Marketers are continuously trying to find ways to break through the clutter of messages that our target audience receives everyday. A new statistic shows that The average U.S. citizen will see over 3,100 branded messages a day. Everyday our target audience’s attention is constantly being divided amongst other brands and competitors.
As the number of digital messages increase, it becomes harder and harder for these messages to break through and reach your target audience. Print can break through the clutter for multiple reasons. Print is tangible and uses more of the consumer’s senses, it’s a less cluttered communication channel and receiving mail still excites people more than some forms of digital communication. Finally, because we’re constantly connected to our digital devices, print communication is a nice break and release from the constant connection to digital media, because of this, people tend to spend more time with print.
Print doesn’t need to be “powered” up or connected to wireless to work. Your print message will be there for your audience to read regardless of internet connection and regardless of whether or not there is battery left in a lap top or phone, a print message will stick around — whether in the form of a magazine, direct mail piece, newspaper, flyer or even an insert!
Finally, print stays around for a longer period of time. Once your reader is done reading your website or your email, they exit the screen and there is no trace of your brand’s existance anymore, but with print, your advertisement or mailing is more likely to stay around for awhile. In fact, studies have shown that 25 percent of direct mail is kept for about a four week period before being recycled. That means, that your direct mail piece continues to make an impression on your target audience even after it arrived at their door.
Print is powerful and needs to be included in your marketing mix to ensure your message is being seen and read by your target audience.
Timothy Freeman
President
Print & Graphic Communications Association
