You’ve heard it all before: Print marketing is dead! Invest everything in digital marketing! And while there’s certainly a case to be made for investing a lot of resources into areas like website design, PPC advertising, SEO, social media, and email marketing, it’s a huge mistake to forget about print. Even in 2022, it still has a strong place in the marketer’s toolbox.
Print Marketing: More Effective Than Ever
It’s easy to overlook print marketing. In an age of digital this and digital that, we naturally assume that print is no longer an effective tool. However, the oversaturation of digital channels is actually a net positive for print.
Print marketing, which can be used to describe everything from direct mail to newsletters to billboards, stands out in a world where most businesses are focusing their entire budgets on social media, SEO, and digital content. In the late 20th century, it was hard to get exposure in someone’s physical mailbox. Today, it’s hard to get exposure in their email inbox. But the roles have reversed. Far fewer businesses are using print, which means it’s actually the place to stand out.
Print creates a multisensory experience that’s able to create a significant emotional impact. When someone engages with print marketing, they’re able to feel the weight and texture of the paper. They can see the colors pop off the page. There are sounds associated with the crinkling of the paper. Depending on the type of print marketing, they might even smell the ink.
Because of the tangibility of marketing, there’s instantly a heightened sense of credibility and trust. And unlike digital ads that are often intrusive and in-your-face, print is consumed on the customer’s terms. This unobtrusive nature makes it seem more inviting.
While we don’t advise spending all of your marketing budget on print mediums, we certainly advocate for allocating a percentage.
3 Ways to Leverage Print Marketing
Print marketing is far more versatile than most modern marketers give it credit for. There are a bunch of different ways it can be leveraged. Here are several suggestions:
-
Invest in Custom Signage
Signage is important. It can be used to direct people, promote products, build brand awareness, or even foster loyalty to a company. You can use it in your office to strengthen the company’s culture, or in a store to communicate sales or new product launches.
The beauty of signage is that it can be customized. By partnering with the right printing company, you can basically create an extension of your internal marketing team. Any time you have a printing need, you just send the file over. And within just a couple of days, you’re able to implement.
-
Send Postcard Promotions
Postcards might seem “so 20th century,” but they’re actually highly effective when leveraged as a form of drip marketing. For less than a dollar, you can send postcards to targeted addresses and steadily drip on both existing customers and prospects. You can also incorporate specific coupon codes or URLs to track the analytics and gauge how people are responding.
-
Launch a Newsletter
Contrary to what most business leaders think, physical newsletters might actually perform better than email newsletters. Again, this has to do with saturation.
Email newsletters can be great. Many businesses use newsletters to strengthen relationships with customers and even drive six- and seven-figure revenue streams. But most newsletters are nothing but noise in a customer’s email inbox. They might get opened. However, even if they do, the customer will probably only scan it for a few highlights. Email newsletters are seen as cheap and ubiquitous. (People think, “I can just read it later.”)
A physical newsletter is more powerful. It’s something you can touch and feel. And because it’s something that will eventually get tossed in the trash, people are more likely to read it all the way through to avoid missing out.
Adding it All Up
Print marketing and advertising still play a key role in business promotion in 2022. While it might not have the mainstream sex appeal that other digital mediums have, there’s something to be said for taking a calculated approach with print.
Whether it’s a postcard or a sign, print has a way of cutting through the noise in today’s distracting environment. Ignore it at your own risk!
You may be interested in: 8 Helpful Tips to Create Marketing Brochures