Is print marketing dead? A quick Google search will fill the results page with a resounding NO. Despite the dominance of digital devices, print ads and content still hold the reader’s attention and continue to entice new audiences with authoritative content. So, marketers who want to stay relevant in 2023 must consider ways to invest in a print marketing budget.
Explore five reasons print marketing should remain near the top of your marketing strategies next year.
Key Takeaways:
- Print marketing works best alongside digital marketing strategies for the greatest efficiency.
- Marketers use print marketing to stand out in a digitally saturated society.
- Readers rely on print content for authority content and a chance to unplug from digital devices.
Print vs. Digital Marketing
There’s no questioning the importance of digital content marketing. However, digital strategies don’t replace print marketing. Instead, Digital builds on print marketing campaigns. When marketers combine print and digital marketing, the campaigns are 400% more effective.
So, while print marketing has changed, it hasn’t gone away. Instead, marketers are just shifting what print marketing looks like by creating digital and print advertising efforts that build on the strengths of the other.
For instance, marketers can use print marketing to reach a target audience, hold their attention, and introduce a brand. However, digital campaigns take over to nurture those leads through email and direct marketing that businesses customize to the audience.
5 Reasons to Invest More in Your Print Marketing Budget
Consider these five proofs of print advertising effectiveness and why print should be part of your marketing budget in 2023.
1. Capture Your Audience’s Attention
There was once a time when an email notification excited people while the mailbox was swimming in letters and magazines. Today, the tides have changed. Now people’s inboxes are drowning in messages, and consumers are excited when there’s direct mail.
Print marketing stands out because it differs from other content marketing forms.
In addition, print capture’s people’s attention more because of its format. Printed material requires 21% less mental effort to read and digest, helping with brand recall and increasing motivational responses by 20%.
On average, readers will spend 20 minutes looking at publications, which is five times as long as what readers spend on ad websites.
2. Share Content in a Fresh Format
Businesses are always looking to find new ways to distribute content instead of doing what everyone else is doing. For example, creating blogs and having social media business accounts was once an innovative marketing strategy. However, now that these methods have become the norm, businesses must find other ways to remain fresh.
Trends often move in circles. What once was old always comes back in a fresh new way. For example, print book sales increased by 8.9% in 2021 after sellers said print books were going out of style in favor of e-readers and audiobooks.
In the same way, marketing techniques are making a full circle. As digital strategies are growing in popularity, print strategies have become new again, which helps businesses appear fresh and different from their competition.
3. Inspire Your Readers
According to one well-known statistic, 93% of online experiences start with a search engine. Customers are going to Google and performing 8.5 billion searches per day.
However, those searches don’t start with Google. First, there has to be a need, question, or concern that inspires a consumer to search. For example, a medical professional might have read a new idea or seen a new product in a magazine that prompted them to search for more information online.
So, while search engines are a place for answers, print is where your audience goes to find questions to ask.
Use your print marketing budget to focus on inspirational content that sparks new ideas and introduces new products or solutions that your audience might not have thought of before. This content will attract new visitors to your digital content as medical professionals seek out more information on the questions introduced in your print content.
4. Excite Your Audience
Print has more authority than digital content, and audiences tend to trust it more. Many reasons contribute to the authority of print ads and content, but perhaps one of the strongest is privacy. Digital ads pop up everywhere online and collect data as customers interact with them. However, print content is a private experience that customers can control.
In addition, digital content is faster and easier to make. For example, anyone can post a social media post or write a blog article. However, only the best content appears in publications because magazines have more quality control standards than online content channels, and print content requires more investment. So, publishers don’t accept content lightly.
Print content also holds authority because it reaches a niche audience. Online, audiences usually have to scroll through several search results to find an article with helpful information. However, when subscribers pick up a publication, they know everything inside is relevant to them. Therefore, they start their browsing experience trusting each article and ad to deliver value.
5. Connect with Readers Offline
When professionals aren’t on the clock, they like to unplug. However, 54% of people say they struggle with unplugging. From emails to text messages, today’s professional is always pulled back to the phone or laptop for information and to communicate.
The more people depend on a digital connection–the more people try to find ways to unplug. When COVID-19 hit, people were plunged into an even more immersive digital world as workers switched to remote jobs and events moved from live to online platforms like Zoom. Soon, digital fatigue took over. Despite all the new ways consumers can connect with information and audiences online, 74% of people prefer print over digital.
Print magazines are one of the ways that professionals can gather information without relying on digital channels. In addition, magazines continue to reach consumers even when they unplug. So, while digital marketing might end when professionals clock out, print magazines can reach audiences as they unwind in the evening or when traveling on vacation.
Invest More in Print Advertising This Year
Share Moving Media connects medical manufacturers with key decision-makers in the healthcare industry through our leading publications. Help your marketing content stand out and increase your brand authority through print content that we distribute to an audience of health systems suppliers, distributors, and purchasing organizations.
Contact us to learn more about our print marketing solutions.