So you think that print is dead?
Interestingly enough, that couldn’t be further from the truth. With 60% of customers who received printed advertisements visiting the business’s website as a direct result of the marketing they’ve seen, there’s still so much potential to unlock when it comes to print marketing.
In the time of digital clutter, over information, and content bombardment online, you’d be surprised at how effective print advertisements can be when it comes to cutting through the white noise.
Keep on reading for our breakdown of the top seven ways print marketing can help your business’ bottom line profits and growth.
1. The King of Printed Advertisements Benefits: Reaching a Huge Audience
Let’s start by highlighting the most important benefit of using print marketing and advertising via direct mail, which is the ability to reach the largest possible audience.
With 85% of your potential clients reading through their mail daily, you’re almost guaranteed to get some exposure as you go. That’s one of the main reasons why studies have been showing that print ads are outperforming email ads by 10 to 30 times.
We’d recommend going for a hybrid approach with print ads as well as digital ads to reach the biggest audience you could manage.
2. Print Sticks in People’s Memories
With people’s ability to focus and attention span dropping on an annual basis, print ads come with the perk of being memorable. When people receive well-made print media, it tends to stick and make a stronger impression.
Therefore, make sure you’ve got a packaging inspection set up before you send out anything to ensure that you’re following your brand guidelines.
After all, in a digital world, by giving your potential customers the chance (and the time) to engage their touch, vision, and other senses, they’ll have an easier time remembering your logo and brand.
3. Print Boosts Brand Loyalty
Speaking of brand, print advertisements, whether in the form of brochures or gift packages, are a simple way to retain your loyal customer bases, as well as branching out and reaching new ones.
When your existing customers enjoy your service and have a physical representation of it, they can easily refer others to your website. There are many different examples of using print materials to promote brand loyalty. For example, think about loyalty cards for a moment.
By sending your customers loyalty cards that they can use on-site or online, you’re making them feel special and appreciates, as well as giving your sales a gentle boost.
Another method of building your brand loyalty through printed media would be taking advantage of the relationship building and reputation of your local newspapers. When your business advertises via a trusted local newspaper, you get to tap into the positive relationship that already exists between your potential customers and this particular newspaper by association.
This is called the ‘halo effect,’ which works by having the devoted readership of that newspaper automatically view your message with a positive mind frame, without any extra effort on your part.
4. Print Marketing Generates Sales
As with any for-profit business, generating sales is key to its growth and basic survival in a competitive market. Many businesses will use a mixture of different marketing methods, like digital, television, and print ads to ensure that they’re reaching the widest audience, and generating the sales they need.
Of course, each marketing method comes with its perks and drawbacks. But, when it comes to print advertising, you’ll find that it still delivers the highest return on investment of all the major marketing methods.
5. Print Ads Are Cost-Effective
Any marketer will tell you that trying to make their promotional budget more efficient and effective is a yearly struggle. Print advertising can help you make your budget more cost-effective by pinning down specific newspapers and putting a variety of placements and inserts.
This way, you get to avoid the whole “spray and pray” approach, where you try to reach the largest number of people possible, without really nailing down your targeted audience.
Simply contact your local print newspapers, and ask about their rates. Traditionally, you’ll find that most print ads have a wide range of options that can fit almost any budget.
6. Print Ads Grants High Engagement Rates
People who are still subscribed to print newspapers had to make the conscious decision to read them regularly. Therefore, you can already assume that they’ll be giving the newspaper their sole attention when they read it and see your print ads.
Furthermore, you won’t have to fight over keeping their attention because no pop-ups and other digital ads are cluttering their view. That’s why people’s attention spans tend to be longer when they’re reading something offline. Besides, there will be no scrolling.
7. Print Ads Are Flexible
Alright, you might have the misconception that print ads can be rigid and hard to change.
However, you’ll find that the majority of print advertisers will give you the choice of where you’d like to place your ad in their publication. Therefore, you can easily pick the location that grants your ads the highest visibility rates.
Print media will also offer fractional sizes, regional editions, multiple pages, and other special-placement options for you to pick, depending on the season. In addition to the quick turnaround on production changes, you can still send in last-minute changes to your ad before publication. It’s the best of both worlds.
Ready to Give Your Sales the Boost It Needs?
We know that business owners are now bombarded by the different platforms and methods they can use to reach their targeted audience.
However, it would truly be a shame for you to ignore the multitude of benefits that come with printed advertisements. Hopefully, our little guide of seven ways print ads can help your business gave you the starting point to changing up your promotional strategy.
For now, you’ll want to stay up-to-date with the latest business news, and strategies that you can apply to the benefit of your projects. Make sure to check out both of our ‘business’ and ‘advertising’ sections to get all the information that you need.