Print marketing is a form of advertising where businesses use various printed media methods to promote their brand, services, or products. Even though the evolution of digital media has changed the way we advertise and market, print marketing is still just as effective.
In this guide, we look at print marketing to increase awareness of its effectiveness in the digital world.
1. What is Print Marketing?
Print marketing refers to using advertising tools published in printed formats such as newspapers, magazines, brochures, or flyers for marketing purposes. Print marketing can include logos, coupons, informational pieces, invitations to sales or events, and newsletters.
Not only will print media help increase the awareness of your brand, but it also encourages your audience to make purchasing decisions. This leads to improvements in conversions, ROI, and customer retention.
Sometimes, digital adverts can be disruptive and are often ignored due to the number of businesses competing against one another to stand out to the world. Print media can help brands make a lasting impression and are an important part of every marketing strategy that can help you reach people offline.
2. When was Print Media Born?
As mentioned in our previous blog, A Brief History of Print Media, print has been around for many decades. After Gutenberg invented the printing press in the early 1400s, the world started to leverage print in marketing.
The first print advertisement was in 1472; a flyer nailed to a church advertising a book of prayers. From then on, early newspapers featured text-based adverts, mainly for job vacancies. In the late 1600s, consumer goods started appearing in publications. Print media quickly evolved, and the rest is history (until the rise of digital media!).
3. Why is Print Marketing Important?
Today, despite the ever-growing digital landscape, print media is still an important part of marketing. People love magazines, newsletters, invitations, coupons or deals, event guides, recipe books, brochures, business cards – the list is endless. Even though print marketing is more costly than digital, it evokes a feeling in people that digital media can’t always match.
Print marketing can help you raise awareness, drive new leads, promote sales, introduce new products and services, and help differentiate your brand from another.
Around 82 per cent of consumers trust print ads most when they are making purchasing decisions, and over 90 per cent find print ads easier to read than digital. Of course, it depends on your target audience, but another report showed that if you combine both print and digital in your strategy, it will make campaigns a whopping 400 per cent more effective.
4. How to Use Print in Your Marketing Strategy
There are several types of printed media methods you can use in your strategy, including:
- Business cards
- Brochures
- Flyers/leaflets
- Posters
- Magazine ads/whole publications
- Zines
- Physical coupons
- Guides
- And more
In your strategy, you should think about which method of print marketing is best for your brand, how you are going to create it, who you are creating it for, and how and when you are going to distribute it – just like any other digital marketing strategy.
Print materials should be high-quality in terms of content and design but easy to understand so you don’t conflict with your audience’s purchasing decisions.
5. Conclusion/Summary
The world of print has helped shape society. Without it, where would books, magazines and newspapers be? Even though digital media is at the forefront of marketing strategies, print marketing will never die out.
Print marketing can be used in many ways, so it’s important to understand all the options. For more information on the importance of print marketing, why not read our latest blog? Alternatively, contact our experts about our print procurement services.