What is marketing?

Marketing is the process of knowing one’s target audience and communicating effectively to sell one’s product or service. There are several marketing strategies to advertise a company’s products, including print advertising, digital marketing, social media campaigns, and web advertisements.

An effective marketing strategy is to find your target market and where they are, get your business in front of them as much as possible. Test your ads to see what works and what doesn’t. Create a funnel that is meant to convert. Once you find what works for you, rinse and repeat the process but always remember that your competition will try to outshine you, so never get complacent, always fine tune and polish your marketing campaigns, funnels and objectives. 

The Biggest Difference – Digital Versus Print

Online advertising allows businesses to reach more people with less effort and budget. Most likely if you want your company to be seen by millions or billions of people, you need something much more powerful than just an advertisement in a newspaper. 

The biggest difference between online digital marketing versus print advertising is that digital ads are viewable immediately by anyone who wants them — which makes them ideal for social media and search engine optimization campaigns as well as other types of web marketing campaigns aimed at driving traffic and conversion rates from these targeted audiences (e.g., paid search engine optimization). Sharing online also allows viewers to know what their friends and family are interested in, which allows companies to market their brands more effectively.

Both web and print marketing are long term, any advertising or marketing is in general. Marketing is about promoting your brand to your target market for the potential of increasing your revenue and market share. It’s not a one time deal to just throw an ad out there with the hopes it sticks, it’s about long term consistency.

The different types of marketing

The main two types of marketing are print advertising and digital marketing. Print advertising is mostly used for branding, and sometimes can’t be as targeted as web marketing is. Digital/web marketing can be set up to be highly effective in pinpointing your target audience. With digital marketing you also have the flexibility to create re-marketing campaigns to stay top of mind. 

Print Advertising: 

• Magazines 7 Newspapers
• Business cards
• Flyers & Postcards
• Direct Mailers
• Billboards, etc.

Digital Marketing: 

• Websites
• SEO/ Analytics
• Google Ads
• Social media
• Email marketing

Each marketing strategy has its own merits and shortcomings. One thing is for sure: a well written advertisement is one of the best forms of marketing you can do online or offline. An email campaign tends to be more effective than a direct-mail mailing campaign because email marketing doesn’t require a lot of resources for a short period of time and as such can be more cost-efficient in comparison to a direct-mail campaign.

Online marketing

Online marketing is an effective way to advertise your brand and sell your products to the general public, whether they would be in California or Rhode Island. This type of marketing is the easiest to do, but the hardest to do well. 

There are thousands of online advertisers just looking to be at the top of Google searches and in front of potential customers. Most business owners don’t realize that a strong relationship with Google requires work and time to fine tune tags and content on their ads and websites. Sometimes it may seem like an uphill battle but it is a long term investment when it comes down to it.

Marketing through social media has become more popular so that users can easily discover products, brands, services, events, and news posted by those within their social circle. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are an effective branding tool but not so much as a profitable endeavor. It is imperative to stay relevant online in order to show potential customers that your business is credible and worth looking into. A lack of reviews, products, and pictures will leave your customers with many questions about your company, which is never a good thing.

Online marketing has the benefit of reaching your target audience at a wider level, being less expensive than print advertising, and being easier to implement. Furthermore, being able to track customer progression through analytics can help determine which ads are working or should be targeted better. Once you find that sweat spot, rinse and repeat!

In Conclusion

There are many differences when it comes down to print advertising and digital marketing. Print advertising is an effective branding tool but may cost more to publish ads and only be limited to certain locations within your geographical area. This method of marketing is still needed for brand awareness but may not give back optimal results. In addition, understanding your audience and how they take in information helps immensely when starting your marketing campaign either online or offline. Furthermore, the advantage of digital marketing is that they reach a wider audience, are much more targeted based on user data, and are most effective in the long run. This method is more effective with a smaller marketing budget and a longer project timeline. Digital marketing is the way to go!