In a world obsessed with digital marketing, print marketing is alive and flourishing. Instead of putting all your eggs in one basket, take a second look at printed direct mail and promotional materials that can be readily complemented by digital follow-up. You will find that the results will amaze you and the ROI will be most impressive. The essence of print as an engagement tool is still here— stronger even. You just need to know where to look.

According to a Business of Apps Research study, in the U.S., the average smartphone user gets 46 push notifications every day, while a Radicati report shows that the average person receives more than 126 emails per day. Print is one of the key elements that helps prospects and customers engage in today’s highly cluttered landscape. Marketers can verify that at some point, whatever it is you are working on, it is going to be sent in the mail. This is the moment print comes alive.

As brands try to distinguish themselves from one another, everyone’s looking for heightened experiences. Digitally, you can only take those experiences so far. Print is one of the most engaging ways a brand can talk to its customer— when they have something they can hold
in their hands, feel the texture, smell the paper, or flip through the pages. Those are the most intimate conversations a brand can have with its customer.

An educator and designer, Daniel Dejan is Principal and Creative Director of Dejan Associates. He is an authority in both color and color management—an avid student of color perception and color theory as it relates to branding and printed color reproduction. In the spirit of what he does and what he has seen print do, Dejan continues to be an evangelist for how print engages the senses. “What we have had, really, is more than a 30-year battle on the whole ‘print is dead’ movement,” Dejan says.

“Sometimes, the media is the message. Digital is superb. It is real-time. It is global. But digital-only stimulates two of the four senses—sight and sound. PRINT STIMULATES EVERYTHING.”

In her book, “Haptics,” Lynette Jones explains how haptics involves integrating information from touch and kinesthesia (sensors in the skin, muscles, tendons, and joints). The challenge, as Jones sees it, is for technology to reproduce in a virtual world some of the sensations associated with physical interactions with the environment. The power of print and paper continues today and will tomorrow as well.

I am by no means denigrating the digital tools available to marketers today. On the contrary, print and digital, working in combination, have proven to produce results that are well above either when used alone. Let’s look at but a few examples.

The first is Mail360, which is a marketing solution designed to enhance your direct mail campaigns through complementary digital channels while seamlessly tracking their effectiveness. Mail360 consists of individual services that are bundled together in one convenient package. Part of Mail360 is Informed Delivery provided by the U.S. Postal Service. Mail360 integration with Informed Delivery adds a full-color ad with a clickable link to your company’s website to these emails to complement your direct mail message with digital advertising. Ease of use, effective communication, and high response rates add up to noteworthy ROI that all starts with a printed direct mail piece.

Another part of Mail360 is LeadMatch which allows you to identify who came to your website as a result of your mailing. LeadMatch is an advanced measurement solution able to track and record exactly who visited your website as a result of your mailing, regardless of whether or not they took any action. In addition, LeadMatch gives you the opportunity to mail to your website visitors who came as a result of your mailing. You never have to guess again how effective your direct mail campaign was!

Don’t forget to add QR Codes to your direct mail piece. QR Codes are an opportunity to add spice to your promotional piece when you connect the QR Code to digital tools such as explanatory videos, website landing pages, or online brochures.

Here is another example of print and digital working together – video brochures. Video brochures combine the feel of a beautifully printed piece with the visual storytelling power of a video screen. Because it is based on printing, these devices are custom designed to meet your exact needs. The screen sizes range from 2.4″ up to 10″. The brochures can fit many different budgets and client applications. The blend of print and video creates a dedicated viewing space for your content and allows you to tell whatever story you want. Are you looking to make a great first impression on a new recruit? Maybe you want to get the attention of a hard-to-reach prospect or convey your sincere appreciation to a team member. Or maybe you want to make a splash with a new product launch. Whatever application you have, video brochures can help set your message apart from any other means of communication – another great example of print and digital working together.

As I stated in the beginning, In a world obsessed with digital marketing, print marketing is alive and flourishing. Take a second look at printed direct mail and promotional materials that can be readily complemented by digital follow-up. You will find that the results will amaze you and the ROI will be most impressive. There are many ways to combine print and digital marketing such as Mail360 and video brochures. Don’t miss out on the opportunity of connecting print and digital to attract prospects, encourage customer loyalty, and entice conversions.

To discover more about print marketing, QR Codes, Mail360, and video mailers, contact your Think Patented account executive or call 937.353.2299.