With the prevalence of social media and online advertising, print marketing and media often gets overlooked. Not only is it a tangible way for consumers to familiarize themselves with your products and services, but it can reach a wide or niche audience. Examples of printed marketing, also referred to as traditional marketing, are newspaper and magazine ads, flyers, leaflets, brochures and business cards. Any of these pieces with a prominent call to action is a great way to increase exposure, get people to visit your website or social media pages and supplement any of your online enterprises.
The best marketing strategies make use of a combination of online and offline channels where both the attention-grabbing efficacy of printed collateral and the low-cost reach of digital can be leveraged. Whether you opt for digital or print or both synchronously, it is going to require multiple impressions as well as consistency and persistence to ensure that your brand message is noticed and assimilated. For example, if you take out an ad in your local newspaper, you might find that you will need to do so regularly in order to improve recall and increase brand awareness.
While online advertising or email campaigns are certainly great ways to target ideal prospects and to get traffic to your site, printed marketing collateral nonetheless has enormous merit: it has the power to grab attention, establish your brand, build reliability and make your business look more prestigious and deliver a great deal of information.
Business Cards
These nifty pieces of card are essential to any marketing toolkit. They are very cost-effective, can be printed in less than 24 hours, and are very handy to give to and network with prospects you just met. In addition to the customary contact details, you can have a list of your services or products highlighted on your business card. You can even include a coupon or use it to schedule appointments. In effect, your business card is a vital component to create awareness for your brand. You can place business cards practically anywhere, thereby making them a vital component to create awareness for your brand.
Brochures and pamphlets
Brochures and pamphlets are truly versatile and can be used for any type of business or organisation. Not only can a brochure make your business look more professional, but it can also underpin its trustworthiness. Both hold lots of information, so you can include your mission objectives, succinctly describe your products and services and even list your prices. Just as with a business card, brochures can easily fit into a pocket, and because people often times hold onto them they will refer back to it often. Brochures and pamphlets can be easily displayed in offices, information desks and bulletin boards.
Flyers
If you are looking for something inexpensive and quick to reproduce, then you can’t go wrong with a flyer or leaflet. If you print them in bulk, the cost per flyer is usually very cheap. Flyers are ideal to advertise and promote just about anything. Hype your business or organisation from schools, charities, health clubs, cafes, spas, salons to entrepreneurs or whatever. Use them to promote events, competitions, launches, seasonal specials and even to list your prices or as a takeaway menu.
Flyers are particularly useful in reaching a wide audience or to target certain demographics. When using flyers to advertise, you can deliver your message directly into potential customers’ mailboxes or give them to friends and colleagues who in turn can pass them on to their friends and colleagues. Flyers and leaflets come in various sizes such as A6, A5 and DL, making them quite practical when it comes to your print budget and what you want to advertise.
Newspaper and magazine ads
Newspapers and magazines provide direct means to explain your product’s benefits and gain exposure for your brand. With an attention grabbing headline and some appealing visuals, a newspaper or magazine ad can easily drive action. Community newspapers are excellent place to advertise when you are searching for customers in a particular geographic area. With a magazine ad, you can tailor your message to reach those who are specifically interested in your products. An added benefit of newspaper of magazine advertising is that since publishers upload digital versions of their publications to their websites, you ad is going to gain some valuable online exposure for no extra cost.
Conclusion
Printed marketing collateral is tangible and engaging. Whilst people might be too busy multitasking online to give their full attention to online ads (many even use ad blockers), they normally spend a little more time reading printed paraphernalia thereby making them more receptive to your message. Print is an excellent marketing medium because it can be accessed easily, reach a broad audience, it is flexible, can tie in with digital campaigns, drive brand engagement and traffic to your online channels, build credibility and give you a competitive edge.
