Incorporating a healthy amount of printed and digital marketing material into your marketing strategy is the perfect combination for building trust, leaving a long-lasting impression and increasing your reach. Believe it or not, printed marketing materials still hold a very important place in the customer journey. Despite living in an era where digital marketing is the preferred choice, you’d be surprised how impactful and influential an actual piece of printed marketing material is on customers’ emotions and opinions toward your business. Even though both methods ultimately work together to achieve a common goal of building awareness and growing your business, it’s important to know the role each one plays, to ensure they also work well individually.
There’s no denying that digital marketing has changed the marketing world forever but there’s still room for a much more personal touch, one that your customers will appreciate. Printed materials add value in a way that digital materials cannot, and they can be used to reiterate the message that your business communicates digitally. Not all printed materials work, especially if there is no thought put into their appearance and content. If you really want your printed marketing materials to be effective, keep these tips in mind:
- Invest in high-quality. Just like everything else that is associated with your business, your printed materials are an extension of your brand. They speak for you and they speak to your business, so it’s important that they appear professional in every way. The weight of the paper used, the print quality, and great visuals all matter.
- Personalize everything. With so many low-cost, high-quality printing services available, there is opportunity to create different versions of your materials that will appeal to different types of customers within your audience. Even if the content remains the same, you might take a different approach with the imagery, and vice versa, to establish a deeper connection.
- Always add value. Your printed material should not only support your online voice, but it should provide additional information that can’t just be found online, through a simple search. It should remain on-brand and fit within the marketing strategy, but it needs to be valuable and thoughtful.
Now that we’ve covered the importance of printed materials and how to make them effective, let’s talk digital. Pay-per-click, social media, SEO, video, e-mail, oh my! Digital marketing is vast and if you want to grow your business, you’ve got to have a digital marketing plan. One great thing about digital marketing is that no matter whether your business is large or small, it evens the playing field. You can be a very small business with a very large online presence. If you’re not marketing your business online or not marketing your business online consistently, here are some reasons why you should start today:
- Everyone, including your customers, are online. The first thing people do when they hear about a business they’re interested in, is to do a little research of their own. They’ll want to see an equally as interesting website and social media accounts. Imagine if a potential customer searches for you online, only to find that your website is under-developed and your social media accounts are inactive.
- Your competitors are online too. It’s important to keep up with your competition. Knowing what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, can help you create a better digital marketing strategy by studying what seems to be working for them. Put your own spin on things and cater it to your business.
- Millions, no, BILLIONS are mobile users. How many times a day do you find yourself using your phone to do research or scroll through social media accounts? Setting up marketing campaigns that target mobile users is a great way to expand your reach.
- Tracking will keep you on track. When it comes to marketing, conversion is key. Every time someone joins your email list or signs up to receive a free e-book, you have just gained a new lead that in order to keep and ultimately convert, you’ll need to market to. Tools like Google analytics can help you to measure your progress and figure out what’s working what isn’t working and where you need to make necessary adjustments.
Marketing is an essential contributor to a business’ survival, so why not do all you can to make sure your business thrives? Creating a marketing plan that involves both printed and digital material and investing in ways to put that plan into action is the single most important thing you can do for your business. There are many ways to market, but there are few ways to do it right. We can help you meet all your marketing needs, effectively and efficiently. Contact us to get started or click here to learn more about Carlson Integrated and don’t forget to follow us on social media!
