Nowadays, digital and print marketing are often considered and used in silos – with many businesses usually opting for one or the other, but not both.
However, when used in conjunction with one another, print and digital marketing can elevate the results of your marketing campaigns.
Together with print and digital marketers, Nettl of Newark and Grantham, we’re going to outline the benefits of using both print and digital marketing for your business and how you can do it.
What is digital marketing?
What is digital marketing?
Digital marketing is quite simply anything that happens online or via digital technology and promotes your business. There has been a real surge in digital marketing over the last 10 years due to the popularity of social media platforms, however digital marketing activities also include:
- Websites
- Blogs
- Online ads (on social media, websites or search engines like Google)
- Emails
- Search Engine Optimisation (showing up in search results)
- TV campaigns
- SMS notifications
What is print marketing?
Print marketing includes any form of physical marketing for your brand and can come in many shapes and sizes. Some common materials used in print marketing are:
- Flyers
- Posters
- Business Cards
- Leaflets
- Flags
- Banners
Benefits of using both print and digital marketing together
Utilising all channels increases brand reach
In short, the more places your brand is visible, the more people you’ll reach with your marketing messages. Using only print or only digital severely limits how many people you can reach with your marketing efforts.
Technology lets you take your printed marketing to the next level
Digital technologies enable you to take your printed marketing to the next level! Features such as AR and QR codes have seen a large increase in usage post pandemic, and they can add a stylish and up to date look to your print materials.
Brands like Nissan and Vespa have used AR in their printed ads to give the audience a chance to inspect and customise a 3D rendering of their latest models. These types of experiences elevate the printed marketing materials and lead to a higher level of brand engagement.
Follow customer through every part of the buyer journey
Any good marketing campaign will aim to be with the customer at every stage of their buyer journey. Customers don’t exist exclusively online or offline so you to truly be with them at every stage, you need to be marketing to them in both the digital and physical world.
Recently, there was a campaign to encourage more people to shop locally in Newark (Nettl’s town) – #ShopNewark. This campaign was mainly run across social media but was supplemented with a printed map and other printed marketing materials to showcase the shops and offers available around the town. By having marketing materials that followed the customers from the digital world into the physical, the campaign was far more effective.
Reach the right audience
Depending on the demographic you’re trying to reach, only using digital or print marketing methods might not be the most effective way to target them. Many younger audiences will pay more attention to their digital devices while older audiences can be better reached with print marketing.
Nettl recently ran an integrated marketing campaign for Newark & Sherwood District Council that was aimed at females between the ages of 35-64 years in the local area. To reach this wide range of ages, they implemented a comprehensive marketing plan combining both digital and physical marketing activities targeting specific age ranges and behaviours. These included Google Ads, social media, online and offline press ads, plus both traditional and digital PR activities that included editorial, blog creation, liaison with press contacts and influential bloggers.
Tip: Develop your buyer personas to establish what physical and digital methods will be best to target them with.
Printed materials can help to drive traffic to your digital platforms
36.4% of smartphone users scan at least one QR code a week – opening a great opportunity for businesses to print a QR code on printed marketing materials and link this QR code to digital marketing materials.
Adding a QR code or details about your digital profiles to your printed materials can help to drive audiences to your platforms and build up your audiences for future digital marketing activities.
How can you combine print and digital marketing?
Combining your print and digital marketing strategies doesn’t have to be complex. Here are some simple ways you can use both in your marketing efforts:
Print QR codes on business cards and flyers that take the audience to a specific website link
This has been particularly popular post-pandemic with restaurants often using this method to link to an online order system. Imagine using this tactic on your business cards to link to a meeting scheduler!
Add digital details to printed materials
Simply adding your social media handles and website links to the bottom of your printed materials can help to drive traffic and followers to them.
Put your ads in both digital and physical locations
Did you know that newspaper ads make television ads twice as effective? By reaching audiences in multiple locations, you increase the chances of them remembering your brand and the information you’ve shared.
Using digital marketing and print marketing techniques together can be an incredibly powerful way of elevating your overall marketing strategy to build a higher level of brand awareness, increase audience engagement and drive higher revenues for your business.
Interested in using these techniques to market your own brand? Get in touch with Logic Digital or Nettl of Newark and Grantham to discuss your requirements.
