You’ve probably heard the phrase, “print marketing is dead” or “digital marketing is king” before. Print marketing is tried and tested, while digital marketing is efficient and effective. Businesses often assume they have to choose print or digital when they shouldn’t choose. By combining both methods together, you can create a lasting impact on your consumers. Here’s what you need to know about the relationship between digital and print.
The Case for Digital
Digital marketing is personal, efficient, and effective. Case in point, the Dollar Shave Club launched a legendary video in 2012 along with some more recent and compelling digital content like Is it Bad to Pluck Nose Hairs with My Fingers? In merely five years, the Dollar Shave Club gained over 3 million subscribers.
Digital marketing is intuitive and highly personalized – delivered in the best way, at the optimal time. The content changes based on the behaviors or interests of its consumers. Because digital marketing is so tailored, it increases the chances of conversion. It doesn’t just seem genuine – it is genuine. Marketing blends in with the digital content to feel natural and original, without wasting the consumer’s time on impersonal advertisements. It tells a story, and stories are powerful. The power of stories isn’t found in their scare tactics, but in their ability to emotionally engage. Digital marketing allows these stories to emotionally engage a wide audience, and inspire people to act immediately, which they can, because it’s a digital world.
The Case for Print
On the other hand, print is pretty powerful too. An ad for Nivea Sun products won the Project Isaac Gravity Award. The ad, which ran in Brazilian magazine Veja Rio, featured a thin solar panel and phone plug, with the energy gathered from the sun’s rays charging the phone. The ad suggested that its consumers shouldn’t have to leave the beach for anything, and included a tangible gift.
This is just one example of how print advertising is important for today’s brands. Prints create physical experiences that can’t be replicated by digital marketing. When a customer holds something physical in their hands, it builds trust with the brand. Print taps into the haptic memory of your customer, where the most lasting emotional connections are made. Plus, print is much easier to process; research shows that it takes less cognitive effort to process print marketing than digital marketing.
The Case for Both
Even though print marketing still works well in today’s world, no one should drop their digital marketing entirely. Rather, bring the two together to create an optimal marketing strategy. You want to be able to give your customers the option to pick the medium of their choice. Just make sure the customer experience is consistent and streamlined across your digital and print channels. Here are a few ways you can start bringing your digital and print pieces together:
- Create downloadable content for any completed forms.
- Implement QR Codes into your print material
- Try augmented reality to combine the physical and digital experience
Let’s be clear: neither digital or print marketing is better than the other, the magic happens when you integrate the two together.
Printing Your Digital Dreams
To learn more about integrating both print and digital marketing, try partnering with Printastik, and make all your digital dreams come true. Partner with our team in Minnesota by calling (651) 659-9680 or emailing us atsales@printastik.biz.