Print is an extremely valuable communication tool in your marketing mix.  It engages your recipients and has a higher read rate than email and other forms of digital communication.  In fact, according to Print is Big, since 2004 email response rates have decreased 57 percent and direct mail response rates have increased by 14 percent.  Today, we are going to share with you a few facts about the benefits of incorporating print in your marketing mix.

Print is tangible.  Print cannot be easily ignored.  It cannot be cleared from a screen or deleted from a person’s inbox with one simple click of a mouse.  A printed message must be handled; with over 80 percent of people reading or skimming the printed messages they receive, print is powerful and influential.

Print is personal. Personalized marketing campaigns have been shown to produce an average of a 33 percent higher return on investments for marketers.  Print’s ability to be personalized and individualized is possible through variable data printing and database marketing.  Through database technology you can produce messages built on customer’s specific interests.  By using your database to create personalized messages and only send to specific portions of your target audience, you can ultimately see a higher response rate to your brand’s communication.

Paper is the gateway to your digital messages.  Over sixty percent of online searches are instigated by printed messages.  Furthermore, when paper is combined with QR codes and personalized URLs it seamlessly transfers the person to your digital messages.  From here you can communicate additional information and measure what your users are most interested based on what links have the highest click-through rate.  When print and digital media are combined together, they create multiple touch points with your audience, increasing its reach and frequency.

Overall print is a powerful way to communicate your brand’s message.  It allows you to reach your customer by breaking through the digital clutter of online and email messages.  In addition to reaching your target audience when other communication methods fail, it also drives traffic to your online resources such as your social media pages and company website; allowing for further engagement between your target audience and your brand.  Your message is not only seen and read, it is held in a person’s hands and through all of the clutter in a recipient’s life, your message is read.

Timothy Freeman

President

Print & Graphic Communications Association