Yes, people still read printed marketing material, but there’s a catch

You’ve probably heard it said that people don’t like to read anymore. This is a pain point for direct marketers who are trying to reach people through the mail.

While there are all sorts of variables that go into a mailing, here’s one component (“the catch”, in this case) that must be in place no matter what:

If your marketing material does not tell a story the reader is interested in, they’ll toss it in the trash long before they get to your order form or call-to-action.

If your response to that is, “No kidding!”, consider that there are thousands upon thousands of companies that don’t understand that. Maybe yours is one of them.

Take a random sampling of mail you get over the next few weeks and see how many companies understand the concept. Better yet, take a look at your own company’s marketing material.

I’m not talking about your local grocery store flyer. I’m talking about marketing material that requires a buyer to put their trust in the seller that goes beyond getting a good deal this week on milk or shampoo.

Go ahead and test it… read all the mail you get whether you’re interested in the topic or not. Simply judge it on whether it tells an interesting story that the target audience might be attracted to.

You see, lots of companies tell the story they’re interested in, not the story the customer/prospect is interested in. That’s assuming they even bother to tell a story. For some, a list of features is considered good enough. If they understand some basic marketing, maybe they’ll go a step further and translate those features into solid benefits the reader relates to.

But really engaging the reader and making the reader feel like the material is targeted to them is something different. It separates the companies that are the leaders in their niches and the companies that are left fighting for the scraps.

This idea of telling a story and connecting with the customer/prospect on a deeper level was highlighted in a recent article called Marketing with Magalogs in the U.S. Postal Service’s Deliver magazine.

Ignoring the fact they refer to magalogs as a “new” type of marketing vehicle (they’ve actually been around for a number of years), the article confirms a number of things that magalog marketers have known for some time:

• The extra room in a magalog allows you to tell a story that readers are more likely to respond to. People like to do business with people/companies they know or feel more connected to. In other words, you’re building trust and coming across as someone who really understands the buyer’s needs.
• Magalogs, because of how much space you have to make your case, position you as an expert in your industry or niche. That separates you from your competitors in the eyes of your buyers.
• A magalog is like an infomercial in print. You may cringe at word infomercial, but who hasn’t been scanning TV channels and been sucked into a well-done infomercial? Sometimes it’s just a quick visual of the information that makes you pause. The same applies to a visually strong magalog… it’s just enough to get someone interested in looking further.
• Because of their design, magalogs tend to stand out in a customer or prospect’s mailbox. Unusual or unexpected mailings stand out from the bills, real estate postcards, and local flyers. That’s in addition to the visual impact I mentioned in the previous point.

What stood out most for me in the article was a poll conducted by the Custom Publishing Council on the value of publications like magalogs (or catazines, a similar marketing vehicle):

• 68% say it helps them make better purchasing decisions when companies provide product information through custom publications.
• 78% don’t mind sponsors selling their products and services through custom publications — as long as the information is interesting.
• 74% say getting information from an interesting collection of articles is more appealing than getting information from ads.
• 59% read print custom publications, whereas only 36% look through electronic custom publications.

One might think the USPS is a little biased in publishing a positive article like this since they stand to gain financially if more companies mail magalogs. That may very well be. But I can tell you with certainty that clients I work with don’t produce magalogs because they like throwing money away.

They invest in magalogs and related long-form devices because they’ve found that they work. And they work because these companies are making that deeper connection and telling the stories their readers are interested in.