Here’s why traditional, offline marketing is not yet dead.

With the rapidly growing media and the sudden adoption of electronic digital channels, marketers around the globe keep wondering if it is the end of traditional marketing. Online marketing has totally changed the contemporary business world, so much that a lot of actors in the modern corporate environment believe that traditional marketing is dead.

But in spite of the conventional wisdom so common in the modern corporate environment and media, traditional offline marketing is not dead. Not only is it not dead, it is an important asset to any businesses. It can help businesses take advantage of a less crowded marketing channel that their competitors are probably ignoring.

A recent Global Trust study suggests that traditional ads still exceed digital marketing with regards to consumer trust. The word-of-mouth recommendation from friends and family is considered the most powerful and persuasive form of advertising. Also, ads on television, in newspapers and in magazines remain some of the most trusted forms of paid advertising.

In line with that, the United States total media ad spending in 2014 was USD180.12 billion, with a significant participation from traditional channels and TV still left dominant, making up 38.1 percent.

Absolutely, the strategies to approach the consumer are consistently changing. In the 1970s, radio, TV, brochure print, direct mail, telephone were among the few media channels accessible to marketers. Consumers used to take anything advertisers pushed to them. Consumers now can get whatever they want, whenever through numerous channels like Google search, e-mail, real-time ads, social media site and a number of other ways to connect with the brands.

It is true that digital is grasping increasingly more space in the market: a recent CMO Council report shows that marketers intend to increase their budgets for digital marketing and it is likely to dominate over TV ad spending by 2018.

Traditional marketing is not dying like most people believe rather more and more marketers see the different channels as supplementing each other for a robust and thorough campaign. Integrating traditional marketing and online technology help businesses exploits the unique advantages that each approach gives and makes all channels better off.

Making use of multiple forms of media helps businesses target message to specific segments and get the highest ROI. Not just that, but they can also strengthen their message through several channels. Like it or not integrating both digital and traditional channels in a creative way can help businesses tap into unlimited opportunities that would ultimately result in a high ROI.

The great result of integrated campaigns confirms the indisputable fact that traditional marketing is not dead. It is simply all about understanding the relative contribution of different marketing media on a business outcome and changing the approach to engaging the audience.

The Harvard Business Review proposed that the more recent model of marketing will approximate the consumer experience of buying in their local communities, by finding who are the influencers, helping them build social capital and getting them to advocate the solution offered by the brand. Hence, businesses are advised to take advantage of the combined strength of digital and traditional opportunities to position their business at the top.