Remember the days when marketing your business would involve newspaper adverts, and the Yellow Pages? Maybe even a billboard or a radio ad, if you had the budget? In our age of contactless and mobile payments, cloud accountancy, and live streaming, tangible content is becoming more and more rare. Even the Yellow Pages is now more online than on the doorstep.
So does print still have a place in your marketing mix? Can it still be powerful for your business?
Why is Print still important?
Well we think print (when done properly) is highly effective, often more so than digital. Especially when you combine it with other marketing. It’s all about touch points – and print is a fantastic touchpoint that grabs attention and, more importantly, lasts.
Getting your message across is tough and in a busy world it’s even harder than ever. With Facebook this and Twitter that, getting seen is now more challenging than ever. It’s not just the competing and sheer volume of content and adverts you need to stand out above though; it’s the way the message is conveyed.
Messages in print can be communicated easily, quickly, and often more affordably than online or new high tech marketing methods. Print focuses on getting the message across quickly and in the simplest way possible. Printed material attracts attention fast. Physical material is more real for the brain and involves more emotional processing, which helps with memory. We all remember things that use our senses.
The great thing about print is there are no pop-ups on a leaflet, notifications on a poster, WiFi lag, or poor mobile view on a brochure. It’s focused and works harder for your business than many of the digital alternatives.
Print is creative
It’s not that other methods of marketing aren’t, it’s just a more creative space to get your offer, or message out there. Designing for print is a creative process. When you work on the design of a piece of print so much comes into question, so many ideas flow, and the way you set the core message and work on the Call To Action are often more a creative process than other forms of marketing out there. Add to that the colours, textures, and finishes on offer and you’re able to really engage the consumer with your messages.
Print has longevity
Print lasts a lot longer than that LinkedIn post or video you posted that someone watched three seconds of and scrolled on. Print beats radio, TV, Facebook, and many other forms of marketing in this respect. When you’re given some printed material, it’s very rare that you’ll only look once. It’s rare you’ll throw it away immediately. It’s very rare that if that print is part of a larger marketing mix that it won’t impact on you.
So often we hear that the printed marketing was the final reason people booked the event or bought the product. It’s not the only part of the marketing mix, but it lasts longer and it’s often the final piece of the puzzle that converts. Maybe we trust something that’s been permanently printed, rather than a Facebook post that could have been written by anyone and could change at any time.
Print reinforces the messages sent through other channels
And it does this long after they’ve been communicated online or on the airwaves. Print allows complex information to be communicated effectively. Things like direct mail needs less cognitive effort to process than digital media, meaning it’s easier to understand and more memorable.
Let’s face it, your products and services need to be really simple to understand or you’re not going to sell many of them. We’re all busy – and so are your potential customers. We’re all looking for solutions but we don’t have time to read through long essays explaining why you’re the person to buy from.
Print FORCES you to be concise and keep your messaging simple
It’s often said that if you can’t explain what you do in a sentence then you don’t understand what you do, and neither will they. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. – Albert Einstein.”
Print needs simplicity and it thrives on a perfectly constructed, concise, and simple to pick up message.
The added bonus of print is its endurance
Print hangs around. It’s a coffee table lurker, a back pocket dweller, and often reappears from handbags, laptop bags, or exhibition tote bags months or even years later. Print lasts longer than online advertising. Keeping your message living on in the minds and eyes (and bags) of your customers and future customers.
Print isn’t dead; ignoring it is. Print isn’t dead; it’s just got a new job. It’s an exciting one, too. When you add print to your marketing mix you’ll see some amazing results.
Like any marketing you do it needs a multi-channel approach and it needs some joined up thinking and planning. Advertising online? Use similar-looking design on your leaflet and get it into the hands of the people you’re attracting online. You’ll be amazed how powerful this can be.
If you’d like to chat to us and find out how we could help you include exceptional print into your mix then please do contact us.
Twenty-five years have seen a lot of change in print… but we’re far from throwing in the leaflet!