Printing
Does printing have value in our day and age of digital technology?
Is it:
Out of date?
Old fashioned?
Obsolete?
Connecting?
Tangible?
Tactile?
Well, one simple example is that not everyone uses the internet. So if you cannot reach a prospect with your message, it will be difficult to earn them as a client. Yes? (I know major rocket science going on.)
Not only that, you can actually have your message handed to your prospects ANYWHERE in the USA thanks to the United States Postal Service.
In other words, you may have a target market that can only be connected via print marketing.
Who do you want to control your marketing?
Here’s a second novel idea: (sarcasm is my strong suit) YOU should decide where your message is seen.
YOU should also have control as to how much you want to pay for your marketing.
ALSO, you shouldn’t be surprised and taken advantage of as a consumer.
Why am I ranting about this? If you haven’t heard, read this.
The beauty of digital is that it can be changed in a blink. The problem… it can be changed in a blink.
Facebook, TikTok, search engines, etc. all change their methods, formulas, and strategies for their top-line benefit. Just check out a small sampling of the number of changes and updates here since 2018 (first page only).
If you count on the ‘Big Guys’ to help your marketing (FAANG as I recently heard it termed), you’ll be left out in the cold. When something changes on these platforms, you can’t change it back. You’re stuck. Now you have to adapt. You just spent 3 years finding the ‘secret sauce’ for FB ads or SEO. And then 2 days later, all of that could be obsolete because of an announcement for the benefit of shareholders, or ‘privacy updates’.
You’ve heard of the race to the bottom?
It’s a futile effort.
Is there an answer?
Printing.
Print is something YOU control. When something is there in black and white, there is no digital corporation that can mess with it. It can’t be deleted from the internet or your hand.
Not to mention how distracted people are getting these days. Attention spans are shorter and shorter, and there are literally BILLIONS of ads and photos asking for your time on your phone or computer. And you personally are receiving at least 1 Million advertisements per year. Can you remember the 5th thing on your shopping list by memory? How do you expect an ad to be remembered more than a few minutes after seeing it on the side of your screen?
When you have a book, it’s just the words on the page, a magazine has already decided how many pages to ‘scroll through’. It’s a sense of minimalism, control, simplicity.
I’m no prophet, but I believe the time is coming when people will start vying for the simpler times even more than they are today.
And as such, that will ultimately reduce the efficacy of online ads and tracking your phone GPS everywhere you are.
What other ways are print used?
Going back to the more simple way of life, there are many items that are effective as printed pieces.
Isn’t it the best feeling to check off a to-do list!? Tapping a button on your phone just lacks some engagement.
How about a coloring page at your local restaurant when you were growing up? If your favorite establishment only had a menu online with no coloring pages for the kids, there is some kind of nostalgia missing (not to mention the additional distraction it provides). They sell ‘Adult Coloring Books’ so you can draw something from pencil to page.
When you sit in a waiting room, aren’t you even a little interested to flip through the pages of some of those magazines?
And can you honestly remove business cards from ever being used? Especially with the ability to print QR Codes directly onto them now to bridge the gap and get the best of both worlds.
How about that convenient refrigerator magnet calendar your insurance agent sent you at the start of 2021? With her contact info at the ready.
A world of Color.
All of this brings us to a simple answer. Print is powerful.
Print IS old-fashioned.
Print has been a successful communication tool and marketing device for over a hundred years.
That brings us to a simple question: How can print help your business?
Give us a call 602.995.7841
You’ll get a FREE marketing review, and you can even download this handy Check List to see how you are doing yourself. Are you Top Heavy? Or balanced across multiple marketing efforts?
Let’s get printing!
Print and check it off for yourself!