Digital Or Traditional Marketing? Where To Invest Your Money.

In my previous blog post, we discussed the differences, advantages, and disadvantages of both digital and traditional marketing. This post will dive more into deciding how to invest across the two mediums.

As you know, the fashion industry has long been synonymous with marketing mediums such as catalogs, billboards, high-end magazine ads, and fashion shows. For decades, the sector heavily relied upon traditional media such as television and print to showcase their brands to their target audience.  

Today, as the world transitions to using digital media, many fashion companies have lagged in effectively implementing online marketing methods. They are aware that digital marketing is vital to their survival in today’s society. However, many companies don’t know where to start or allocate investments.

As a startup fashion brand, you may have a limited financial resource to dedicate to marketing. Therefore, you must find the right balance between investing in traditional (offline) and digital (online) methods of communication based on each media’s strengths and weaknesses as they apply to your business.

Traditionally, offline methods tend to be superior in generating attention, stimulating interest, and building creditability. While online methods are often better at engagement due to segmentation and personalization, interaction, performance tracking, and support word-of-mouth.

As many companies change over to using digital media more than the alternative, you may be tempted to follow suit. However, you need to consider that there are limits to the number of relevant consumers that can be reached through online media, and the cost is not always low.

Determining where to invest

Econometrics

One way to determine how much to invest in online and offline communication is by using econometrics. Econometrics is a quantitative technique that uses statistics to help describe economic relationships. In terms of marketing, it evaluates the past influence or predicts the future impact on a dependent variable, such as sales, of independent variables, such as product, price, promotions, and the level and mix of media investments.

One main benefit of using this method is its ability to separate the effects of a range of influences, such as media usage or variables such as price or promotions used, and quantify these individual effects. However, as helpful as this technique is, smaller-sized fashion brands may find the process too technical or may not have the financial resources to utilize this tool.

In this case, other factors can be used to determine where you should invest your marketing dollars when selecting media.

Cost

This factor is a no-brainer. However, depending on your budget, you will have to consider the costs of utilizing each type of media or a mix of the two. For instance, developing a direct mail e-card will be cheaper than creating a video for a digital marketing campaign. Therefore, both development and media delivery costs will need to be evaluated to determine which method can bring you the best return on investment (ROI).

Time

When selecting media, you should consider the lead time and length of exposure. Lead time refers to the degree to which an ad can be created within a specific media in a particular period while getting the message across.

The length of exposure speaks to how the viewer examines the message within a specific media for an extended period. Depending on your end goal, these factors can help you determine the type of media that would be most effective.

Coverage

Both digital and traditional media offer varied coverage aspects. Therefore, you will want to examine the following factors and determine which medium will help you achieve your marketing objective.

·      Selectivity- the degree to which an ad placed within this certain media can target a particular group of people.

·      Frequency exposure- the number of times any single ad placed within this specific media may be seen by one viewer on more than one occasion.

·      Average media reach- the degree to which an ad placed within this certain media reaches a relatively broad audience.

Quality

When marketing your brand, you want to make sure that your campaigns are executed in good quality to be appealing to your audience. In addition, depending on your end goal, you may want to pick a media that offers personalization or interactivity to make it more memorable.

In the end, you want an effective ad. Therefore, you should choose communication channels with an attention-grabbing capability that can stimulate the right emotions while conveying the marketing message and lending creditability.

Examining all the above factors when selecting the mix of digital and traditional media for your brand will ensure that your money is spent in the right areas.