Does print marketing still matter in the Digital Era?

Marketing can be looked at as an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, delivering and communicating value to customers...

February 20, 2014

Marketing is the science of choosing target markets through market analysis and market segmentation, as well as understanding consumer buying behavior and providing superior customer value. From a societal point of view, marketing is the link between a society’s material requirements and its economic patterns of response. It satisfies these needs and through exchange processes builds long term relationships. Marketing can be looked at as an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, delivering and communicating value to customers, and managing customer relationships in ways that also benefit the organization and its shareholders.

There are several competing concepts under which organizations can choose to operate their business. In this case marketing collateral (printing marketing) is considered the collection of media used to support the sales of a product or service. This approach vary depending on the target market; for example, engineers buying heavy equipment want to see information different from what artists buying supplies want to see and different from what prospective parents buying baby furniture want to see. Effective sales collateral materials need to have a clear statement of features and benefits as well as a clear, defined, easy way to order. The most effective sales collateral has an appealing visual design while also having the words that clearly communicate details.

The Importance of Tangibility

The chief benefit of print marketing is tangibility. In digital marketing, the target audience only gets a soft copy of the marketing message on their digital devices. That means it can be easily and promptly ignored, since most digital device users only pay attention to other elements in their devices.

Print media on the other hand, is not as easily ignorable as digital media. Being tangible means that the writing is permanent. It cannot be obliterated or moved to the ‘trash’ folder. In fact, people always tend to pay more attention to hardcopy content compared to softcopy content.

Reaching the Elderly

Print marketing is also effective in expanding the target market. Although the internet is currently the single biggest platform for global convergence, not all types of people can be reached through it. The old age target market, for example, prefers sticking to the conventional mass communication methods like newspapers and magazines. To market to such a group therefore, one should leverage newspaper and magazine advertising as opposed to online marketing.

The Power of Personalization

The secret to marketing, as most marketing experts would advise, is personalization. A prospective customer can be easily converted by a personalized marketing message. Although personalization is possible in other marketing methods, it is incredibly expedient when using print marketing. Businesses can conveniently print and send personalized and attractive post cards and other printed media to their prospective customers. Although this may be relatively costly especially in big businesses, the ROI is considerably high. 

The Disadvantage of Cost

Due to its numerous benefits, many businesses have considered relying on print media as their primary marketing strategy. Unfortunately, print marketing is arguably pricey compared to simpler digital marketing methods. Buying paper, ink, printing and distributing the printed material is noticeably costly especially in large businesses which are progressively expanding and increasing their scope on the target market.

Small businesses are also being affected by the cost of print marketing especially since they always have relatively diminutive marketing budgets. The most effectual way of compensating a business for the expense is ensuring that the actual marketing is thoughtfully planned and efficaciously implemented such that the ROI is considerably high.

thanks to inspirationfeed.

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