With everything seemingly shifting to digital it can seem like print marketing no longer has a place in your marketing strategy, but it still very much does. While print marketing is still a valuable marketing tool it can become even more powerful when it is aligned with your digital marketing strategy.
Combining both print and digital marketing can help your business reach a wider audience and ensuring they are aligned can help reinforce your brand, your messages and can increase leads and conversions.
One of the biggest benefits that print marketing has over its digital counterpart, is tangibility. This is especially true when it comes to a company brochure or catalogue, turning the pages of a high-quality catalogue simply cannot be replicated digitally. Although the content and the products are identical, a print catalogue provides an experience that cannot be achieved on a screen.
As we are individuals, your target audience will have different preferences. Some will want to receive emails while others will prefer direct mail. Others may enjoy viewing your product catalogue online, but a segment of your audience may prefer to receive a printed brochure.
Combining both print and digital marketing helps you cater for all of your audience and their preferences and when done well they can complement each.
Some of the ways you can ensure both channels are working together include adding QR codes to your printed materials that direct recipients to your website or social media channels, using emails or social media to drive direct mail sign ups or reminding people to follow you on Facebook on your printed leaflets.
Ensure brand consistency
When using a mix of digital and print marketing its important to remember that the messages are the same, it’s just the delivery that is different. Whether you are crafting print or digital marketing materials they should always be aligned to your brand in their design, tone and language.
Applying your brand consistently across all your marketing materials helps existing customers and potential customers recognise your business and drives brand loyalty. If your print marketing materials seem as if they come from an entirely different company to those that are on your digital channels it can be confusing for customers and may negatively impact your reputation.
Know where to find your audience
The target audience you are trying to reach can also impact how you use digital and print marketing together. Audience segmentation can help inform your marketing strategy, for example if you are targeting men between the ages of 18 – 65 you may want to use your digital channels to reach the younger end of the audience and print marketing to target the older demographic.
Segmenting your audience in this way ensures that your marketing budget is being used effectively and that you aren’t wasting your time and money by using the wrong marketing tool to reach your audience.
As with all marketing, testing is imperative to see what is working well and where improvements could be made to achieve better results.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss your print and digital marketing please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.