Like a bad Internet meme promoting a recurring hoax, some people have been announcing the death of print for nearly two decades. Yet, here in 2014, print matters even more to integrated marketers who are looking for ways to laser-target customers, stand out in crowded competitive fields or complement online marketing efforts.
“As technology continues to develop — and change the way we do business — many have considered print a dead medium and online marketing the wave of the future. Nevertheless, the print industry is not dead; in fact, print marketing has only continued to grow and evolve alongside the upsurge of new technology,” print marketing advocate Vladimir Gendelman wrote in a recent article for MarketingProfs.
Here are three innovative ways to use print effectively today as part your creative services strategy:
They go together like peanut butter and chocolate
Print — especially direct mail — shares a symbiotic relationship with online marketing. In a Pitney Bowes study, 76 percent of small businesses confirmed that their ideal marketing mix is a combination of print and digital communications. That sentiment is echoed in other research, too. More than half of the 500 U.S. digital marketing and media professionals who responded to a 2013 Nielsen survey studying paid social media said they used a social media advertising campaign in conjunction with print media.
Two ways to build a tighter relationship between print and online marketing:
- Promote your social media channels on all collateral, including business cards
- Add customer comments and testimonials from your social networking profiles to your print designs
For other ideas, check out our “Direct Mail and Email: It’s Not One or The Other” post.
Customers want to feel special
To paraphrase Dale Carnegie, a customer’s name — to that customer — is the most-important word in any language. So why not personalize print?
With variable printing, you can customize collateral by changing certain elements from piece to piece.
“For example, you could run a mailer campaign and personalize each postcard with the name of the recipient, or create unique coupons with individual serial numbers so that you can track which customers used them,” Gendelman suggested. “When this technique is used with variable images, for example, you could create a series of assorted business cards, each with a different photo background.”
Before you design your next campaign, learn what customers prefer: “How to Get Your Direct Mail Marketing Piece Noticed.”
From paper to pens and beyond
Print marketing encompasses more than a collection of business cards, brochures and presentation folders. It includes promotional products, too, such as branded magnets, stickers, pens, key chains, coasters or even apparel.
“If it’s an inanimate object, there’s a good chance it can be emblazoned with your brand’s logo and integrated into your marketing campaign,” Gendelman said. “The items don’t even have to be something that your audience takes home with them to make an impression: You could, for example, use branded napkins and cups at a gala dinner, or display a promotional banner on your podium while giving a presentation.”
For more advice and tips on developing better promotional products campaigns, use this handy checklist.
