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How customer’s still trust traditional advertising over online ads

Before starting this article, let me ask you how many of you watched a TV commercial and exclaimed, ”now that’s what I should buy”. Well, it can be anything ranging from shoes, soaps, shampoo to a cosmetic.

Advertising has always dominated the mind of the public. People can easily get influenced after watching a TV commercial or a newspaper. Why? This is because advertising tells people about the product and its usage. But the recent years have witnessed a newcomer other than traditional advertising in the field of advertising. And it is Online Advertising.

No doubt, online advertising has successfully established itself on the ground of advertising. But the question is whom do people trust more: the traditional advertising or the online ads?

Let us find out the answer! But first, let us know a little about both of them because before comparison we must know what we are talking about?

What is traditional advertising?

The process of advertising products and services through mass media such as print media, radio, and TV. It would be no wrong to say, the range of traditional advertising is quite large. Knowingly and unknowingly, we come across so many ads. This can be while watching TV, tuning to the favorite radio station or while flipping through the pages of a magazine. These all are the mediums of traditional advertising.

Traditional advertising is everywhere. They give their best to reach and influence their customers with their flashy ads. And they succeed in this to some good extent. They can easily achieve the trust of their customers. 

What are online ads?

These are a form of advertising and marketing that uses the internet to reach out to their potential clients/customers. Online advertising is reigning in the field of advertising. All the pop-ups that you see on a web application are none other than online ads.

Are online advertising better than traditional advertising media?

Now the point is whom do people trust more, traditional advertising or online ads? According to reports, out of all, 82% of people going through the newspaper, trust the ads in them. Out of all television watchers, 80% of them trust the TV ads. These people are more likely to be convinced about making a decision to purchase.

If we talk about the mail, 76% of people trust mail fliers. This too is not a bad number at all. Radio ads are believed to convince 70% of the population to listen to the radio. These number clearly depicts, in this digital era, people still believe in traditional advertising.

Coming to the online ads, only a quarter of the population trusts the pop-up ads. Online pop-ups are believed to be least liked and trusted of all the ads. People complain of getting annoyed and disturbed by the pop-ups.

The HubSpot reports says, people, trust TV and print media ads to be more trustworthy and reliable. If you talk to buyers during a sale or any festivals, you will get to hear, “we took this purchase decision after seeing this ad on the television or in the newspaper”. One of the reasons behind this is years of trust. According to Marketing Charts, even the retailers and service providers accede to the fact that TV ads influence the public and hence, helps them(retailer) in business. In fact, print media advertising turned up to be more beneficial.

According to a survey conducted by the MarketingSherpa, people are fond of getting back to the company, with which they are happy and satisfied. People are happy to take the services of such companies. Out of all the buyers, 50% of them are interested in reading or going through the mail of the same company.

So now let us talk about some of the benefits of traditional advertising:

Effective in reaching out to the target audience and customers: If you want to reach out and target the local audiences, then radio and TV advertising can be a good option for you. These two are the best marketing ways to reach out to the local target customers. You can easily and quickly spread your message to people and it won’t take much time in this as local radio stations are effective and are heard by a good number of local people.

Familiarity: We know that a good number of the population are used to print media and the advertisements in them. One doesn’t need to explain to them the reason behind promotional ads. They will accept fliers and will go through it to check your services and products. But with online ads, these promotional ads won’t go well. The older population might not have any idea about the ads or might not trust them.

You can make new customers: Reaching out target customers is one thing. You know very well who is your target customer and how to reach out to the. But finding new customers can be really tricky through online advertising mediums. With traditional advertising mediums such as televisions, mail flyers, billboards, and the radio you can influence new customers or say, would-be customers. Who knows your audiences are spread across a vast geography. So, if you reach such a large population, you will get noticed by a good number of the audience whom you haven’t been targetting till now.  This is one of the best advantages of using traditional advertising media and you can’t get this easily through online ads.

Can easily build trust as compared to the online ad: Traditional advertising media can easily build trust. They use newspaper, billboards, mail fliers, etc to let us know about the product. They make sure that when we sip or favorite coffee or when we are on the way to our home, we come across the advertisements. Moreover, since these are quite an old method of advertisement, trust builds up automatically.  

Huge Exposure: No doubt online advertising can help you in reaching your audiences and creating increased awareness of your brand. But it is not that your all possible potential buyers will be having online exposure. To this, some of you will say many people go through online portals to find the products and services but still there are a good number of people who have no or little access to the internet. In such a case, opting for traditional advertisements can help you in creating awareness for your brand among the people. As a result, your potential customers can reach you easily and without any hassle.

Demographics plays better than digital figures: People these days will tell you that online ads reach more people. They believe since the number of internet users has grown and, therefore; online ads reach more people. However, the truth is a bit different. The online advertising may reach to a maximum number of users but what matter is, do these ads reach to the right people. In the world of advertising, one must know the demographics. Using demographics, you can plan better advertising strategies and can bring a better-customized plan for the customers. No doubt, with online advertising, you can get the details of how many people visited your site and clicked on it. You can see more information. But with traditional advertising, you get more clear details. You can get details by call recording or call-tracking of those people who responded to your ad in some way or the other. You can also get detailed information of a person such as what is the location, the interest of the person, the income of that person, and how likely is the person interested in taking your services or products. This way you can utilize the information to draw a clear picture for an effective advertising campaign. Moreover, you can also decide what kind of ad campaign will work in the future.

The formula of hard copy: Once there was a survey to find out which of the paper advertising and online advertising has a better impact on the buyer’s mind. It was later revealed that people had an easier time in mentally remembering and recalling ads through paper ads. The participants were more inclined towards ads published in the newspapers and in the fliers. In fact, the billboards too helped them to remember things. Direct mails and printed ads thus, fetch more customers. The hard copy will remind them of the products and brand whenever they(people) come across it.

Flyers and stickers: Traditional advertising can be fun as well. We know young people are fond of stickers. They love cool and eye-catchy stickers. But stickers can be more than just a piece of fun. They can be a road to your successful advertising. You can distribute stickers at an event or at a store to advertise your products and services. They can easily target and fetch you your potential customers. Moreover, producing stickers is quite cost-effective. The same goes for the fliers. You can drop fliers in the letterboxes or can distribute the fliers to people. This way you will let them know about your services and your location as well. But you must make sure that fliers and stickers should contain relevant and important information. 

Higher chances of recall: If you go through the results to check the outcomes of advertising products and services, you will find out that traditional advertising influence and reach out to more people. These are able to influence customers to a far extent. Those who purchase or take your services will take the decision within 30 minutes of going through your ads. According to reports, almost 80% of people take immediate action on mail campaigns. When people call you after going through the direct mail, you can then easily find out what people think about your ad and how long they remember your ads. Reports say digital advertising is not as effective as traditional ads in terms of brand recall. It has been revealed that 60% of people recall television ads even after weeks and months. However, this number drops significantly in digital advertising. But recall is not only enough. You need your audience or customers to call you. In this busy lifestyle with a hectic work schedule, nobody will easily call you. As they won’t feel like going through an online search of your phone number. Therefore, an unforgettable phone number can become a way to reach out to your potential customers. With the phone number, customers can remember you even after days and months.

Modern advertising and marketing always go around the internet and social media. They target only the group of tech-savvy population. While the traditional advertisement reaches out to every corner even where there is no internet. Almost every age group can be reached out and targeted with the help of traditional advertising. Moreover, older generations are more familiar and used to traditional advertising. They easily relate themselves to the ads published or shown through traditional advertising media. This brings out the best in the advertising field.

Creative Thinks Media