Marketing Strategies to Improve Your Print Communications

Marketing strategies for today’s print communications.

Today, businesses find themselves in a whole new world; one created by advances in print technology and in the widespread adoption of the Internet. This whole new world can be viewed as a daunting challenge, or as a means to really zero in on your customers. The latter requires possessing the proper marketing strategies that can bring you closer to customers while allowing you greater control over results.

To do this you must first understand and select from among the growing number of sales and communications channels before you. Then, to get your message seen and heard, you need to increase the relevance of your communications, both electronic and print. Only by saying the right thing at the right time through the right channels will you increase customer satisfaction and lifetime value.

In this blog I’ll be addressing the still very important print channel. It’s still important because the technology behind it has come a long way in terms printing, binding, customization and tracking.

So instead of spraying and praying for your print communications efforts to work, you must zero in for success. Recent developments in print technology have led to improvements in the way print can be used in the marketing plan. Print on demand and variable data printing are the two biggest advancements. Together, they’re moving print from being used as a large-scale, proactive tool to one that’s becoming a highly personalized, reactive way for marketers to improve customer relationships and achieve a sustainable advantage.

Print On-demand.

In the early days, print on demand campaigns were created using laser printers. Marketers would take form letters or color template pages and run them through a laser printer that applied specific information on them for a range of purposes, such as to promote an upcoming marketing event, or to respond to a request or inquiry. It served its purpose, but it did have its limitations. Variable data printing changed all that.

Variable Data Printing.

New printers have provided marketers with new opportunities for creating printed pieces with no limit to the variability of the data or content. With this new technology, marketers can provide customers and prospects with unique content and imaging based on prior purchase information or information received from the consumers themselves.

A powerful one-two punch.

When combined, these two advancements in print communications permit marketers to design programs that respond to key events in their relationships with customers and prospects with customized marketing pieces, containing relevant information for each on a highly personalized level. That goes for direct mail pieces, brochures, sales or data sheets, and any other types of printed communications created to help promote your business’ products or services.