Combine Print and Digital to Supercharge Your Integrated Marketing Strategy
In today’s digital-first, immediate gratification world, digital marketing has proven to pack a punch. After all, most Americans check their smartphones 46 times each day, a recent Deloitte survey found. And our frequency is increasing, up nearly 40% from just four years ago. Reaching consumers where they are—46 times per day—is just smart marketing. Digital must be a primary component of any Integrated Marketing Strategy.
Right?
Not so fast. Although digital marketing is part of a wise integrated marketing strategy, it shouldn’t be the only basket in which you place your eggs. Print marketing is vibrant, growing, and a critical piece of a smart and effective integrated marketing strategy. Despite the surge in digital channels and options, business printing is still an enormous industry: $640 billion worldwide, and increasing by 6.8% annually.
Integrated Marketing Strategy
Don’t forget print in your Integrated Marketing Campaigns.
Integration is the key to getting the most out of your marketing dollars. While digital tactics can be extremely effective at reaching consumers where they’re spending time, information gaps and short attention spans can compromise even a company’s best efforts. Investing your spend in digital and print—combined for maximum effect—is the key to reaching customers and driving them to take action.
So what does a smart integrated marketing strategy look like? Here are ten ways to combine print and digital to supercharge your marketing:
- Close the information gap
Digital marketing is only as good as the contact information you have for a consumer. If the email contact information you have is out-of-date, you have an information gap, and you’re possibly missing opportunities with excellent prospects. A direct mail campaign using a postcard or slim mailer can be a terrific way to engage customers by offering a coupon or download in exchange for their email addresses. You’ll then have closed the information gap by acquiring valid emails for future (digital) marketing.
- Pack a 1-2 punch
Use an integrated marketing campaign to drive better results. A postcard mailer followed by an email is an effective way to promote a grand opening, sale, event, or other campaign. Keep the message and the call-to-action consistent and time the print piece to hit at the same time as your email.
- Promote your app
Print marketing—including newsletters, stickers, brochures, and other collateral—can be a focused and effective way to promote your app and entice customers to download it. Additionally, app stores such as Google Play and the iTunes store present consumers with multiple choices, often placing competitors’ apps alongside your own. Your print-to-app advertising can feature your app without the competition.
- Drive social engagement with your business card
Your business card is the perfect canvas to invite engagement with you online. Ensure your business’s digital and social channels are prominent. Before printing your card, you should ensure you’ve claimed the simplest, shortest URLs possible for each channel—don’t make your new contacts type in long strings of letters and numbers. Facebook and LinkedIn both provide vanity URLs for your pages, and you should choose as simple and on-brand a handle as possible on Twitter.
- Provide key content in both print and digital formats
The old adage “meet people where they are” still rings true. Some customers are going to want to read your material in PDF, and some will happily digest a hard copy. Make sure your key marketing collateral is available in both formats and that you provide what you think your customers will appreciate the most. You’ll see the results in conversions.
- Personalize direct mail
Most people read their mail over the recycling bin. Cut through the clutter by addressing your customer with a greeting or a personalized offer. Doing so can be as simple as setting up your data with merge fields for a greeting, or by taking advantage of PURLs—personalized URLs—to create custom print-to-digital offers.
- Use how-to guides
How-to guides, checklists, short eBooks, and other digital content that offer up value in an easily digested, immediately actionable package are marketing gold. They serve as tantalizing lead magnets that help you build your email list, and you can promote them via print marketing, including postcards, brochures, flyers, stickers, and more.
- Make hang tags and table tents work for you
These small but mighty print pieces can yield great results in a variety of venues. By offering something in exchange for email subscribership, you can gain valuable contact information while engaging customers on-site in retail or event spaces.
- Promote digital via stickers
Stickers also offer a way to drive customers to digital channels. Including your website URL or your social marketing channels on stickers is an easy and inexpensive way to surprise and engage customers. You can even use a QR code since sticker sizes can limit design space.
- Reserve print for your best prospects
Print marketing does come with a different set of costs than digital—the cost of design, printing, and mailing can all add up. You can wisely limit your spend and engage customers at the same time by reserving print collateral for prospects who have already expressed interest, perhaps via a form capture on your site. Print marketing can also work the other way around, in that you use your printed and mailed pieces to also promote your digital channels, such as website and social.
Digital and print marketing combined can yield increased impact for your business, stretching your marketing budget while resulting in the acquisition, growth, and response numbers you want to see.
For more information on how you can #beseen and #beheard, talk to us about how we can help.
