Traditional Marketing Tactics and Social Media Marketing Tactics: Which is more effective in maximizing Purchase Intention and Word of Mouth?

With the age of social media, it has never been easier for new businesses to gain traction and gain investment and capital from both investors and potential customers. In a period that is so heavily focused on startups and new ventures, marketing plays an essential role in determining the successful few businesses out of the infinitely growing pool of competitors.1 The traditional methods of marketing utilizing billboards, Television advertisements, and in-person salesmen and experiences remain prevalent for many businesses, but what about the newest and most unexplored sector of marketing, Social Media Marketing? With limited capital and quotas to meet, new ventures often struggle to decide which strategy would be the most optimal for performance.2 Between Traditional Marketing strategies and Social Media Marketing strategies, which should businesses employ to produce the greatest growth in revenue and customer interaction? Social Media Marketing, through a data-driven superiority in Purchase Intention (likelihood of a customer purchasing a product) and Word of Mouth (metric for customer-tocustomer interactions) values, greatly outmatches Traditional Marketing and should be the logical choice for most businesses prioritizing return on investment.