up through traditional marketing in the form of TV ads, newspaper advertising, and billboards. Now, as the game of social media has risen, along with traditional advertising, the same brands also go for influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing has more perks than traditional advertising; it is accessible to anyone who has internet access, and with the help of SEO tools, a brand can improve its digital visibility to a larger audience. Shop
Therefore, it depends on the brand how and what the planning decisions are taken. Traditional advertising and Influencer Marketing both serve their purpose and stand beneficial in their place.
