{"id":3127,"date":"2019-04-11T15:20:10","date_gmt":"2019-04-11T15:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2019\/04\/11\/why-digital-marketing-always-wins\/"},"modified":"2025-03-05T16:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T16:43:09","slug":"why-digital-marketing-always-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.elixirrdigital.com\/us\/2019\/04\/11\/why-digital-marketing-always-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Digital Marketing Always Wins"},"content":{"rendered":"

When it comes to marketing budgets, there\u2019s always a push\/pull between the various types of paid advertising<\/a> you can undertake.<\/p>\n

In terms of how that budget is split between digital marketing<\/a> and other \u2018traditional\u2019 media channels like television or print advertising, you probably won\u2019t be surprised to read that I, a digital marketer, believe that online deserves greater weight in those conversations.<\/p>\n

In this article, I’m going to try and make the case for why that’s a rational and reasonable position. To that end, I\u2019ll lay out why, when stacked up against traditional media, digital marketing always wins.<\/p>\n

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Targeting<\/h2>\n

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The most powerful and effective advertising is often the most targeted, this has long been understood both in traditional and digital media. Television ads are targeted by the demographic most likely to watch the programme they\u2019re going to be shown within, ads in industry specific magazines can be far more targeted than those in national newspapers, and so on.<\/p>\n

While you could see this as a strength of traditional media, the issue here is that this kind of targeting can always be bested by what you can achieve through digital platforms.<\/p>\n

Sure, you can determine that a specific demographic is most likely to be watching a particular hour of television but you can\u2019t go beyond that. You can\u2019t determine if they\u2019ve interacted with your brand previously, or if they\u2019re an existing customer, or if they just happen to be watching with someone who does fall into your target demographic and is actually a complete miss for the kind of proposition you\u2019re leading with.<\/p>\n

Digital marketing doesn\u2019t suffer with that issue, at least not on the same scale. You can choose to target a specific publication or users interested in a specific television show if you wish, or you can take a far more granular approach to targeting.<\/p>\n

Target people who are in-market for your product through Google\u2019s intent audiences, or bring back users who have directly interacted with your brand in the past with Facebook remarketing\u2026 the possibilities go on and on.<\/p>\n

The key here is that you can tailor that targeting to fit your audience and your objective, rather than having to rely on there being a TV show or magazine that has already pinned down your consumer base.<\/p>\n

That said, these potential disadvantages with television advertising might soon be a thing of the past. Technology that is currently driving strong results in the digital marketing sphere might soon be coming to television advertising, with programmatic TV ads coming to Sky next year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Tracking<\/h2>\n

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Related to the superior ability to target your audience, is the superior accountability digital platforms provide.<\/p>\n

Traditional media can give you likely exposure figures \u2013 for example, if you\u2019re looking to buy advertising space on the London underground, you\u2019re likely to see some very impressive reach figures.<\/p>\n

However, what you won\u2019t get is ongoing or post-campaign actuals. You won\u2019t know how many of your target audience saw those ads, how many of them engaged with them, or how many of them went on to make a purchase.<\/p>\n

With something like a newspaper or television ad, it\u2019s hard to make these kinds of measurements. Conversely, this kind of tracking is bread and butter stuff for a digital marketing agency<\/a> like us.<\/p>\n

The knock-on effect of this is that it\u2019s also difficult to make on the fly improvements to a traditional advertising campaign, as getting clear visibility of what is or isn\u2019t working on a day to day basis is extremely challenging. Furthermore, if you were to determine that a quick change of direction was required, it\u2019s much more problematic to get that change put in place \u2013 you can\u2019t change the ad that\u2019s already been aired or printed.<\/p>\n

This is again where digital marketing forges ahead. We have better data and can more easily and effectively react to that data. This means that, with the right people running your campaign, you ultimately get superior results for your media spend.<\/p>\n

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Transformation<\/h2>\n

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While the two points above are more about the limitations caused by the nature of traditional media, this issue is more of a cultural one.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take print media as an example, still seen in many circles as a giant of the advertising world.<\/p>\n

Using figures provided free from the Audit Bureau of Circulations<\/a>, we can compare the total circulation of UK newspapers in January of 2019 compared to January 2009.<\/p>\n

Looking at the 15 highest circulation newspapers in the UK, including free publications like Metro, we can get a top-level view of how this former centrepiece of advertising in the UK has declined in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n

What we can see is that overall circulation of these newspapers sits at 11.2 million in January 2009<\/strong>, and drops to around 7.6 million in January 2019<\/strong>. That\u2019s a decline of 46.6%. As a person who would rather read a hardback than a kindle, it pains me to write this \u2013 but the sad truth is that print is either dying or at the very least dwindling.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s not necessarily an indication that print has in any way reduced in quality. It\u2019s more an indication that the way we consume media has changed. That in itself is one of digital marketing\u2019s greatest strengths. It lives where we spend our time and unlike print, billboard or television advertising, which are all constrained by the mediums in which they exist, digital can shift and evolve as the focus of our attention changes.<\/p>\n

You can see this in the way digital marketing has responded to the rise of mobile \u2013 with the introduction of new technologies and opportunities that turn the device from a barrier into an opportunity.<\/p>\n

When we go from this\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

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to this\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

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there can only be one winner.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A joined-up approach<\/h2>\n

While I\u2019m advocating for the strengths of digital and for a greater consideration of digital channels in the marketing mix, the reality is that a joined-up strategy \u2013 where both digital and traditional media play their part \u2013 is where you should be aiming to be.<\/p>\n

Working with clients that take this approach, we\u2019ve seen cases where digital performance is lifted over the period of time when television campaigns are live. While we don\u2019t have the ability to fully attribute those kinds of journeys (yet), with new television advertising technology coming soon we might be able to better close that loop in the future.<\/p>\n

If other forms of traditional media can find ways to evolve in the same way, providing better visibility and the ability to show definitive value in the way that digital channels can, then perhaps the future for traditional media could be a little rosier.<\/p>\n

Make the most of your media budget<\/h2>\n

If you want to find out how digital could be the right place for your media budget, then we\u2019d love to talk to you about the opportunities that exist. Equally, if you\u2019re already doing digital then we\u2019d love to help you identify where those all-important optimisations can be made.<\/p>\n

In the mean-time, if you\u2019d just like some more ideas then download one of our guides \u2013 like 9 Tips to Maximise Reach, Engagement and ROI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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When it comes to marketing budgets, there\u2019s always a push\/pull between the various types of paid advertising you can undertake. In terms of how that budget is split between digital…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":2847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"related_service":[61],"related_industry":[],"class_list":["post-3127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"card":"

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\n Blog <\/p>\n \n

\n Why Digital Marketing Always Wins\n <\/h2>\n <\/a> <\/div>\n
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\n When it comes to marketing budgets, there\u2019s always a push\/pull between the various types of paid advertising you can undertake. In terms of how that budget is split between digital… <\/div>\n
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\n 11 April 2019 <\/p>\n

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