When your brand’s devoted to all things digital – it can be seen as a bit old-fashioned when offline marketing techniques are brought into the mix.
Digital marketing tools have helped to transform the role of marketers and brands have had to quickly adapt to a fast-paced landscape.
So, offline methods like print marketing are sometimes side lined, but they still have a big role to play and your print budget should still be healthy. A well-rounded marketing strategy that includes digital and traditional methods can be mutually beneficial and strengthen your reach to potential customers.
How can you combine the two?
- When you create strong, visual print materials, make sure you include ways to encourage people to visit you online too. Inserting QR codes and personalised URLs in your marketing means that there’s a crossover between your offline and online campaigns. They allow potential customers to follow-up with your brand and actively take the next step on a customer journey. And you can generate useful data and find out which print is most effective.
- Your brand should be working on building a strong social media presence. If you have an engaged audience then your print campaigns can benefit, as you can highlight your new campaigns and use social media to push traffic towards it and vice versa. You could ask your followers to take a photo with a new poster and turn it into a competition.
- Using lots of CTAs in your print marketing can automatically turn it from an awareness building tool for your brand, into a piece of conversion copy that urges your audience to take action. Including offers and discounts that customers can access online will drive people towards your digital presence.
- A strong online brand can encourage people to pick up your print marketing when they see it. This turns your print into a less-temporary but more tangible marketing idea. If a customer ‘likes’ a Facebook photo from your brand, they’re engaging, but they make more of a commitment to learning about your brand if they pick up one of your physical print collaterals. They can refer back to it and have it in their home.
- You can use your digital tools to find out if your print campaign is resonating with your audience. Asking for online feedback about your print materials can help you to create even better, more effective print in the future. Finding kinks in the system and identifying messages that haven’t worked as well online is useful for informing your campaigns.
- Taking note of social media trends and the type of content that is popular on your accounts is worthwhile. Looking at Instagram is a good way to see what types of visuals could be used in your print campaigns.
Having a cross-over between digital and traditional methods like print marketing is still paramount to building an inclusive brand. Both can strengthen each other and encourage customers to take further action.