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.

Across industries, the internet has changed the way people do business. Today’s consumers turn to the internet to find the answers to their problems, making healthcare inbound marketing more important than ever.

Marketers used to reach out to consumers to peddle products and earn business. Now, buyers have access to a wealth of information to conduct their own research and seek out solutions to their unique needs. In fact, 93% of all online experiences start with a search engine. 

To stand out from the competition and capture market share in the healthcare supply chain, today’s medical sales professionals need to adopt a healthcare inbound marketing mindset.

Keep reading to learn about healthcare inbound marketing and how it can help boost sales and generate revenue.

Key Takeaways:

• Inbound marketing is the use of tailored experiences and content to attract, engage, and delight your audience.
• Inbound marketing involves a powerful content marketing strategy that includes materials ranging from blog articles and whitepapers to videos and podcasts.
• Healthcare inbound marketing is essential to alleviating customer concerns in a complex industry, targeting the right people, and positioning yourself as an industry leader to stand apart from your competition. 

What Exactly is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is a tactic in which businesses attract customers to their website by creating customized user experiences and content tailored to the audience’s specific needs. Rather than sending out potentially unwanted information to your target market, inbound marketing is all about building meaningful relationships that last. This is important because 65% of a company’s sales come from existing customers.

Types of Inbound Marketing Content

Inbound marketing can take many forms, including:

• Blog articles
• Whitepapers
• Infographics
• Webinars
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Search engine optimization

Goals of Inbound Marketing

With inbound marketing, the focus is on serving the customer. This means delivering a positive user experience through valuable content that resonates and fills a need. 

Healthcare inbound marketing achieves three main goals:

• Attract the right people: Draw people in with meaningful content that builds trust and interests your audience.
• Engage your audience: Provide solutions and expert insights that align with consumer goals and compel people to purchase from you.
• Delight visitors: Offer the support and resources your customers need to ease their pain points and solve their problems.

The more people you satisfy with your inbound marketing, the more those people will spread the word about your business, helping you to expand your reach and cast a wider net. This makes success cyclical. The more you put into your inbound marketing efforts, the more you’ll gain in the long run.

The following video further explains inbound marketing and provides helpful tips and tricks to maximize this tool:

3 Reasons Healthcare Inbound Marketing is a Must

Whether you’re trying to attract hospital distributors, healthcare suppliers, or group purchasing organizations (GPOs), inbound marketing can help generate qualified leads and drive quality traffic to your site. Here are three reasons you should adopt a healthcare inbound marketing mindset.

1. Alleviate Concerns and Boost Confidence

The world of medical distribution can be a highly complex industry. Between technical lab equipment, newly released and updated medications, and ever-evolving government regulations, medical and hospital purchasing often comes with lots of questions. Buyers want to be sure they’re making the best purchase for their company. Healthcare inbound marketing enables you to provide the content they need to build their confidence and influence their purchase decision. 

Through audience surveys and research, you can learn what questions and concerns are affecting your target market. Use that information to create content that allays their worries. Publish expert articles, link to reputable resources, and deliver whitepapers and case studies that address specific concerns. Create videos to demonstrate equipment or further explain the features and benefits of the products you sell. 

Healthcare can be complicated, but you can help your customer base navigate rough waters through custom inbound marketing.

2. Target the Right People

Buyers are out there right now, searching for the very solutions you provide. Inbound marketing allows you to connect with those people. If you can reach those searchers, who are already in a buying mindset, and convince them that your offerings can solve their problems, you increase the likelihood of conversions and sales. Inbound marketing enables you to not only create powerful content but also optimize that material, so you have more opportunities to align with buyer searches.

Through search engine optimization (SEO) like keyword placement, meta titles, and quality content that delivers value, you can earn higher search engine ranking placement. Since 75% of people don’t scroll past the first page of Google’s search results, ranking among the top results can help boost visibility and maintain a front-of-mind presence among prospective buyers. 

Healthcare inbound marketing lets you take a more targeted approach to connecting with potential customers and, as a result, yields more effective results.

3. Position Yourself as an Industry Leader

Knowing what questions your target audience is asking helps you create content that addresses their unique needs. It also enables you to hone in on highly specific topics and conduct in-depth research (and possible case studies) to not only find the answer but to become an expert on that issue. 

Delivering expert-level content that links to credible resources and includes factual, current data helps set you apart from your competitors. You’ll position yourself as an industry leader and gain credibility and trust among your readers and your industry peers.

All of this helps you attract a wider audience for a farther reach. You can get your readers to continue following you for more valuable information and recommend you to their own contacts who have similar questions and needs. You’ll broaden your reach, increase brand awareness and recognition, and drive more traffic to your website. From there, you can guide them through the sales funnel with more custom content that meets their needs and helps them achieve their goals.

Develop an Effective Healthcare Inbound Marketing Strategy 

Share Moving Media is a content and media company that provides communication and educational resources to businesses in the healthcare industry. Whether you’re in physician office supplies or group contracting, our team can help you create a healthcare inbound marketing strategy that captures market share and sets you apart from the competition. 

Contact us today to learn how we can help you create a powerful healthcare inbound marketing strategy!