Five ways print can enhance marketing campaigns

Experiencing digital fatigue?

Are you tired of constant marketing emails from brands? Bored of getting the same old offers that don’t really add any benefit to you? Or are sent to you months after you were initially interested in an item? After all, brands should know you. You’ve purchased products or services from them in the past. And, in doing so, handed over a lot of your personal information.

As consumers, we expect brands to live up to their promises. We want to be convinced that we should spend our hard earned money with them. A ‘digital only’ approach is no longer enough. The flood of emails in our inbox and the so-called ‘personalised’ offers are being ignored – or worse, going straight into ‘junk’. We need to go back to marketing 101, putting customers at the heart of our campaigns. As consumers, we want choice. We want to engage with brands at a time and in a format that suits us. By doing so, we’re more likely to respond and take action.

That’s why it’s time for marketers to add print back into the mix. Printing on-demand offers targeting, the timeliness of digital marketing and the tactile benefits of print, allowing brands to cut through the noise of the cluttered media landscape and make a real impact. Digital print can also add measurable value to omni-channel marketing campaigns.

Print isn’t expensive. It isn’t wasteful. And it certainly isn’t slow. With print on demand, brands can produce exactly the number of copies they want, when they want them. With digital print, you also have scope to change imagery or copy as campaigns evolve.

Five ways print marketing adds value

Print marketing can…

• Grab consumers’ attention: Consumers are now ‘switching off’ from digital with ad blockers, spam filters and opt-outs. Print brings cut-through. Recent figures show that 70% of people said receiving direct mail makes them feel more valued and that mail leaves a better impression of the brand. On top of this, 71% are also more likely to trust advertising mail.[1]
• Create a longer-lasting impression: Print engages with more than one sense. Physically touching a printed piece, while looking at it, leaves a deeper footprint in the brain. According to the Royal Mail and the United States Postal Service: “The ‘real’ experience that the physical media provides means it’s better at becoming part of memory.[2]
• Complement digital channels: Print can be used alongside digital throughout a customer’s journey. Direct mail can start conversations or help to re-engage customers. Direct mailers with QR codes or tracked links can direct customers to specific destinations online. Triggered mail could then also be used to influence their shopping decisions or sent automatically post-purchase. It’s all about giving customers choice in the way they interact with brands.
• Add a personal touch: Using variable data to create more personalised communications can deliver more effective campaigns and prove Return on Investment. One of the largest fashion businesses in Germany, Bonprix prints personalised covers for its fashion catalogues. By creating targeted individual offers using digital print, they’ve seen a significant increase in response rates.
• Bring campaigns to life: Print offers creative scope and versatility far beyond ‘an email in your inbox’. Using unique formats and textures, campaigns can stand out from competitors and deliver tangible cut-through. You can now create standard flyers or direct mailers, brochures, catalogues, content rich ‘magalogues’, customer magazines, brand books, customer newsletters, and much more!

Thanks to ‘programmatic print’, you can now tailor specific messages to target audiences at a relevant time. Using data and behavioural insight can deliver far more valuable personalisation. The result? More effective campaigns. The agility of programmatic print means that highly personalised materials help brands different themselves from competition.

Brands, like Bonprix, adopting this dynamic and highly personalised approach to print marketing are already seeing measurable commercial returns. Engaged customers. Emotional cut-through. Improved responses. All resulting in increased sales, giving them a far more valuable outcome – long-lasting brand loyalty and advocacy.

 

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[1] The value of mail in uncertain times, Royal Mail MarketReach study, https://www.royalmail.com/business/system/files/Mail-in-uncertain-times-august-2017.pdf, 2017
[2] Using Neuroscience to understand the role of direct mail, Millward Brown, http://www.millwardbrown.com/docs/default-source/insight-documents/case-studies/MillwardBrown_CaseStudy_Neuroscience.pdf, 2009

Originally published by Canon Europe