Why print marketing still matters and how to make it work for you.

Posted by Anya Sleezer << back to blog

Last Updated on August 2, 2022

To paraphrase Mark Twain, a master of the printed word: “reports of print’s demise have been greatly exagerrated.”

Print used to be the only game in town. Then TV and radio came along (two other media that people wrongly think don’t matter anymore, but that’s another story…) Now digital marketing is all the rage.

So now, some people may say printing is passe. We respectfully disagree. There’s nothing wrong with “old school” when old school still works — and print does.

In fact, in some cases print may be even more effective than digital because digital is so ubiqutous today. But we’ll get to that in a sec.

Print is a powerful tool for converting your target audience into loyal customers if you know how to do it right.

Key word “if.”

Here are four proven advantages of print — and six tips to make print work for your brand.

Four reasons print marketing still matters.

Allows you tell a story – Human beings have enjoyed stories since our ancestors painted deer on cave walls. For thousands of years, print has been the primary way of telling stories. After so much time, printed stories are natural and intuitive to people. There’s something organic about holding a printed piece in your hand, whether it’s a paperback book or a piece of printed collateral. It’s that tangible, non-disposable quality that creates a powerful tool for telling your story.
Stand out from the (digital) crowd – We’re not here to dunk on digital (we’re a digital marketing agency, after all). However, all that digital marketing means that succeeding at print can make a big difference in catching your audience’s attention. In fact, now may be the perfect time to try print. After all, if your competition is going one way, there may be value in going the other way. Are we saying don’t do digital? Absolutely not. Just be thoughtful in what media your target market consumes, and how print and digital can work together to tell your story (we can help with this).
Promote special offers – There’s a reason everytime you open your mail it’s stuffed with coupons for everything from pizza delivery to grocery sales; it works! Print remains the pinnacle for promoting time-sensive special discounts and other offers. Sometimes you may skip an ad while scrolling on social media, but that same ad can catch your eye as you’re sorting through the mail.
Establish credibility – The great thing about digital ads is that everybody can do them. That’s also the challenging part. But buying ad space in a newspaper or magazine? Or printing brochures for your customers? Or mailing direct mail pieces? That’s what separates the pretenders from the real deal. Print establishes your credibility in the marketplace. After all, if one company is only doing digital, while another does digital and has a full-page spread in the Sunday newspaper, which one is going to look more impressive? Exactly.

Six tips to create powerful print marketing.

Now that we have established that print is important, here are six ways to make sure your print marketing reaches its full potential.

Find what fits your needs – Consider your marketing funnel, what stage of the buyer’s journey your customers are in, and what types of content work best for each stage. Make sure your print marketing has a clear purpose, such as driving immediate sales with a direct mail piece or establishing brand credibility with a newspaper ad. Do what makes sense, so you don’t waste cents.
Know your audience – Do your research. Know your audience. Market research allows you to better understand your existing and potential customers, who they are, and what they are interested in. This will help drive your print marketing methodology.
Be consistent, cohesive and creative – You know how weird it would be to have that uber conservative friend of yours suddenly show up sporting a pink mohawk? Your print marketing is no different. Your print and digital marketing should keep up with the latest design trends, but must look like they belong to the same brand. This means they should share a cohesive look, feel, colors, tone, and messaging. Think we’re just being stuffy creative types? Consider if Walmart started printing ads with Target’s red and white color scheme. Wouldn’t work very well, would it?
Stay up to date – You MUST make sure your materials are accurate. May seem like a no brainer, but you’d be surprised. “Stop the presses” became a cliché for a reason. While it’s relatively easy to edit, or even pull, an inaccurate digital ad, it’s much harder (and expensive) to undo the damage of an inaccurate print piece. Imagine if you sent out a direct mail piece with the wrong price or a print ad with the wrong phone number. An ounce of prevention is worth hundreds of dollars worth of cure.
Track your results – Monitor and track your different marketing materials so you can determine what works best for your business, and what needs a little TLC. A few ways to measure print results are to conduct focus groups, surerys and market research. You can also use unique phone numbers, URLs and/or codes across print materials to see which piece worked the best. Did more people call the phone number in your brochure than your print ad? You have a winner!
Stand out – Your business is trying to do more than just make money, right? So consider your “Rallying Point.” What is it that you do that makes people’s lives easier, cheaper, more convenient or enjoyable? Whatever your “thing” is, make sure it stands out in your printed materials.

We strive to be the best design and marketing agency in Tulsa, whether that’s with powerful print, dynamic digital, or best of all — both!

Ready to give old school a new look? Level up your print marketing with Levo!

Anya Sleezer

Anya Sleezer is the owner of Levo, a full–service marketing agency, focused on helping companies from all industries who are concerned with their marketing results, traffic, branding, advertising, or websites.

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