Corporate Communications Trends: Your Customers Want Print, Too

I know what you’re thinking: Here’s another commercial printer announcing that print isn’t dead and that you can’t live without print to market your business. But it’s not just me—you’ll find mountains of evidence on corporate communications trends justifying why printed marketing materials must be part of your strategic marketing strategy.

The Mantra: Multichannel Communications

Rule No. 1 in marketing today is that you need to be where your customers are—and they’re everywhere. The way to reach them is to make sure your marketing strategy is multichannel. Meaning, you need to attempt to reach your customers by using a combination of indirect and direct communication channels—email, websites, retail stores, print catalogs, direct mail, mobile, and more. You may think they’re eagerly looking for you online, but realistically, they may be waiting by their mailbox.

Yes, I said mailbox… snail mail is still effective, especially with email spam filling everyone’s inboxes. So don’t discount print! I mean, make sure print is part of your marketing strategy. Need more evidence? Consider this: multichannel customers spend three to four times more than single-channel customers do.

Your Business Challenge: Getting Buy-In

In a recent survey by InfoTrends, 47% of those who responded indicated that their marketing campaigns combined printed marketing materials and online digital channels in the last 12 months.  Businesses understand that print and digital go hand in hand. Here are some other compelling survey stats that you should pay attention to:

• Print combined with another channel can typically improve customer response by up to 27%.
• 44% of respondents say that print plays a critical role in growing and managing their business.
• 31% report that print is now part of a blended multichannel communications mix in their organization.

It’s clear that print will continue to be a key component of marketing campaigns, but convincing others in your organization to dedicate dollars to print will be challenging. The reason? People still think print is dying and may not see it as a viable marketing channel—so you’ve got to be the cheerleader and show them how print innovatively integrates with multiple communication channels.

Statistics Don’t Lie

So how do you convince them to make print part of your marketing strategy? All of the above will help. Here’s more

• Printed materials may be used less, but they stand out more as a result. (Not a stat, but something you should think about.)
• 70% of Americans report that they find direct mail advertising more personal than online ads. (All Business Networks
• 56% of postcards are read by recipients, making them the direct mail piece most likely to be read. (2014 DMA Fact Book)
• An average reader of a branded magazine will spend up to 20 to 25 minutes with it. With digital, you get about two minutes. (CMO by Adobe)

Whether you’re in business-to-consumer marketing or business-to-business marketing, it all comes down to what customers want. And they want print and digital working together.