Top 5 Reasons Why Print Marketing is as Important as Digital Marketing
Advertising is expanding and moving into different “non-traditional” methods but one thing remains consistent and relevant in marketing and advertising: print marketing. No matter where the trend of marketing goes to, print marketing is just as important as any other method.
As our dives head first into social media, video advertising, blogging and other digital marketing, the original traditional marketing features seem to fall through the cracks. However, print marketing should always remain at the top f your marketing plan.
We see print marketing everywhere and it will always be around. But let’s get into what exactly print marketing is. Most of us know about the groundbreaking moment when Johannes Gutenberg assembled the first printing press in the mid- 15th century. It revolutionized the world in making information and content readily available to thousands upon thousands of people and now billions of people. The printing press and print systems today are extremely important in distributing information and material.
Types of Print Marketing
Newspapers:
The most well-known form of print marketing is newspapers. Newspapers take on lot of positives for print marketing in the fact that they are already segmented for consumers. The paper separates into different topics, columns and interests. It’s also cheap for consumers to get their hands on and appears in multiple targeted areas.
Magazines:
A very inexpensive method of print marketing, brochures are great for companies to get their information into the hands of the consumers.
Although expensive to get a page in a high-end magazine, running between $20,000 to $30,000 (LinkedIn) a magazine ad can do wonders for print marketing advertising. Because it circulates multiple times, earning multiple impressions.
Brochures:
Billboards: Billboards and signs appear to thousands of people regardless of demographics. They are specifically for geographical targets. However, this can work to a marketers advantage in that it might appeal to someone they didn’t mean for it to but still reached a consumer. Brochures reach a local audience but can also offer great insight to visitors or newcomers.
Although we are now in the 21st century and see a world gone mostly digital, we still see printing as one of the key sources of distribution around. However, we tend to forget about this essential marketing tool. What’s old has become new again and print marketing is a very essential piece of marketing plans that should be implemented in your day to day marketing promotions. We’ll remind you why print marketing is just as important as digital marketing and should always be implemented into your key marketing plans. Here are the top 5 reasons why print marketing is just as important as digital marketing in our lives.
1. It Grabs Attention
Right now, everything is digital: ordering food, meetings, updating friends on your life, and especially advertising. Digital marketing has become the norm even over what we know as traditional marketing.
Because of this, print marketing is an attention grabber. Think about it. We see ads all the time on social media, on our Google search queries, on our phones, email and so on. On the other hand, when you have a discount or coupon in your hand, you’re much more inclined to hold on to it, rather than lose it in your junk mail.
It also grabs out attention when we decide to relax. When we come home from work or school, we want to unwind. We don’t unwind by checking our email inboxes or scrolling through online sites for information. We grab the paper or turn on the TV and grab a magazine and relax. We are staring at bright computer screens and phone all day. Because print media is a way for people to get away from the digital world, our attention is turned toward print marketing advertisements in magazines and newspapers.
Print marketing is just as important, if not more important, than digital marketing when it comes to physical marketing and advertising. Even in a digital-based world, we still use other senses other than sight. Print marketing grabs attention with multiple senses. Print marketing allows for unlimited imagination when it comes to appealing to the senses and grabbing attention. Make your ad feel different, have a certain smell, and so on. Get the most of your ad and marketing efforts with print marketing methods and capabilities.
Because print marketing is physical, it’s more likely to draw a greater response and thus a reaction. USA Today said more than 40% of customers respond to direct mail promotions. If your company or business is looking for more attention, grab your target audience’s attention with print marketing.
2. It’s Personal
When reaching a target audience, marketers and advertisers alike know the demographics and personalities of those they want to reach. However, no matter who your demographic is, print marketing can appeal to everyone because it’s personal. Everyone wants to feel wanted and print marketing does just that.
Making an ad personal, like a hand-written letter or personalized mail, customers feel appreciated and valued. Print marketing gives ads the change to make it in the physical hand of the customer instead of just in the inbox or on the side of their feed.
Customers want to be more than just a number to a company. As a customer, we take time and effort in our daily activities and when we see a company or business taking the time and effort to reach out to us personally, it hits closer to home.
To put it in a simile, imagine it’s your birthday. We all love our birthday. Now if you get a text from someone saying “Happy Birthday! Hope it’s a great day!” that’s nice and all but did you keep that text? Now if you got a letter from your aunt with a catchy saying on the front and a personal note instead, I’m sure that stayed around much longer than the text. Same goes for marketing. Print marketing is physical so it makes it easier to hold on to because it is personal. Digital marketing is still good and has great value, but it doesn’t hold as much personal sentiment and value, just like a text compared to a letter.
3. It’s Different
As mentioned earlier, everything is digital. Our emails are full of marketing emails and promotions daily. It would take hours to empty out and unsubscribe to each and every email. This is why print marketing is different. Our mailboxes are filled less and less yet when we do get specific mail, it’s exciting. We open the mail to see what is inside. It’s not as easy as a click and the anticipation is built up as you open the envelop to see what’s inside.
It’s also different because it can reach your target market specifically and differently than digital. It’s easier to understand because it’s simple. There’s no bouncing graphics or visuals that might distract the audience. There’s no competing ads on the same page as there would be on social media pages like Facebook or Twitter. Print marketing comes exactly as the advertiser wants it and it comes without all the jumble of other advertisements. It sets itself apart simply because it’s alone and different. Flyers on a mailbox or a letter sent directly to a house reaches that target audience that the advertiser wants with no clutter.
When you checkout at the grocery store, how many times do you stop and look at the magazines and newspapers sitting there? More often than not we are interested in the print materials right in front of us. Magazine and newspapers were created to draw in attention in different ways and they remain a different source of print marketing that draws attention.
The next time you sit at an appointment and don’t glance at a newspaper or magazine on the table, perhaps we will reconsider print marketing benefits. However, print marketing remains just as important as digital because it is different and we tend to have our eye drawn to the flyers and papers than just the typical ad on social media.
Although print marketing started out as a “traditional marketing” resource, it’s slowly crept toward non-traditional because of how much digital is taking over. In this day though, we all love what’s different. We want to be unique and stand apart. Print marketing materials separate from the “digital marketing traditional trend” and moves to the “non-traditional” thus rebranding itself as new and different.
4. It Minimizes Cost
Digital marketing calls for quite a bit of money shelled out for new customers. The cost of acquiring new subscribers, pay-per-click ads, and more requires a lot of money. It can ran you up to several dollars per customer. Whereas print marketing allows for marketers to simply rely on the magazine or newspaper company to distribute the information. Or perhaps it’s a company newspaper or magazine, marketers can send the advertisement to their mailing list without requiring multiple dollars being spent on each and every targeted consumer.
5. It Lasts
In the digital world, it’s hard to know how long someone will be on a certain page or certain site. Because of this, ads come and go, literally, with a blink of an eye. These print services can be kept and held on to whereas Facebook ads or radio ads come and go within minutes.
Research done by Canada Post and Canadian neuromarketing firm, TrueImpact, found that it takes less cognitive effort to process printed materials for marketing, “suggesting that it is both easier to understand and more memorable.” The research also found that it is easier to remember and was 70% higher to recall print ads than digital ads. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2015/09/16/paper-vs-digital/#7600174933c3)
Print marketing can include anything from scented envelopes to stickers, billboards and so on. It can leave a lasting impression because it may be something someone can use again in the future. Perhaps you have print marketing materials involving redeemable discounts and coupons that have to be torn off. Your ad is going to stay around much longer than one that is on the computer screen. It’s going to last until that consumer decides to redeem it, giving you a lasting marketing material.
It also lasts because the consumer takes a longer time digesting the information when he or she has to read it. People tend to skim while online contrasting to when it’s in physical form, they take their time. This allows for a deeper impression of print marketing, thus lasting longer down the road.
6. It’s Endless in Possibilities
Using print marketing can open your world into endless possibilities. From magazines and newspapers, to scented envelopes and stickers, there’s no telling where you can take your advertising goals. Digital marketing can only carry so far with graphics and visuals and sounds. Print marketing can take form in thank you cards, rip cards, brochures, pocket folders, and more.
Even if you want to be digital, your print ad can go digital with QR codes and scanners from your phone.
Your print ad can become a cutout that turns into something specific like a lamp shade, koozie, doll house or whatever relates to your business. If you own a painting company, have a print ad with tear-off color sheets. Perhaps you are a roofing company. Attach textures of different kinds of roof materials that mock what the real thing feels like. Print marketing has no boundaries. It can even expand into the digital realm as stated earlier.
Although print marketing is important, you’ll want to continue marketing plans with other platforms. But this is where print marketing makes more possibilities possible. Combining your digital marketing platforms with print marketing makes your company or business stand out even more. Using QR codes, or video function when hovering over the screen or even creating music, makes print marketing a very important feature to your digital marketing. This allows both your print and digital to expand into new horizons and possibilities that may catapult your ability to grow in reach.
Print marketing is a great way to open your horizons and turning your consumers and target markets to thinking about what questions they weren’t aware they should be asking. Users go online to ask questions they know they want answered but print marketing allows you to open an abundance of questions they didn’t even know existed. Giving you the platform to leave an ad that grabs attention, is personal, is different, lasts and gives you the opportunity to stretch your presence in ways you didn’t know you could.
