After 25 years building a reputation for historical preservation, a successful architecture firm wants to reposition itself. They hope to broaden their appeal and offer a wider range of opportunities for their younger architects. This firm wants to maintain its distinguished historical focus, but it would like to broaden its reputation to include contemporary design. Which would server them better — a traditional or digital marketing approach?
Choosing between digital or traditional marketing — or deciding if you have to make a choice at all — depends on your marketing objectives. In the case of this architecture firm, a tension between the attributes of experience and innovation presents itself.
Experience or innovation? Which is better suited to digital marketing? Which fits more naturally with traditional marketing? In my opinion, neither traditional nor digital marketing has a lock on experience or innovation. A better question might be, which will take them where they want to go?
In today’s marketplace, digital marketing offers a plethora of options. Whether you choose social media, email campaigns, online ads, web video, or any of the other digital tools at our disposal, traditional marketing just can't match the speed, low cost and instant feedback you get with digital marketing. But traditional marketing will always be relevant, even essential. To help our architecture firm adjust to changes in the marketplace, for instance, takes old-fashioned marketing strategies: positioning, a brand refresh, messaging. But the efficiencies of digital technology — a website, social media, video — can make delivering their new message a lot easier and less painful.
Despite all the buzz out there in the blogosphere, you shouldn't have to think about who will win the traditional versus digital marketing debate. They both win.
For related articles check out: Traditional vs. Digital Marketing–A New Model Emerges.
Then check out Traditional vs. Digital Marketing 2–Finding the Right Balance.
