Why Print Marketing Still Matters

Just about every week you can find articles debating whether “print is dead” or not.

Since all of my design work is for print, I know it’s not. But that doesn’t mean print is as strong as it once was. Or that it’s the best option for certain sales and marketing goals.

But after two project consultations in the last couple of weeks, it certainly became even clearer to me why print still matters.

In these two calls, I was talking with businesses that primarily market online. In one case, the business was an online service with no physical product to sell.

Here’s what both discovered: Many of their ideal customers don’t know to be looking for them online. Both companies had valuable services, but their audience is not the type who sit around at the computer, magically coming up with the right search terms for services they don’t know exist.

So how do you reach those people? Well, you need to get a little more direct. You can’t keep waiting around, hoping your ideal customers stumble across you.

It was at that point that these two businesses contacted me. They knew that despite whatever success they were having marketing online, they were still missing valuable customers by not reaching out to them directly through print, whether it’s a magalog, a sales letter, or something else.

The print piece would certainly drive readers to their websites. But they felt the first step of engagement needed to occur directly through the mail.

Even if these two companies could reach their target audience through e-mail, it’s getting a bit trickier to cut through the clutter. And in one case, it was unlikely the key person they really needed to reach at each company was the one checking e-mail anyway.

I want to be clear: I’m not saying print is for everyone, for every project, for every niche. It’s not.

I am saying that print, in my experience at this time, is not as dead as some people make it out to be. And I am saying it’s still a vital piece of the sales and lead-generation process in many situations.

Let me give you three more examples.

1. In the business-to-business world, print is still a huge part of the initial lead-generation and sales process. In some companies, the approval process can take months and go through various layers of approval. While you should always use your print piece to drive people online, by and large the companies in the B2B sector expect to see something in print.

2. Speakers and consultants can be in a similar situation to the two companies I mentioned earlier. They may be easily found online… if people know to search for them. But often that’s not the case. Unless there’s an immediate and specific need, people probably aren’t sitting around in their free time searching for speakers and consultants. To start the conversation, get a strong print piece into their hands.

3. Some people, especially in the older generation, tend to be more trusting of print material. We see that a lot in the health industry. Traditional print marketing is what they grew up with. Not that scams don’t exist in print marketing, but there can be a perception that if you have the budget to actually mail something to someone, you’re more legitimate and more worthy of attention. Again, we know that’s not always true. But the perception is there.

So, for those reasons and others, I think print still matters… it still has a place… and when you’ve got a great list, great copy, great design, and the appropriate format, it still delivers.