When considering what types of marketing work best for your business, there are two main types: digital marketing and print marketing. Both digital and print marketing can be successful in marketing your business, however, they require different strategies to be effective.
We will be discussing the differences between digital and print marketing including what specific types of marketing fall under each category and how you can use each to be effective with your marketing strategy.
Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is the process of promoting products or brands using electronic or digital media. Businesses can easily benefit from digital advertising for multiple reasons.
Digital marketing has relatively low costs to produce content and advertise online, thus the return on investment is relatively quick. The average cost to reach 1,000 people with digital marketing ranges from $3-$10, while the average cost to reach 1,000 people with traditional/offline advertising is $22 and up.
It’s easy to test and alter marketing strategies and campaigns. If an idea wasn’t as successful as the advertiser had hoped, it’s easy to try again with a new tactic.
Users are continually being exposed to ads, some of which may already be targeted towards them, so they aren't as put off by receiving digital marketing ads.
Common forms of digital marketing are:
Paid Search Marketing - Paid search marketing is when you bid on keywords in search engines like Google or Bing. When someone searches for a product, service, or topic related to your business it appears as an ad at the top of the results page under "sponsored listings" and sometimes lower on the page. People usually see a few ads, click on one and then check out the website.
Search Engine Optimization - Also known as SEO, is similar to paid search marketing except that you cannot pay the search engines to appear in search results. In other words, it's FREE marketing. There are many different types of SEO including Local SEO, National SEO, Ecommerce SEO, Blogging, and Content Marketing.
Display Advertising - Display advertising is a type of online advertising that appears on websites other than your own. It is usually in the form of an image or text link and can be used to drive traffic to your website or landing page. Banner ads are one type of display advertising. They are rectangular images that appear at the top, bottom, or sides of web pages.
Social Media Marketing - Social media platforms are a great way to build your business' brand and provide an outlet for potential customers to connect with your company. An advantage is that you can choose what information about your company they see. For example, on Facebook users can "like" or have a "fan page" for your company. You can then post updates, information about sales, or new products and let people know how they can contact you.
Email Marketing - Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to reach customers. It allows you to send a message directly to potential or current customers' email inboxes. Email marketing can be used to promote new products, services, or events.
Email marketing is also a great way to keep customers updated on what's going on with your business and also provides an easy way for them to contact you if they have questions.
Print Marketing
Print marketing involves the use of printed media to deliver your message via postal carriers, canvassing, or other means of distribution.
Print marketing is a way to get your name out to the public and let them know about your products or services through traditional printed advertising or marketing strategies. Print marketing can be very effective because it's often sent directly to people's homes and many times doesn't receive as much competition from other advertisers.
Common forms of print marketing include:
Billboards - Billboards were once the best
Newspapers - Newspapers are still around and companies can work with local newspapers to get their message out to the public. Readership has dwindled significantly over the years, especially as more online news sources and social media begin to offer easier access to news content.
Direct Mail - This form of print marketing is used to send letters or postcards to customers and prospects. Direct mail is still effective, however, it involves printing and postal delivery of marketing materials, increasing the time and the cost of delivering. marketing message.
Magazines - Along the same lines as newspapers, magazine readership has decreased as more content is available online.
Digital Marketing is Less Expensive to Reach People
One of the main advantages that digital marketing has versus print marketing is how much it costs to reach people. We measure how many people are reached by ads using a term called CPM which stands for cost per thousand impressions.
This chart shows you the cost comparison between different forms of digital and print marketing.
Digital Marketing CostsPrint Marketing CostsDigital PlatformAverage CPMPrint MediumAverage CPMGoogle Search$38.40Billboard$13-$22Google Display$3.12Magazine$140-$1,300Facebook Ads$8.60Newspaper$10-$45Instagram Ads$8.96Direct Mail$500-$1,000
Digital Marketing is Faster than Print Marketing
Both print and digital marketing require design and creative work, however, print requires an extra step, printing.
Take direct mail, for example, once you design your postcard, you still need to print it and mail it to your target audience. During that time, you could have served a marketing message to the same audience several times for the same amount of money through Facebook Ads.
Print marketing does not compare to the speed of digital marketing because you have to print everything.
Digital Marketing Can Be Easily Changed
When comparing digital marketing to print marketing, one aspect that must Print m not be overlooked is digital marketing’s ability to change quickly. If you send out a magazine ad and there is an error or it just doesn’t perform well, you are stuck with it for that publication. If you send out an email and it doesn’t convert well, you can not only make tweaks to the next email, you can actually send multiple versions of the email to your audience to see which one gets the best results.
Digital Marketing Can Be Easily Tracked
Thanks to website tools like Google Analytics, email software like Mailchimp, and social media tracking software like Hootsuite, you can easily track the effectiveness of your campaigns including how many people saw your message and how many people engaged in your marketing.
There are ways to track engagement with print marketing, but they depend on people taking specific actions. You can’t, however, track how many people actually saw your message with print marketing like you can with digital marketing.
Both Digital Marketing and Print Marketing Have Value
Digital marketing is faster, less expensive, easier to change, and easier to track than print marketing. That being said, print marketing can be extremely beneficial in delivering targeted messages to your audience. They both are important to consider in a well-rounded marketing funnel, however, the benefits of digital marketing definitely outweigh those of print marketing.