How Print Marketing Can Win You More Business

‘Experts’ may suggest that the only way forward when it comes to marketing your business is to get online and dominate your corner of the web.

Offline marketing, they say, the flyers, the adverts in magazines and newspaper, the business cards, self-adhesive vinyl prints, roller banners and all that kind of stuff, is long gone. But these ‘defunct’ marketing tools still back a punch. If not, why has spending on offline marketing seemingly stayed the same over the last three years?

Ignoring offline marketing is to ignore a whole raft of opportunities to connect with new customers and followers. But how does offline marketing win you more business? What is it that gives your brand a magic boost? Is it magic or a fantastic strategic move?

1. The right image

Image. Impressions. Familiarity. Brand. Four words that big brands know how to connect into a coherent sentence. Does your brand know how to do that?

Social media is a fast-paced, relentless kind of place where you have to stay one step ahead of ‘current’ and be the future.

With offline marketing, you can craft high-resolution print campaigns that you can re-use many times. Plus, there is something pleasant about the tactile nature of offline adverts and marketing. It has more permanence and more power than your brand going viral online for all the wrong reasons…

2. Direct mail Vs. email

Dare we utter the dreaded four letters – G.D.P.R. – and get out alive? The new rulebook relating to the online processing and management of customer data comes into force on 25th May 2018.

How, when and why you re-use customer contact information digitally could be a minefield, earning you a fine should you share or use it in the wrong way. Tread cautiously until you fully understand the new rules.

Direct mail, on the other hand, is less intrusive. An Australian Post piece of research found that 72% of Australians preferred mail over email when it comes to a marketing campaign from businesses.

Clearly, a survey relating to postal campaigns by a postal carrier should raise questions about who the respondents were, but it seems that the sentiment echoed is one that is true for most countries.

Get it right, and the piece of direct mail could be the powerful tool that brings people to your door.

3. Aid the purchasing decision

How consumers decide to buy from a brand is simple and yet complex. It is an emotional decision and we all know that there are many internal and external factors that affect the emotions on a daily basis.

But when it comes to buying a product or service, there is one thing that is clear: when a customer understands your product, they are more likely to purchase.

For some brands, including those new to the market and those who have been around for some time, it may be that offline marketing is the tool to use to educate potential customers about you, your product or service.

4. Target a specific customer demographic

You know who your customers are – here’s why customer persona is important – and thus you may find from your research that one way your customers like to be reached is through an offline marketing tool.

But it isn’t really a case of choosing online OR offline because both have their uses and their successes (and failures).

5. Link to your online world

Who said that on offline marketing tools you can’t invite people into your online world?

Why can’t you suggest they take a look at your Facebook page or join you over on Instagram? Why not share their enjoyment of your product with a well-timed tweet and hashtag over on Twitter?

6. Measurable

There are some who say that offline marketing is not as powerful as we think, probably because the hard facts and statistics for being able to measure offline marketing are relatively minimal.

What this means, that to understand how effective offline marketing campaigns are, you need to choose ways of attempting to track if your flyers are working, or your posters are attracting attention.

Measuring is important. But then there is the subtlety behind offline marketing tools that makes them what they are. The arty posters of high street fashion retailers, for example, may not lead to floods of people into their store but it retains their brand and image in the public domain.

And that is priceless.

Driven by strategy

Offline marketing campaigns need to be driven by a clear strategy and aimed at your customers demographic, in the right place at the right times and with a link to your online world. Can you manage that?

 

Colour Graphics has over 20 years’ experience in helping their commercial clients create offline marketing tools that have been successful time and time again.