Digital marketing offers you a huge range of tools to reach new customers and clients with the benefit of letting you segment the market and focus on speaking directly to your target audience. By narrowing down your audience, you can focus on the most compelling benefits of your product and service, generating leads more effectively and at a lower cost.
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is marketing through devices and channels that utilise digital technologies such as the internet, mobile phones, digital TV, radio and billboards. A top digital marketing agency will have experts across all digital marketing types including advertising, social media, email, SEO, mobile, content, affiliate and online marketing.
What is the difference between a digital marketing agency and an advertising agency?
Advertising can be digital or traditional, and digital advertising is a subset of digital marketing. Small businesses would hire digital marketing agencies to help create or improve their digital marketing strategies and work on digital marketing projects. Meanwhile, advertising agencies are for building and running advertising campaigns, whether digital or traditional.
The differences between digital marketing agencies and advertising agencies are:
| Digital Marketing Agency |
Advertising Agency |
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Offers digital marketing services.
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Offers advertising services. Advertising is a subset of marketing.
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May offer advertising services but will mainly specialise in digital marketing
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May offer marketing services, digital or traditional, but will mainly specialise in advertising.
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A full-service digital marketing agency will cover all types of digital marketing such as social media, email, SEO and SEM.
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A full-service advertising agency will cover all types of advertising whether digital or traditional advertising.
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Mainly hired for digital marketing strategies and marketing execution.
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Mainly hired to create powerful and effective advertising campaigns.
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Working with a digital marketing agency can be more long-term based compared to an advertising agency because they are involved in your marketing strategies and the result may take longer to show
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Working with an advertising agency can be project or campaign based. You can change advertising agencies from campaign to campaign.
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Marketing awards are few and far between, so you are more likely to rely on reviews and references.
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Can be distinguished by the awards and accolades they receive from their advertising campaigns.
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Will often work with advertising agencies as part of a broader marketing campaign
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Will often work with digital marketing agencies as part of a broader marketing campaign
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Which is better, digital marketing or traditional marketing?
These differences between digital and traditional marketing can help you decide which is better for your business:
| Digital Marketing |
Traditional Marketing |
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Marketing over channels and devices which uses digital technology such as online marketing, social media, emails, search engines, mobiles and digital TVs and radios.
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Marketing over traditional channels and methods such as newspapers, magazines, flyers, brochures, posters, telephone or telemarketing, door-to-door marketing, events, outdoor billboards, TV and radio.
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Easier to accurately measure the reach, effectiveness, ROI and other metrics. You can find data in real-time too.
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More difficult to accurately measure the reach, effectiveness, ROI and other metrics
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More cost effective to advertise. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads can start from a few cents per click.
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Less cost effective to advertise especially for TV and radio advertising.
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May have a younger demographics overall as audiences.
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May have an older demographics overall as audiences.
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Marketing over digital channels is easier to automate, especially social media, email and other online marketing.
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Marketing over traditional channels or methods is harder to automate.
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More opportunity for interaction with the targeted audience and personalisation for the audience.
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More limited in interaction with the targeted audience and may lack personalisation for the audience, especially for print, TV and radio.
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Easier to receive feedback over digital channels
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Harder to receive feedback over traditional channels and methods.
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May be more difficult to leave a lasting impression, especially with online marketing, because there isn't any physical item or real-life interaction that takes place.
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May be easier to leave a lasting impression, especially with physical items such as newspapers, magazines, letters, catalogues, brochures and interactions over the phone and face-to-face.
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Who is digital marketing for?
Digital marketing is for businesses that sell, trade or offer services online and through digital devices. As more people have access to digital devices and the internet, most businesses will benefit from some form of digital marketing, especially with benefits such as lower costs, wider reach and accurate metrics.
How to hire the best digital marketing agency for your business?
This is how to hire the best digital marketing agency for your business:
- Determine your needs and goals: This is the first thing you need to get right because it is not about finding the topmost and best expert, but to find the experts who can tailor their solution to your unique situation.
- Understand their niche and type of clients: Most digital marketing companies will specialise in certain areas in certain industries. You are better off hiring pros that have solved similar issues and goals than hiring experts who are new to your type of business.
- Assess their portfolio, past projects and achievements: Their portfolio of previous jobs and case studies can help illuminate some light into whether they can help your business. However, this isn't the silver bullet to hiring because you will only get to see what they show you.
- Get reviews and references: Genuine reviews and references from past clients can tell you a lot more about the agency you are interested in. Try contacting their previous clients to get an honest feedback apart from reading online reviews.
- Get several free estimates or quotes: It is advisable to get at least 3 quotes from different agencies for a fair comparison. It is relatively easy nowadays to get free estimates or quotes online, especially for B2B services.
- Compare their total cost: When comparing between agencies, you should take into account hidden charges, variation fees, penalties and other fees, especially if things were to go south.
- Assess their values and work ethics: You should find and hire digital marketing agencies that uphold similar values to yours. Values such as integrity, accountability and transparency are essential to a successful job or project.
- Plan for the long-term: Lastly, you should look for a long-term relationship because changing service providers will be costly to you in the long run. Look at the value you are getting from each quote, instead of the cost you are paying.
