Think about companies like Verizon, Google, Comcast, Apple, and Time Warner. What imagery does that spark for you? Digital Titans. These are the companies that crush their marketing year after year. They are famous for their compelling online ads and commercials. It seems like they are over-saturating the market because they understand that online advertising is the best place to advertise, right? Wrong. These guys are in the top 100 print buyers in the country!
What they’ve come to understand is that no one outlet is best to use alone. Knowing that in order to get a higher response rate, they need to integrate print and digital advertising. Companies that were founded online are starting to print catalogs, magazines, and newsletters because the value of print is much higher than the value placed on online ads. Two big examples of this are AirBnB, who came out with a magazine last year, and Amazon printing a toy catalog for the 2018 holiday season.
Why are these online moguls turning to print?
Response rates! Direct mail boasts a 5.1% response rate, whereas email and paid search is 0.6%, social media is 0.4%, and online display is 0.2%.
Alone, online advertising has very slim odds, but when partnered with print campaigns you see a huge lift in response rates:
15% with Social
19% with Email
14% with Mobile
The question you must be asking yourself is: how am I supposed to marry digital and print ads?
Well we’ve got a few tips for you!
1. DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR DIGITAL ASSETS WITH A PRINTED CALL-TO-ACTION (CTA)
Print doesn’t have to be boring! Use it to send traffic directly to your digital assets, creating engagement with your prospects. Pro tip: use your CTA’s to send traffic to a landing page, where your prospects can get more information or sign up for a white page or newsletter. By sending them to a specific landing page, you are easily able to track your metrics and see how your campaign is performing.
2. USE SOCIAL MEDIA
If you are trying to reach the masses quickly, social media is the place to go. If you have a large following on Instagram or Facebook, those platforms can act like a jumping off point for your printed campaigns.
3. BALANCE UNIQUE AND CONTINUITY
The key to an integrated marketing campaign is to make sure your brand stays cohesive no matter what channel it’s on. You can (and should) tweak the message depending on what platform you are using to connect with your audience. For example, an ad in a local newspaper or magazine may use language that a baby boomer will relate to, while your ad on Instagram may speak to a younger generation.
Take a hint from these Titans, and use both print and digital ads to make this your most successful year! Our goal for 2019 is to stop spending marketing dollars in places that can’t be measured; integrated campaigns are the way to do just that! If you are tired of guessing where you are getting the highest ROI, send us an email at [email protected] and we can help you create an integrated campaign!
