In the 1970s, a person could expect to view between 500 to 1,600 ads on any given day.
Today, the average American is exposed to up to 10,000 advertisements every 24 hours.
In a world saturated with sales pitches, sponsored content, and BUY NOW buttons, how do you cut through the clutter?
Enter print materials.
Once considered an outdated method of advertising, print is making a comeback. In a world weary of digital campaigns, holding something tangible has a unique ability to foster connection and make a lasting impression that eventually leads to a sale.
Here are five reasons why you should go back to the basics. It just might be what helps propel your business into the modern marketing stratosphere.
1. Print establishes brand credibility
When it comes to brand legitimacy, seeing really is believing. There’s something old school about printed materials that makes us trust a business just a little bit more. For one, the sheer effort it takes to assemble and distribute print materials automatically weeds out a majority of companies who would market exaggerated claims or poor products.
Additionally, printed materials show a willingness to invest care and creativity into a marketing strategy. That is, through the intentional distribution of media to a targeted audience. From branding to cohesive design, print shows off a business’ voice, vision, and invites readers to interact with a tangible object in a uniquely human way.
2. Print boosts engagement between customers and the brand
If a good marketing strategy is dynamite, print materials are the match.
When paired with a digital marketing strategy, print materials can double (or even triple!) your ROI. Well-placed visual indicators of how your products and services can benefit users make a difference. It generates curiosity, ignites interest, and helps intentionally direct curious readers to a website, landing page, or email campaign.
3. Promotes higher retention rates
Studies show that people are much more likely to retain information read on a physical document than something read online.
Compared to digital content, print materials allow us to slow down, savor information, and integrate it more completely. The human desire to be a part of something bigger than ourselves is naturally extended into the storytelling realm of print. It causes people to spend more time dwelling on words when they appear in brochures, mailers or posters.
4. Print increases your visibility
The possibilities for how to engage your customers through print materials are virtually endless. For example, you can use flyers, business cards, billboards, merchandise, etc.
Print enables a message to exist for an extended period of time in one place. It solidifies an impression and acts as an ongoing visual cue.
On average, it takes a customer 12 interactions with a brand before a purchase decision happens. You can close the gap between exposure times by distributing printed t-shirts, coffee cozies, posters and pencils that will be worn or kept in a public place for months (or years) at a time.
5. Allows for targeted marketing efforts
Yes, there are benefits to AI targeting your ideal demographic, but with print, you are in complete control of whose hands your materials fall into, allowing you to personalize your approach and speak directly to your target audience.
By eliminating alternate decision makers, you can save time, save money, and convert at a higher rate by adding to the number of brand touchpoints a customer has. In the end, a joint digital and print marketing strategy is the secret sauce to reaching your target audience, no matter what their preferred method of communication is.
At Goalpost Group, we help our clients break the cycle of bad marketing using strategy, structure, and killer content that drives sales and wins the day. Get in touch with a member of our team to learn more about how we can help transform your marketing.
