The answer is no. Print marketing is much more than just shiny magazines and newspapers – it has evolved exponentially over the years. From items as small as a business card to as big as a billboard, print marketing is still an effective way to promote your business. Using print marketing in tandem with your social media and email marketing is a dynamic approach to best reach your entire consumer base.
To establish a marketing strategy, the first step is identifying and understanding your audience. In some industries, your target audience is made up of generations like Millennials, Gen X and Gen Z, while in other industries, it’s grouped by gender or interests. Finding the right marketing mix that reaches your entire audience is challenging, but achievable.
In situations and industries where your target audience IS made up of multiple age groups, combining a social/email marketing strategy with print material guarantees that your company’s message is shared throughout your whole audience. Using these methods in conjunction with one another allows your audience to consume information in the method that fits them best – whether that’s a flyer on their doorstep, an email in their inbox, or a post on their social media feed.
Another essential part of a successful marketing strategy is well-developed customer profiles. Customer profiles help companies identify their customers’ purchasing behaviors, psychographic and demographic data, and pain points with their past experiences. These responses help businesses know what their customers are saying about them and how they can improve upon their current strategy.
In conducting these profiles, customers share how they prefer to receive their content and if they use social media, which platforms can they be found on. Having these profiles on hand, a marketing strategy can be devised around catering to the specific channels and methods the customers desire and eliminating the ones they don’t.
Although our world has experienced a digital takeover, print marketing has and will continue to see a resurgence. Businesses can use print materials to support their online presence and digital marketing ideas. Furthermore, print materials can reinforce their customer relationships and provide physical assets of valuable content too. So yes, there has been a major shift into the digital age of smartphones, social media, and online connection but the world of print marketing remains to serve a broader audience.