This post is a response to a question initially posed on Quora, and can also be accessed via “https://www.quora.com/Is-social-media-marketing-better-than-traditional-marketing/answer/Antonio-Amaral-1“

Marketing is a process of leveraging communications within an ecosystem.

Marketing must continually adapt to changes in an ecosystem to be effective.

Direct mail was an effective marketing strategy fifty years ago because there were few (relatively) inexpensive alternatives then. Radio, television, and national magazine advertising were pretty much the only other primary marketing channels that could get national reach for one’s brand, and those are (and were) expensive marketing strategies. Otherwise, one would have to place ads in local publications like newspapers, quickly becoming costly when scaling up nationwide by buying space in hundreds of publications.

Then the Internet arrived, and one could gain national and international reach for almost free.

Almost overnight, what worked steadily and unpredictably no longer did. The traditional market became prohibitive and ineffective as alternative media sprouted up everywhere.

Marketing has always relied on establishing trust with its consumers to create sales. So, relationship marketing became more focused on social media because a two-way, one-to-many dialogue was made possible.

Before then, marketing was mainly defined as a one-way, one-to-many communication.

The downside, however, has been such a low entry bar that everyone and their dog could compete on an almost level playing field.

A small operation could get international reach as effectively as a large corporation. That forced corporations to up their game. A saturated media market meant more comprehensive and audacious strategies for attracting attention.

Now, we have reached a point where advertising is starting to turn people off, and it’s become difficult to pinpoint effective marketing strategies because advertising has become a reason for people to avoid rather than be attracted to a brand.

Even the “give away something for free to attract people” has been losing its lustre. For example, being asked to register one’s email address and personal information to access an article is losing its harvesting effectiveness in a world where people create “junk-catching email addresses” to avoid spam.

There is no “better or worse marketing system” in a constantly evolving world. There is only staying ahead of the “pissing people off curve” and hope to make lasting connections that one can leverage for sales.

The only thing that does not change about marketing is the need to build relationships based on trust because that’s core to the human condition.

Getting attention is easy. Converting that attention into closed deals is an entirely different ballgame.