The Basics: Integrating Print and Digital Campaigns
March 21 2016
Are you a digital devotee that is convinced print marketing’s day has come and gone?
Far too many marketer’s view print marketing as being from a bygone era with no place in a cutting-edge strategy.
Make no mistake — print is alive and well.
Yes, it’s true the medium has taken a step back from its heyday to accommodate the emergence of digital, but it still offers some powerful and unique advantages that have allowed it to maintain its presence as an effective format. Right now, even some of the most digitally-rooted businesses are using content rich brochures and printed magazines to market their brands to certain audiences.
Print marketing can still work as a standalone strategy, but don’t get caught up in thinking it has to be an either-or proposition. You don’t have to be in the digital camp or in the print camp. Integrating or cross-pollinating both in a balanced way is likely the ideal strategy for your brand.
Let’s explore some simple techniques that will allow you utilize print in new ways that integrate it fully with the digital marketing strategies already working for you.
Variable printing is a great way to enhance direct marketing drives. It allows brands to personalize images and graphics as they are printed. When fueled by data harvested from social campaigns on Twitter or Facebook, it allows you to go far beyond basic demographic targeting. Hone in on the highly defined interest groups that matter most to you and reach out to them in personalized, custom ways through variable printing.
Incorporate specific call to actions in print materials that direct your target audience to visit your website, social media profile, or an offer page. The first step to integrating print and digital is making sure your offline materials aren’t too passive. The CTA driving traffic offline to your owned spaces online will help give it more bite.
If you’re looking for ways to build strong, measurable connections between your online presence and print marketing materials, personalized URLs and QR codes are two things you need to be familiar with. URLs and codes allow mobile device users to easily navigate to the web pages you want them to see, and they allow you to accurately track the traffic. You’ll get a treasure trove of data related to when, where, and how people are interacting with your offline materials, making it easier to iterate and improve your print strategies.
Don’t just think about sending print traffic to digital. Think of some creative ways to encourage your social media followers to give your print materials a boost when you’re making an offline push.
These techniques will allow you to make the most of print and digital approaches to marketing. With a little creativity and some hard work, integrating these two channels and tracking the results will put you on the path for better marketing ROI in 2016 and beyond.
To learn more about variable printing and other creative solutions for targeting your most relevant, profitable demographics, visit the DataPrint homepage.
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