3 Traditional Marketing Channels Digital Has Eclipsed

Some might say traditional marketing offers straightforward tactics for achieving success. However, as digital marketing has come to the forefront of most marketers’ agendas, keeping up with this evolving trend has become vital for any brand, product, or company to stay afloat. Digital marketing spend has increased by more than 14 percent within just the past year, yet with its ascension has come the downfall of more traditional marketing methods. Traditional advertising spend has, for example, experienced a 161 percent decrease over the past year.

For this reason, digital marketing is threatening to eclipse the following traditional marketing methods in the near future:

Print Advertising

Print advertising has taken one of the largest, if not the largest, hit thanks to the emergence of digital marketing. Print advertising has declined by two-thirds  over the last 20 years, down from more than $60 billion in 1990 to just $20 billion in 2011. The proof is everywhere you go on the Internet: video sites with pre-roll or banner ads, roll-over ads, or even ads on your favorite music streaming sites. These days, the majority of marketers are no longer using print publications for consumer news or entertainment. Instead, they’re being smart with their dollars and targeting media that experiences the most traffic on the web. It should come as no surprise that print advertising has been on the decline for the past 20 years, the same length of time the Internet has risen to become the global powerhouse it now is.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing once held a major stake in marketing campaigns, serving as the primary method for generating leads with a personal one-to-one approach. However, statistics show that the average budget spent on telemarketing decreased from 10 percent to 5 percent in 2012. Social media may account for one of the primary reasons telemarketing is struggling to remain a top priority for marketers; 62 percent of companies report that social media has become an important source of leads. Social media allows marketers to generate and nurture leads with a less invasive approach than telemarketing. Rather than cold calling prospects and pitching a product over the phone, marketers can use social media outlets to familiarize consumers with their brand and to identify prospects by social reactions or shares. Once landed, marketers can nurture leads through social media accounts and can even gather more personal information such as phone number or email address for future product information.

Television Advertising

The way the average consumer watches television has even experienced some change due to the rise of digital marketing. With new websites such as Hulu coming into the fold, viewers can stream television shows at their leisure, eliminating most commercial viewing and scheduling conflicts. In place of commercials, in stream banner ads are often visible, as well as brief in-roll video ads that may interrupt your viewing for 30 seconds to a minute like traditional television commercial spots. Marketers and advertisers are taking note of this change. According to Forrester research, “Broadcast and cable TV still command the lion’s share of marketers’ media budgets. But digital video ad spending in the US is projected to balloon by more than 250 percent from $2 billion in 2011 to $5.4 billion by 2016. Also, 37 million US households currently own a connected device that enables them to watch digital video on their TV screen, up from fewer than 25 million in 2010. Among these connected households, younger consumers lead the way, outpacing the overall population in adoption by nearly 20 percentage points.” The younger generations are utilizing digital and online television more than other age brackets, hinting the future may be shifting toward non-traditional television viewing in an increasingly digital world.

In Summary

Today, digital marketing accounts for an increasing percentage of marketing budgets. As a result, more traditional marketing channels such as print advertising, telemarketing, and television advertising are being eclipsed by these digital marketing channels. Each of these traditional marketing strategies now has a digital replacement being integrated into websites and social media outlets rather than print or traditional television viewing. For companies to have success now and in the future, keeping up with these constantly-evolving digital marketing technologies must be a top priority.