Publishing online content is easy, inexpensive, and quick compared to print media. With the push for mobile-friendly websites, customers’ increased reliance on smartphones, and the rise of company-sponsored apps, marketers are questioning whether print media is still worthwhile. Here is why you should invest in both online marketing and print marketing.
Print media appeals to our senses
Smartphones, tablets, and computer screens can actually contribute to vision problems and sleep disturbances. Printed materials, on the other hand, appeal to our senses: the glare-free sight of full-page color illustrations, the smell of newsprint and old books, the feel of cracking a book open for the first time and physically turning its pages, the sound the Sunday paper makes when your cat curls up on it for an afternoon nap, and even the taste of ink (for those who lick their fingers prior to page-turning).
Tactile materials connect people
Cards and letters make people feel appreciated and connected in ways that social media and e-mail simply can’t replicate. Among those 18 and older, this need for physical touch carries over to books, magazines, mail, and newspapers, regardless of age. Despite technology, many adults also miss “real” non-electronic business cards, “coffee table” books, letters, maps, medical records, and textbooks, all of which were easily shareable in their printed format.
Physical interaction with printed matter helps people retain information
When you read and interact with the material—by highlighting passages or taking notes in the margins—you retain more of what you read. Information may be remembered based on where it is located on the physical page. This is not as easy with text that is resized to fit your digital device. Digital content may also be confusing, distracting, or hard to read, causing an even greater gap in retention compared to printed material.
The printed page may improve sleep
As we mentioned in our Blue Light Blocking App post, your body produces the melatonin necessary for sleep only when you decrease exposure to the blue light of “bright lights, e-readers, iOS devices, monitors, smartphones, and TVs.”
Here is how you can use print marketing to your advantage
• Appeal to the senses when creating your branded promotional items, trade show giveaways, gifts, and event marketing materials
• Give consumers what they want: print ads top the list
• Offer both print and electronic versions of your books, brochures, business cards, and reports
• Send hand-written notes to express thanks or sympathy, to celebrate a milestone, or to say “I’m thinking of you”
• Take your electronic content and share the audio version on a CD or the infographics and images on a USB flash drive
• Use printed material to increase your perceived trustworthiness compared to generic information on the Internet
Call Tate Design at 610.725.0702 or e-mail [email protected] for brand development and a print marketing campaign that will set you apart from your competition.
