You may not realize, but print marketing is an essential component of your small business marketing strategy. Though some consider it outdated and old fashioned, almost every business uses some level of print marketing to establish their brand and build awareness. Don’t believe it? Here are a few reasons why print marketing is, and always will be, important:
Face to Face Value
There is no better way to gain a customer than through face-to-face conversations. You get the opportunity to listen to their concerns, answer questions, learn their interests, and make a personal connection. However, how do you ensure that they remember to go back to your business afterwards? Why, with high quality business cards, brochures or flyers, of course! These tangible items individuals get to take with them reinforce the conversation you had and help to ensure that your business is one that they remember.
Memorable Branding
Branded materials are a huge part of print marketing. Letterhead, product packaging, signage, promotional items – these are all different elements of print marketing that most business owners use and need. Putting your logo on anything officially related to your business is a long-standing best practice that reinforces brand recognition. Even online businesses need to establish some of these basic print materials to support their branding effort. For example, when you send a PDF invoice with payment due for a virtual service or you ship a product sold from your online store, professional letterhead and quality packaging reinforce your brand and validate that your business is legitimate and established.
Stand Apart from The Digital World
In a world of tweets, texts, and Google Ads, print marketing may seem like yesterday’s news. However, digital trends have made print marketing a bit of a novelty and a welcome break from the onslaught of online advertising. Business owners can get creative with interesting designs and clever implementation strategies to catch the eye of customers off-line. Examples of this include car decals, t-shirt designs, and A-frame street signs. You can even leverage printed post cards or flyers to drive traffic online by including URLs, call-to-actions, or QR codes. Digital advertising is only going to become more crowded as technology use increases. Small business owners can take advantage of print marketing as a way to stand out in the crowd and give their customers a break from their many electronic devices.
Longer-Lasting Marketing
The digital world of marketing changes by the millisecond. For example, in one year around 200 billion tweets are shared on Twitter at an average rate of 6,000 tweets per second. Businesses are recommended to post an average of 3 tweets a day, making for over 1,000 tweets in a year. A business card or brochure can last for a year or more, a branded t-shirt 3 years or more, and a sign can last 5 years or more! Not only do these items have a longer shelf-life, their ability to be touched, felt, and shared generates an experience repeatedly versus digital messaging which requires constant updates that may not even be noticed.
If you’re still not convinced, think about the simple laws of physics. Items that you can both see and feel (print marketing) often leave more of an imprint (pun intended) than those you cannot touch (digital marketing).