‘Experts’ have been predicting the death of
print marketing for years now. We constantly hear about how print is in decline and that the industry is hurting. But, year after year, people continue to visit
AlphaGraphics and other local print shops for a wide range of print marketing or related services.
If you do a simple Google search for the phrase “death of television,” you’re going to see tons of articles from the early 2000s about the decline of TV. But, TV is still here and still captivating our attention! It just goes to show that not all trends come to pass as predicted. In 15-20 years, we’re sure to be laughing about these same types of articles, directed at print marketing!
Print Marketing is Here to Stay
2017 is a great example of why doomsday predictions about
print marketing are more alarmist than anything else. This year we’ve actually seen a spike in the popularity of
print marketing, with more and more companies and businesses going back to tangible media for a wide range of reasons. Why? Take a look at 5 reasons, as polled by the Content Marketing Institute:
- Print stands out once again. In the 90s and early 00s, the deluge of print ads drove people to regard any physical piece of mail as trash! Over the past decade or so, the amount of paper mail has digressed and people are once again starting to trust print ads. For marketers looking to re-explore this medium, there’s less competition, better customer prospects and better cost-per-acquisition!
- Lower costs vs. As the digital advertising marketplace becomes saturated, costs become hugely inflated. Companies are quickly finding that it takes more zeroes than ever in the marketing budget to make a splash with online advertising. Print marketing’s cost, however, has thinned in an effort to stay competitive. Marketers are seeing that they can get 2-5x the ROI on their marketing dollars by choosing print marketing mediums over digital.
- An important digital bridge. Print marketing isn’t fading: it’s settling into a new role! Today’s most successful print marketing campaigns are ones that bridge the physical world with digital media. Links to websites and social pages, redemption codes for online benefits and more are all helping print materials make a comeback as a crucial strategy for synergistic marketing.
- Print is becoming beautiful. Despite being an industry recently “on the decline,” print has continued to innovate. Today’s print materials are a world apart from those produced even a decade ago. Cost-effective production has enabled beautiful finishes, complex graphics, variable data printing and even functional printed materials to become a staple in modern print marketing. Beauty captivates, which has helped print regain its footing.
- People are sick of digital. The effect of living in a vastly digital world is that sometimes, people just want to escape it. Instead of bombarding people with digital ads, communications or follow-ups, sending physical collateral has become a way to empathize with customers who are tired of digital. Today’s print marketing materials are the equivalent of sending a handwritten letter, instead of an email or Facebook message.
More than simply staying afloat, print marketing is starting to thrive once again! 2017 will be a telling point in the history of print, where it stopped losing ground to digital and started coexisting peacefully.
If this post is still archived decades from now, future Google searchers will see that
AlphaGraphics always knew the efficacy of print as a tried and true marketing medium!