Print marketing is often seen as outdated or ineffective in the digital age, but it can still be a powerful tool to generate leads and conversions for your business. In this article, you will learn how to use print marketing strategically to attract, engage, and convert your target audience, and how to measure and optimize your results.
Print marketing has some unique advantages over digital marketing, such as higher retention, credibility, and emotional appeal. People tend to pay more attention to printed materials, trust them more, and feel more connected to them. Print marketing can also help you stand out from the online noise and reach audiences that are less responsive to digital channels. Moreover, print marketing can complement and enhance your digital marketing efforts by creating a consistent and integrated brand experience.
Neuroscience, in this case how our nervous system has made essential, paper based print as its foundational source of information since 'The Golden Age of Print' that?began in 1841?when adverts appeared in print publications for the first time, mandates that print matter. The Golden Age of Print ended in the closing decades of the twentieth century, and since then, hereditarial compulsions have made humanity wired to print in such a strong, unbreakable way that digital can never truly replace. That is why print matter.
Driving Growth Through Content | Head of Content, Group Revenue Team, Apollo Hospitals
Print marketing can still be a powerful lead generation tool in digital age, if used strategically. Here's how: Targeted reach: Distribute ur brochures/flyers in places ur ideal customers frequent, like events/local shops/malls. Compelling visuals: High-quality images & graphics grab attention and make ur message memorable. Clear call to action: Tell readers exactly what u want them to do next, whether it's visiting ur website, calling a number/scanning a QR code for a special offer. Offer value: Give readers something they can't get online, like exclusive discounts, early access to new products, or informative content. Track & measure: Use unique codes or URLs to track how many leads ur print campaign generates & measure effectiveness.
Apart from enjoying some unique advantages such as higher retention, credibility, and emotional appeal, it also has mass reach. Print rides on its genuineness.
In some circles print media still holds a key place in the marketing strategy. I know this first hand because many in the religious Jewish community do not have social media or hang out on the internet. By putting the ads in the publications they read and on the sign boards, helps with brand awareness and recall. I ran a campaign once that was mixed media, digital and print and the results were amazing.
To create effective print marketing materials, you need to have a clear goal, a well-defined audience, and a compelling message. You also need to choose the right format, design, and quality for your materials, depending on your budget, distribution method, and purpose. Some of the most common print marketing materials are brochures, flyers, postcards, catalogs, magazines, newsletters, and direct mail. You should always include a clear and strong call to action, such as a website, phone number, QR code, or coupon, to encourage your audience to take the next step.
There are tens of other sources of getting your information to your audience. For that reason, it is crucial to ask yourself, who are you printing for? It begins and ends with the story or more specifically, the message. And crafting this with the right tone, personality, subject, design and purpose in mind makes for effective audience profiling. Understand how to reach your targeted audience. Since media space is heavily saturated, where, when and how are they most susceptible to consuming print media? Lastly, print has high passover quotient. Add integrated links like phone numbers, emails, web address or socials to ensure your readers/leads transition effectively either from offline to online or offline conversion.
To distribute your print marketing materials, you need to consider your target audience, your marketing objectives, and your resources. You can use different methods, such as mailing, handing out, placing in strategic locations, or partnering with other businesses or organizations. You should also research the best times and places to reach your audience, and avoid spamming or wasting your materials. You can also use segmentation and personalization techniques to tailor your materials to different groups or individuals, and increase your response rate.
This depends on what particular print medium in question as the word print is often a generic term. However, if the print in question tabloid material, then the distribution becomes much more specialised than generic. This depends heavily on how the target audience consumes media, especially print magazine. When is the target captive audience? It could be while driving from home to work, while during traffic, or he/she can simply have the newspaper man deliver the newspaper to his office. For this, data is needed about the media consumption behaviour for the target to be able to design the best fit distribution
To measure your print marketing results, you need to have a system to track and analyze your data. You can use different tools, such as unique URLs, phone numbers, QR codes, coupons, or surveys, to link your print marketing materials to your digital platforms and CRM systems. You should also define your key performance indicators (KPIs), such as impressions, leads, conversions, sales, or ROI, and compare them to your goals and benchmarks. You should also monitor your feedback and reviews from your customers and prospects, and use them to improve your materials and strategies.
I have seen with my personal experience, the best way to track results would be to create either a specific url for the ad or a phone number connected to the ad. We tested this once on a campaign and saw an increase in calls to the burner phone which brought in nearly 20 leads to the campaign. The goal was 15 leads.
To optimize your print marketing performance, you need to test and tweak your materials and strategies based on your data and feedback. You can use different methods, such as A/B testing, split testing, or multivariate testing, to experiment with different elements of your materials, such as headlines, images, colors, fonts, layouts, or offers. You should also test different distribution methods, channels, and frequencies, and see what works best for your audience and objectives. You should also keep up with the latest trends and best practices in print marketing, and learn from your competitors and industry leaders.
To integrate your print and digital marketing, you need to create a seamless and consistent brand experience across all your touchpoints. You should also use your print marketing materials to drive traffic and engagement to your digital platforms, such as your website, social media, email, or blog, and vice versa. You should also use your digital platforms to collect and store your data and feedback from your print marketing campaigns, and use them to personalize and optimize your materials and strategies. You should also leverage the strengths and benefits of both print and digital marketing, and use them to complement and reinforce each other.