How to Make Traditional Print Marketing Work in 2022
In today’s digital world, a solid marketing strategy is essential for brands that want to stay relevant and have success. And the key to any good marketing strategy is omnichannel marketing.
By JORI HAMILTON
Today’s consumers are everywhere—so your marketing needs to be everywhere too. This means utilizing every channel or avenue possible to get your brand in front of as many eyes as possible to expand your reach, including print.
While many think traditional print marketing is falling out of style, this is actually untrue. Though print does not necessarily resonate as much with younger generations of consumers, it still holds sway. Consumers are still 20% more likely to be motivated by print marketing.
So the question isn’t “should you still use print marketing?” but rather “how can you make print work for your brand?”
The more channels you use to attract customers, the better. So you still want to incorporate print as one of your marketing channels, but you might need to make some changes to make it more appealing and successful.
Below are some of the best tips and strategies for making traditional print marketing work today:
1. Know Your Audience
An essential part of any marketing strategy, print or digital, is understanding who your target audience is. If you don’t know your audience, how can you expect to attract the right customers who will be motivated to take action?
With print marketing, knowing your audience is even more crucial because print doesn’t inherently have the impact that digital does. Thus, you need to put in even more effort to ensure your print materials are on point and appealing to the right audience if you want them to work.
So before creating the design, spend a little more time thinking about who this marketing material is for. Don’t simply make a generalized piece that is meant to appeal to mass audiences—get specific. Everything from the heading and the layout to the color scheme and value incentive should appeal to your niche audience.
2. Use the Right Type of Print
Just as digital has multiple channels through which a brand can advertise itself, so does print. Today, print often gets lumped into one singular category, but there are various ways you can use print to market your company. However, not all channels of print marketing might be right for your brand.
Choosing the right type of print marketing is part of appealing to the right audience, which is why the first step of knowing your audience is so important. For example, if you were to choose billboard marketing, but statistics show that your target audience doesn’t pay attention to billboards, then you are wasting your money.
Print marketing can and does work, but you need to make sure you are using the right type of print. Options can include flyers, brochures, business postcards, door hangers, magazine ads, billboards, promotional giveaways, etc.
Business postcards, for example, are still widely used and can be highly effective at driving revenue if utilized properly. Any type of print can be effective really; it’s all about knowing your audience and how to grab their attention with the right elements.
3. Grab Their Attention
No matter what type of print marketing you choose to utilize, you need something to first grab the attention of your customers. If your marketing doesn’t have something that makes an initial impact to obtain interest, then customers will look right past it.
To grab their attention, use things like a strong headline or attractive images. The idea is to make a statement that instantly intrigues and entices your customer. Beyond knowing your audience and choosing your print type, making your marketing attention-grabbing is the first step to designing effective print materials.
4. Appeal to Their Interest
After you’ve grabbed your audience’s attention, the next step is to reel them in further with something that appeals to their interests. This should be something that provides a little more detail to let your customer know what it is you are offering or selling, but not so much detail as to overwhelm.
People have much shorter attention spans today and will not linger on an advertisement if it doesn’t quickly appeal to them. So you want to make the most impact in as few words as possible.
5. Provide a Value Incentive
After you’ve grabbed the customer’s attention and appealed to their interest, you then want to provide something of value that encourages them to take action. Simply grabbing their attention is not likely to convert them into a sale because if you only grab their attention, but don’t immediately provide them with something of value, then they will likely forget about you.
So you need something that pulls them in and makes them want to take action right away to achieve results. This can be something like a sale, a limited-time offer, a discount or coupon, a loyalty bonus, or an exclusive offer or invitation.
Whatever the value incentive is, it needs to create a sense of urgency. It should be something that benefits the customer but is something that won’t be around forever, meaning they need to take action as soon as possible.
6. Use a Call-to-Action
The second part of providing the value incentive is a way for the customer to take action and access that value. If you entice them with an offer but don’t provide a clear and obvious way to obtain it, then again, the customer might lose interest or forget about it.
So you need to make your brand and what you are offering as accessible as possible so the customer can take action right away. And this is where it’s a great idea to tie digital in with your print marketing.
Today’s customers can and want to be able to get things done easily using their smartphones, so take advantage of that. Use a QR code to direct them to your website or to instantly give them access to the coupon, offer, etc.
An email, phone number, and web address listed on the print material are good too, but something like a QR can instantly engage them and give them the chance to take action as quickly as possible.
7. Make Your Brand Identity Known
Finally, don’t forget to create brand awareness by including something like your logo or brand tagline to remind the customer who they are interacting with. You want the customer to clearly remember who the advertisement or material was from.
However, do not make your brand identity the main focus of print marketing. If the first thing the customer notices is your giant logo, they won’t likely be interested. All of the elements listed above should be what grabs their attention first, but you do still want to leave your mark behind so there is no confusion about which brand the marketing is from.
Final Thoughts
Print marketing is still relevant and can be highly effective. While digital today is king, people do still like tangible marketing they can interact with. Think of it as handing out a business card versus telling someone your email. Both are effective, but a business card feels more personal and special, and customers appreciate that kind of effort. So when developing your multi-channel marketing strategy, don’t forget to include effective and thoughtful print marketing.
