Digital marketing has become the cornerstone of all our marketing efforts nowadays.
And it’s no wonder since our customers are spending a lot of time online, trying to get relevant information on businesses they’re dealing with, and decide on their next purchase.
However, digital marketing is not the only option we have at our disposal. By joining forces of cyber and more “traditional” marketing techniques, our campaigns can reach a wider audience and have a much powerful impact.
Even though the slow death of print media has been announced before the Internet emerged, there are several good reasons why its application in the field of marketing is still alive and kicking.
Read on to find out why print marketing still works in a digital world, and a few useful tips on how to best use it in your next marketing campaigns.
Why use print?
When it comes to marketing, print still has a lot to offer. Its unique nature and its effects can hardly be copied by any other media.
However, before you start looking for the best affordable printing services for your small business, let’s determine what makes print marketing so indispensable.
- It is credible – Digital media is often perceived as a source of spam and false information. On the other hand, consumers find printed materials more trustworthy – a study showed that, out of all marketing mediums, 82% of the consumers trust ads in magazines and newspapers the most when they’re making a purchase.
- It has authority – Unlike digital ads and promotions that can simply disappear from our sights when we choose to move on or ignore them, printed materials stay longer in our physical surroundings, occupying our space and our attention. Various publications, brochures and business cards, especially when they’re made out of high-quality materials, are often perceived as more permanent and valuable, so we tend to keep them and flip them through.
- It reaches your target audience – You can use printed materials to target and reach more potential customers, in a quick and easy manner, including the ones that don’t spend too much time online. For example, if you’re running a local B2C business, it’s quite possible that you’ll be able to reach more qualified leads via direct mail or by distributing a flier, than using an SEO campaign.
- It can be personalized – Your customers crave a personalized experience. You can personalize your prints the same way you do with your digital marketing and make your campaigns more efficient. For example, you can send personalized birthday postcards or beautifully designed discount coupons to home addresses of your consumers, with a short, specific and easy-to-understand call to action.
- It engages your target audience – Printed materials keep your customers engaged longer than an average of 6 seconds that they spend looking at the written content at your website. Even tech-savvy millennials prefer reading printed materials, as it has fewer distractions and causes less eye strain and headaches. Also, as with a brochure in their hands, your target customers are less likely to multitask, you will get more of their undivided attention, so the effects will be stronger.
Use print to establish your brand
When it comes to your brand recognition and awareness, printed materials can be even more efficient than digital ones. As neuro marketers claim, brands that engage multiple senses have more success than the ones that focus on just one or two. Printing usually captures our sight and touch, and we can easily form an impression of the brand by the materials and the design it chooses.
However, with the latest technology developments, you can now use print to engage other senses too, such as the sense of smell. As it is closely linked to our emotions, smell affects our memory strongly. Interesting research shows that infusing branded pencils with a scent significantly increases the subjects’ memory of the brand – the subjects who were given scented pens faced a decline in their memory of 8%, which is shockingly less than the subjects who used unscented ones and faced a 73% decline.
Make sure your branding is consistent, no matter which channels you use for your promotion – stick to your color palette, logo, typography and your brand voice on your social media channels, as well as in your brochures.
How can you best complement your print and digital marketing campaigns?
Even if there is no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy solution, your small business can see many advantages of using various print marketing techniques, in addition to the digital ones.
However, to reap most of the benefits, make sure your printed materials are a part of your overall multi-channel marketing strategy so that you can reach your audience more effectively.
Here are a few tips on how to best achieve it:
- Always put a link to your cyberspace on your prints, using QR codes or AR tags so that your customers can open your website or your landing page easily.
- Use personalized direct mail and postcards to make personalized offers to your target customers, and boost their loyalty.
- You can use stickers and labels for promotional purposes too. Give them away during local events, or use them more strategically, on specific locations.
- Business cards are still important for making connections on the go. They need to be unique and look appealing to your target audience, so don’t take their design lightly.
- People love freebies, and they would gladly use them if they’re nicely crafted and well-designed. Giving away a pencil with your logo is not a big investment to make, having in mind that your customers will use it on various occasions in front of different audiences.
With all the advantages print can bring to your small business, you can definitely consider including it in your next marketing campaign.
