Digital marketing is often treated as the gold standard because of what it can tell you about your audience. But nothing beats the reach of a more traditional, wide-scale campaign (although certainly it costs a bit more). Both have appealing points—as well as disadvantages.

How can you maximize their effectiveness together? A few suggestions:

Use both tools to expand demographic reach. As HubSpot’s Kayla Carmicheal notes, traditional marketing, which often has a broader reach, is sometimes less attractive because there is no easy way to track its impact. But digital marketing, despite its targeting and tracking advantages, struggles because of technology weaknesses. Carmicheal suggests combining them in different ways, so that they capture different market segments. “No, you can’t DM a Macy’s print ad, but you can follow them on socials and sign up for their automated emails,” she writes. “This way, the older woman who prefers flyers and coupons in the mail—like my mother—and her millennial daughter, who prefers social media marketing, receive the same information.”

Combine digital and analog in the customer journey. Recent trends in analog marketing have allowed for some digital-like tactics, notes Business.com contributor Kelly Bosetti. For example, digital billboards support geotargeted marketing, and many media outlets offer both print and digital marketing options. Combining tactics allows opportunities for broader reach. “While digital marketing tools need to be part of all stages of the buyer’s journey, so do traditional marketing tactics,” Bosetti says. “Such outbound marketing can be used for both the awareness and decisions stages of a consumer’s journey. Digital and traditional marketing must play well together—after all, if your consumer isn’t looking for you, they’ll never find you without a mix of both.”

Mix data with more traditional approaches. You may have once used cold calls. Imagine if you had significant amounts of data available so you knew even before you  dialed that the person on the other end of the line would likely be interested. This combination of data and old-school tactics, which translates into lots of different areas, can strengthen your outreach, says Search Engine Journal contributor Alexander Kesler. “By incorporating intent data into the cold-calling process, marketers can reach better-qualified prospects, while forgoing contacting the least promising contacts,” he says.

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