A beautiful relationship – print and digital marketing
WRITTEN BY: ALISON JOSHI, DIRECTOR OF JWJ DESIGN
A print AND a digital marketing strategy can be a beautiful relationship and one that can enhance your business credibility.
Many people invest in their digital marketing; creating newsletters, updating websites and ensuring they are posting regularly on social media, but what about that old friend; the printed leaflet or brochure? When was the last time your business invested in this area of marketing?
The emergence of the internet and social media has transformed how companies communicate with their target market. Marketing campaigns can be sent with the click of a button and social media has allowed brands to communicate directly with individuals to create a brand relationship. The problem is that these relationships are fickle and not long lasting. People’s inboxes are overloaded with newsletters and promotional marketing campaigns. If you are lucky your customers will open your newsletter and not just bin it straight away, and better still maybe click on the call to action to see what it is you are offering.
The difference with printed marketing communications is that they are physical forms that people can feel and touch. A printed leaflet or brochure will often get filed away to look at later, to be read and digested and even possibly passed on to someone else who might find it of interest.
What are the benefits of print marketing
Stand out from the crowd
How many of your competitors are investing in printed marketing? By actually investing in a brochure, leaflet or postcard you are already standing out from the crowd and creating a lasting impact on your customer. The item doesn’t have to be a glossy, expensive piece of print; something as simple as a well designed postcard could have the same impact to remind them you are there, perhaps offering x% off.
Flexibility
Printed marketing can come in many forms, there are so many variables that your piece will look and feel different by just thinking about the format it takes: flyer, brochure, roll fold leaflet, postcards etc., the paper that you use (coated, uncoated, silk, gloss etc.) and how it is finished (varnishes, embossing, spot UV gloss, foil inks etc.)
If you have spent the budget on a graphic designer getting something designed make sure that the final printing of the item is not going to cheapen the result that you are hoping for.
Also, remember that your printed piece can be turned in to a digital download from your website or LinkedIn profile, and used as part of your marketing strategy.
Credibility
We distrust the internet. It can be cheap and unreliable and sometimes scary. We tend to only buy from reputable places online that we know and trust. If a company takes the time to send something through the post we automatically trust them a little bit more and thus you build a more credible brand.
Demographics
Think about your target market, the older generation engage with printed communications far more than online communications because they know and trust this medium. On the other end of the scale, the younger generation is also responding to targeted direct mail because they do not receive posted mail very often. Having something that is personalised is exciting, remember as a child how exciting it was to receive a letter addressed to you and how quickly you wanted to open it to see what was inside.
I know my children get very excited when they receive their magazine subscription through the post, or even a parcel on their birthday.
Print and digital together, a beautiful relationship
Digital marketing does obviously work and I am not here to tell you to spend all of your marketing budget on print instead of digital. What I am trying to do is remind you about print because together print and digital communications compliment each other beautifully and can have powerful results.
Your printed communications should always have a call to action and one of those should be to visit your website. A printed item will only have enough space for a limited amount of information before it becomes overwhelming. By driving traffic to your website you can guide the consumer to other areas of your business and services that you offer.
QR codes and personalised URLs allow you to track if your campaign has been successful and if people are engaging with it.
Many of my clients do wish to invest in more print marketing but are aware of the higher cost of printed communications compared to digital campaigns. Print is obviously more expensive than sending out a newsletter because you have a physical product at the end of it but that is the benefit of the piece; it physically exists and can’t just be binned with the click of a button.
Printed marketing is another form of communication with potential customers. Combining social media posts, newsletters and printed items will increase your exposure and brand engagement on different levels, helping to create a memorable brand that is known, liked and trusted.
JWJ Design have over 21 years of printed graphic design experience and are able to advise on different printed collateral that could work for your target market. Get in touch for a free consultation.
