Is Print Marketing Dead?
It’s time to make a choice. You’ve hired a graphic designer to help boost your marketing strategy, and now you feel like you should decide whether to focus on print or digital marketing. With so much advice online about how to improve your website and social media, you may be wondering if print marketing is even useful anymore. Well, we’re here to tell you that it is. While it’s definitely important to boost your digital marketing efforts, print is still alive and an important tool to use.
Are you still unsure about the usefulness of print? Here are a few reasons why we believe print is still an important medium.
People Aren’t Always Online
Despite what many people believe, not everyone is online 24/7. Things happen: your cell phone is out of battery, you’re in a place where you can’t access the internet, or sometimes you just choose to not be logged in. During downtime, people like to pick up magazines, books, or brochures to sit back and read. Another benefit about print media is that it’s a lot harder to ignore—you can’t just move it to the trash folder with a click of a button. People are more likely to hang on to hard copy content if it’s useful than they would if it were in their email.
Face-to-Face Networking
As long as face-to-face networking is still around, it’s unlikely print media will ever completely go away. Sure, you can always whip out your phone or tablet to show a prospective business partner or customer your website; but without giving them something to hold onto like a business card, you’re less likely to be remembered later. People are likely to hold on to that card, keeping with them a great reminder of how to get back in touch with you. Being able to give a business card to those you talk to makes you look more put together. Business cards are also a great way to merge your print marketing with your digital. Your website, social media accounts, etc. can go on your card so people can learn more about you online.
Additional Point of Contact
As you may have already noticed, digital marketing isn’t easy. It takes the right strategy and attention to detail to really get people interested in your content because, at the end of the day, you can’t force people to be engaged. While print media can’t do that either, it is just another way for you to reach out to your audience. By using both mediums, you have a better chance of attracting more people to your business.
Personalization at Its Best
Yes, personalization can be done online and done easily, but using personalization in print media can have an even stronger effect. Imagine that you receive an email newsletter from your favorite clothing store that showcases this season’s newest trends. In the email instead of greeting you with “Dear Subscriber,” it greets you using your name. It feels good knowing that you’re not just another subscriber, but an actual person and the fact that they took the time to add that little bit of personalization feels good, right? Now imagine that the same newsletter was sent in the mail, addressed to your name with a letter inside using your name in the greeting. The two examples aren’t that different, but which one would you say had a stronger effect. It took more effort for the clothing store to print and mail the newsletter to customers than to send an email newsletter. The extra effort will most likely be appreciated by some of your customers, making them feel appreciated, happy, and confident about your business.
With these four reasons, you should now understand how important print media can be. Of course, every business is different and some methods may be more useful to you than others. However, it is a good idea to combine both digital and print marketing to create a plan that works best for you. Contact Creative Juice to learn more about print design.