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With all of the communication choices and channels, why choose print? After all, you need a designer, a writer, a production budget, and possibly even a budget for mailing. Is it worth that kind of an investment?

In a word, yes. Any other answer would have had you falling off your chair, coming from a printer, right?! Print has exclusive, unique benefits not found in its digital cousin alternatives including higher brand recognition and customer perception, more reliable deliverability, and the potential for higher response rates. Shaking your head in disbelief? How about a few facts to back up each of these claims.

From Printing Press to the Brain

The U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (OIG) worked with the Center for Neural Decision Making at Temple University on a study of neuromarketing. The researchers compared how consumers reacted to printed vs. digital communications and marketing materials, and analyzed actual physiological effects to measure the differences. They employed techniques such as eye-tracking, heart rate monitoring, and MRI scans to observe study participants as they interacted with both printed and digital.

This study revealed that what consumers say about how they regard printed and digital media and how their bodies and minds react to various marketing channels can differ.

  • Physiological responses showed study participants were more emotionally engaged and interested in the printed material than digital media, even though they grasped about the same amount of information from each source.
  • A week after they were exposed to print and digital ads, participants could recall the content of the physical material better than the digital ads.
  • Participants said they were equally motivated to buy products presented in physical or digital ads, but their brain activity indicated stronger feelings for the products and services advertised via printed material.
  • To test the strength of purchase intent, the researchers allowed study participants to purchase the advertised items and services. When it came to taking action, print out-performed digital.

Clutter, Staying Power, and Trustworthiness

Experts estimate consumers are exposed to approximately 5,000 ads per day. The vast majority of these advertisements are delivered via email, online search banner ads, social media, and television. A printed communication has much less competition, therefore earning more attention.

Electronic messages, like banner ads, have a brief shelf life. They vanish with a single keystroke never to be seen by an individual consumer again until an ad server decides it’s time to display it, based on bids for relevant keywords. In comparison, direct mail advertising lives in the household of the recipient for an average of 17 days (Mailmen), with 72% of direct mail recipients reading or scanning the mail they receive (USPS 2018 Household Diary Study).

The trust factor for print at 71% far exceeds that of online media at 25%. Consumers recognize that businesses who leverage direct mail and print communications have made a conscious decision to invest in that particular form of media for a multitude of reasons, and it doesn’t go unnoticed. It provides a more memorable, lasting, and trustworthy communication experience that is delivered directly into the hands of the recipient—with little or no competition— providing more of the following than any digital ad could ever deliver:

  • Comprehensive product or service detail
  • Additional useful content
  • Personalized or customized messaging and offers

Brand Consistency

Brands of all sizes and in every market segment spend an extraordinary amount of effort and dollars developing brand identities that include colors, fonts, imagery, etc. Turning their messages over to digital channels that provide minimal assurances about how their messages will look when delivered removes the certainty of brand consistency. Color reproduction and image quality varies by device, layout can be greatly affected by screen dimensions, and fonts are regularly substituted. There is only one medium that can guarantee that the recipient sees the ad, the message or communication exactly as it was designed and intended—and that is print. Reproduction is controlled and predictable.

Deliverability

Whether I send you a catalog or a card by way of the postal service, I am confident that it will be delivered to you and you will touch it and at the least scan it. In comparison, if I serve up a digital ad to you, you are likely to practice one or more “avoidance techniques” such as ad blockers, junk mail filters, unsubscribe requests, or simply ignoring and deleting it. The digital ad may have been delivered, but it’s performance simply doesn’t stand up to print.

In conclusion, yes, marketing via print is more expensive than digital channels. However, it’s clear that print makes a positive impact in ways that digital cannot. Want the best of both worlds? Connect your print marketing to digital marketing – include direct mail, email, landing pages, personalization, video, tracking and analytics!

Planning a multi-touch, multi-channel print and digital marketing campaign is in the DNA of Bolger. We’re proud of the talent we employ here within the Bolger print, digital, and mail facilities, and we are always ready to serve your needs. Print may require a budget, but our expertise and experience are free!

 

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