Using Print Marketing to increase sales

Take a moment to consider some truths about printed marketing.

Direct Mail is proven to get a better response rate when compared with email marketing.
Recipients of emails are spending less and less time looking at them…indeed they delete them far quicker than you might think.

According to research by Quad/Graphics, Millennials respond more to printed communications than they do to email. Indeed, a huge 82% of them said they would engage with retail print literature.

The majority of people think that printed marketing material helps keep brands top of mind.

According to PrintIsBig.com, advertisers spent $167 per person on direct mail in 2015, and earned $2,095 — that’s a 1,255 percent return!

Studies also prove that combining print marketing with digital promotions drives higher response rates and conversions than depending on digital-only communications.

For example, brand awareness campaigns can benefit from postcards sent to neighborhoods around your business. Brochures, which offer more space for testimonials and other types of social proof, are ideal to build your credibility. Finally, promotional materials, such as magnets and puzzles, can work well to increase customer loyalty and maximize your retention rate.

Plus, print marketing promotes your business beyond the computer screen. You can take your message to heavy-traffic areas or where your target audience hangs out. To help organizations stand out among the countless emails and calls their prospects receive everyday, print marketing offers a fresh and cost-effective way to advertise and increase awareness of your business.

Once you have a clear vision of your marketing goals, it’s time to put the pieces in place that help you measure the impact of each of your printed marketing materials. Your first step should be to distinguish a clear call to action, which will be your desired goal.

You do, of course, have to connect that call to action to measurable results. Here are a few of your options:

A Tracking URL enables you to use software like Google Analytics to determine exactly how many of your recipients followed your call to action to visit your website. Advanced Analytics users can even follow these web visitors through to conversion, giving you a fuller picture of how many people became customers as a result of your print campaign.

Custom Landing Pages for your print campaigns allow for a similar trick. If you set up a page on your website specifically for your postcard, brochure, or other materials, and don’t link it in your website’s navigation, you can determine the success of your print marketing simply by looking at the visitor numbers for that page.

Coupon Codes have long been a valuable way to help brands track actual purchases as a result of print exposure. Create a unique code for your print materials, giving your audience incentive to use it at checkout. Now, you can figure out exactly how many customers you’ve gained as a result of your print marketing.

Social Media can act as another way to track your success. If your goal is brand awareness, ask your audience to add a branded hashtag to their posts. Simply counting the number of tweets with that hashtag allows you to determine the reach and new awareness your printed marketing campaign has generated.

Calliope Concepts can help you create an integrated Print Marketing campaign that works in concert with your Digital Marketing to create a cohesive message to your customers.