What Digital Startups Can Learn From Traditional Businesses

Before Digital Marketing, there was traditional marketing – and with it, many tried and true business promotion practices and methods that are most definitely still transferable and remain effective in the digital age!

Take traditional advertising, for example. Outdoor media, branded merchandise, and other forms of media advertisement are still powerful tools for business promotion. For example, even with various forms of social media and digital marketing available, many businesses still choose to advertise through traditional media such as television and radio. These traditional promotional tools provide solid foundations from which digital marketing startups can build and learn.

Traditional Marketing, Promotion, and Advertisement

Branded merchandise

Branded merchandise can take many forms and offers a simple, cost-effective method to advertise, promote and market a business.

For example, companies can have customized lanyards printed to display their brand logo and to effectively and cheaply promote their brand in an easily visible and highly accessible manner. Alternatively, a business may choose to print their brand logo on articles of clothing such as tee shirts or polo tops, hats or caps, jumpers or sweaters, or even scarves and beanies! In this way, they quite literally turn the recipients and wearers of their branded clothing into walking advertisements.

outdoor media

Just like branded clothing, outdoor media is another way businesses can make their brand visible to the public. Popular outdoor media include billboards, signposts, and digital screens – which remain in use and are highly effective even today. importantly, outdoor mediaif used properly, can turn a business into a highly visible, instantly recognizable brand – in some cases, even becoming a household name!

Television and Radio Advertising

Television and radio advertising remain some of the most effective forms of business promotion to this day. As such, even with modern advances in social and digital media being readily available to use, many businesses are still choosing to utilize traditional media such as television and radio to advertise, market, and promote their products and services.

This is due in part to the sheer reach of these forms of traditional media – indeed, they could even be referred to as the modern-day opiates of the massesdue to television and radio media’s highly addictive and engaging nature – which quite literally draws the consumer in and absorbs almost all of their attention and concentration whilst they are watching, listening to and engaging with the message being broadcast.

What Digital Marketers Can Learn from Traditional Marketing and Advertising

Now that digital marketing is a thing, digital marketers can learn a great deal from traditional marketing and advertising methods. For instance, consumer behavior and consumer psychology are two areas of study that have been thoroughly observed in traditional marketing and advertising to form effective promotional methodology, and which both still play a pivotal role in advertising and marketing in the digital age.

Consumer Behavior and Consumer Psychology in the Digital Age

For one, identifying what draws a prospective customer to a product is essential to any type of marketing – whether it be digital or traditional. Market research plays an important role in ascertaining what is important to the target market or audience a business wants to reach, promote and display its products and services to.

Encouraging the prospective customer to engage with a brand through brand awareness, brand tone, brand voice, and brand message are also effective tools developed in traditional marketing, which still play a huge role in digital marketing today. Further, the customer journey within the marketing and purchasing cycle is also mirrored within both traditional and digital marketing and advertising. Importantly, the touch points a prospective customer is exposed to and engages and interacts with must remain consistent with the brand message throughout the entire customer journey. This establishes trust and brand credibility and encourages repeat business from the customer, as well as ultimately reaching the end goal of obtaining a customer as a brand ambassador.

Brand ambassadors in the digital age are still very important – with factors such as customer reviews on digital touch points such as Google, apps such as YELP, and the business’s website and social media platforms, playing a major role in increasing the trust and credibility of a brand, and encourage future customers to make a purchase.

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