online marketing is a more advanced and technological version of traditional marketing. In online marketing, instead of offline and traditional channels, we use online and social channels. It all started in the 1990s with the internet boom. Now every home, every office, every business has access to the internet. Because of that, businesses started to promote their products and services online on the internet instead of traditional channels. The first-ever online marketing channel is email marketing, and today it has evolved to a $780 billion industry, which is expected to reach $1.9 trillion in 2030.

In online marketing, we have a vast variety of markets. Every segment is so big that you can specialise in it.

Website marketing:

Creating a website for a business. Creating content on it and making it rank on Google. A website is like a shop, but on the internet. A website contains additional information about the business and what products or services it offers, along with the contact information.

SEO:

Seo stands for “Search Engine Optimisation”. It means to optimise the content on our website to visually rank higher on Google. A website without SEO will never get noticed. It drives organic traffic and customers to the business.

Email Marketing:

Even in today’s time, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your business online. It means to use other channels to collect names and emails of the targeted audience and then send them an email about the business’s products or services.

Social Media Marketing:

Social media marketing is used to create awareness about the business, and it uses social platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter (X) to promote products or services.

These are just 4 channels, but this is a very vast subject to dive in.

Digital Marketing Statistics & Facts (seo.com)

• online marketing continues to dominate online visibility, with search engines driving 93% of website traffic, and the global industry is projected to exceed $740 billion in 2024.
• 46% of Google searches have local intent, and 88% of mobile users visit a business within 24 hours of a local search.
• Search advertising remains the largest segment within digital marketing, with a projected volume of $202.4 billion.

Key Differences Between online and Traditional Marketing

Point	Traditional marketing	online Marketing
Audience reach	It has more local and regional reach	It has a global reach
Cost	Expensive compared to digital marketing	Cheaper and more cost-effective
Speed	Needs more planning and time to execute	Can be executed quickly
Flexibility	Campaigns are often set in stone once launched	Campaigns are easily adjusted quickly
Sharability	Content is not shareable	Digital content can be easily shared
Lead generation	Requires more brand recognition	Can generate leads quickly

Pros and Cons of Traditional Marketing (simplilearn)

PROS

• If you want to reach an older demographic, traditional marketing can be very effective. It has been reported that audiences ages 50+ spend almost twice as much time reading the newspaper and watching TV as compared to those ages 21-34. 
• This type of marketing strategy usually works best for businesses looking to build a larger local audience. A small business would be better off competing for attention through billboards, flyers, and events rather than trying to compete for digital space against larger businesses.
• TV or radio commercials will play multiple times and remind the audience of the business, whereas digital marketing items may be skipped through or blocked. 

CONS

• Printing postcards to send out, even to just a local audience, can be expensive, and there is no guarantee that the recipient is interested in your business or the product/service you offer.
• Traditional marketing methods can take weeks or months to yield results and data. You can’t tell when someone has read your newspaper ad unless they decide to follow up. Even then, without a survey, you won’t know if the ad was the reason for the follow-up.

Pros and Cons of online Marketing (simplilearn)

Pros

• Data and audience involvement can be tracked instantly. When someone clicks on a link to your site, reads an email, or follows you on social media, you have that information immediately. You can draw numerous insights from this data, including which type of content works best for a specific audience, which mediums are the most effective, and even what time of day receives the best engagement.
• Digital marketing strategies incur a much lower cost. Sending out an email campaign can save a lot of money compared to printing individual postcards and paying for postage on each.
• It works well for more global or scattered audiences because of the broad scope of digital marketing.

Cons

• Some internet users have ad blockers, so they’ll never see pop-ups or banner ads. Other times, ads can be skipped or removed if a user pays for premium services.
• Because new technology and trends emerge so frequently, digital marketing tactics need to be evaluated and reevaluated for effectiveness continually what works well one day may be irrelevant the next. However, this can be combatted with a strong foundation in digital marketing basics.

Conclusion: Choosing What Works for Your Brand

With everything that has been stated so far, the question is which one to use. Both are excellent in their own segment. 

For most businesses, digital marketing is the best option because it’s cheap, quick, easy and less time-consuming. It gives you data about your own business. 

However, there is still a place for traditional marketing. If you want to reach an older audience or a local audience, traditional marketing methods may be more useful than digital marketing methods. Though these methods may seem old, the reality is that they’ve stuck around for a reason. They work!