Combining Print and Digital Marketing in 2024
Our world may feel increasingly digital, but that doesn’t mean brands must rely solely on virtual methods to connect with consumers. While digital advertising accounts for around 55% of advertising in U.S. media, that doesn’t mean that marketing officials should count out print media.
As proof of this, a recent survey demonstrated consumers’ trust in print media when 40% of all polled respondentsshared that they would be more likely to do business with a retailer after receiving printed advertising. As further proof, over half shared that if they chose similar products from competing brands, a printed advertising circular would be a “very” or “somewhat” significant factor in their buying decision.
The secret to leveraging the power of print advertising comes in combining print and digital mediums. In our digital age, it’s easy to put our focus solely on digital marketing and online publications. But combining print and digital mediums is a powerful strategy – especially when they align and complement each other, with seamless connections between online content and printed materials to create fully interactive and immersive experiences.
Why Combine Print and Digital Media Marketing?
Including print media can improve the effectiveness of your existing digital marketing campaigns – and vice versa when you integrate traditional print assets. The biggest reason is that it reinforces your brand’s messaging.
When you introduce print as part of your multichannel marketing campaign, you add one of the most trusted, most engaging marketing strategies, which can help set you apart from the competition. The average engagement rate more than triples when you switch from a single-channel marketing campaign to a campaign with three or more channels. A single-channel campaign averages a 5.4% engagement rate, while a campaign with three or more channels has an average engagement rate of 18.96%.
Here are a few reasons why you should give serious consideration to a combined print-digital marketing strategy:
- Improved Brand Recognition: Print marketing expands the number of places where your customers encounter your brand – increasing the chance that they will remember you. With consistent messaging and brand standards in both channels, you’ll make your brand more memorable with each encounter.
- A More Robust Multichannel Experience: When you combine the powers of print and digital media, you can coordinate the two to empower your customers to transition seamlessly from an offline experience to an online one.
- More Opportunities for Personalization: The wealth of data a digital marketing strategy provides only grows when you find ways to add to print media’s benefits. Leveraging the power of print technologies like variable data printing, “hand printed” addresses and greetings, and further personalization encourages an emotional connection, increasing conversion rates. This deep personalization can also reinvigorate relationships with dormant customers – by some accounts. There’s a 70% re-start rate for inactive customers who receive direct, personalized mail.
- Better Response Rates: Print marketing is more than a tremendous standalone strategy. It has been proven to improve the performance of your other marketing channels. Why? Customers are likelier to purchase or act when they see consistent channel messaging. Multichannel marketing campaigns that include print media like direct mail experience a 20% higher return on investment (ROI) than those that don’t – and what’s more, campaigns that combine digital and direct mail strategies see a 28% increase in conversion rates and a 450% increase in response rates.
- A Credibility Boost: Print marketing adds legitimacy to your brand. It makes you seem more trustworthy. It may be the physical print media item itself; when consumers have something tangible they can hold and touch, it’s easier to remember, but it also feels more sincere.
- Track Measurable Data: Interactive print media makes it simple to track and gather data about each campaign and analyze its efficacy. Through unique, dedicated URLs, QR codes, and promotional discount codes that send consumers to your brand’s digital channels, you can expand your ability to measure marketing campaigns, gain insights, foster customer connections, and respond to what works.
- Expand Your Brand’s Reach: Your customers won’t all engage with your brand the same way. Direct mail can connect with consumers across demographics and even age brackets. It’s more than just older consumers who enjoy print media. The U.S. Postal Service reported that following consumer groups would be disappointed to stop receiving mail:
Baby Boomer
Gen X
Millennials
Gen Z
Strategies for Bringing Print and Digital Together in 2024
Pairing print and digital media together into a unified strategy can dramatically increase your campaign’s chances of success – but it also paves the way for a much more memorable, modern experience that can foster a stronger connection between your customers and your brand. But how should you go about it? Strategies can include:
- Incorporating aesthetically pleasing QR codes to push print readers online, especially to take advantage of popular new technologies like augmented reality tools that allow customers to “try out” your products in their environments.
- Including these unique QR codes across multiple print materials, such as flyers, catalogs, business cards, stickers, and direct mail, to link to other kinds of specialized digital content or coupon codes, then tracking and analyzing data from these unique codes.
- Integrating codes to send consumers to your social media pages to drive traffic to these pages and encourage further online engagement.
- Creating interactive print media like scratch-offs and quiz games – with answers and redeemable codes available online – to get customers excited about your brand and explore your online content.
- Hosting contests or giveaways by promoting these events via print media and digital marketing, then sending consumers source-specific information and entry forms online.
- Incorporating campaign hashtags in print media to encourage customers to share their own experiences on their own social media accounts.
Using PIM and DAM Solutions to Boost the Power of Print Marketing
Product Information Management (PIM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions simplify personalized print marketing. These solutions can simplify some of 2024’s leading print strategies, like custom links and QR codes, making it easier than ever to offer personalized content.
By pairing a combined print-digital strategy with a PIM-DAM solution, you can use AI to analyze customer data and then quickly pivot to connect with consumers based on this data. Thanks to a PIM-DAM solution, you can publish these targeted print materials faster than ever before.
Comosoft LAGO is the only fully integrated DAM and PIM solution of its kind. It allows you to automate the production workflow process and have full versioning control of your print and digital catalogs.
Personalization is easier than ever with LAGO’s complex regionalization and versioning scenarios. For multichannel marketing strategies that include print and digital media, LAGO consolidates data and assets from multiple sources into a single, unified view that allows you to plan projects with improved efficiency and transparency.
Want to learn more about how Comosoft LAGO can enhance your print and digital work? Book a demo today!