Despite the rise of e-mail, the Internet, and social media, direct mail strategies are still relevant, and today, digital printing companies have plenty of client companies who need printing work done, such as commercial printing, direct mail postcards, and more from a printing company. Today, savvy business owners and marketers may even choose to take both routes: an online marketing campaign, as well as paper mail and other printing such as with posters and flyers. So, digital printing companies can be one half of a client company’s marketing strategy, and there are reasons to take both routes. Digital printing companies are attractive because they specialize in printing, and a company’s own in-house printing abilities may be limited, especially for volume of the use of special paper or ink. For this reason and more, digital printing companies can be used. What might a joint marketing strategy look like once it’s set into motion?
The Digital Part
There’s no question that the Internet and e-mail are a strong competitor to paper communication, and they are the norm for when paper mail is too slow, or for reaching out to customers who will not see the printed signs in a city. Broad marketing, such as for nation-wide chain stores, an online ad campaign will work well, since it easily covers the entire United States and will be relevant to many urban centers. This can be done with e-mail subscriptions, the company’s own website, making use of search engine results, and even social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Companies should be aware, however, that the Internet, while powerful, has some less savory aspects, especially where e-mail is concerned. Some American don’t know how to use the Internet or have no access to it, and those that do face some hazards. Phishing or scam e-mails are common, and they may contain attachments or embedded links that spread spyware of computer viruses. And e-mails can build up fast, and many people’s e-mail inboxes are cluttered and overfull to a stressful degree. A paper mail campaign can help make up for these deficiencies.
The Power of Paper
One may think that the Internet has made paper obsolete, but it hasn’t, and in some ways, and for some purposes, paper is still potent and preferred. For example, paper can be held in one’s hands and even smelled, and this makes it more concrete and immediate, which makes paper mail easier to find and remember in many cases. What is more, there is the ease of mind knowing that no flyer, poster, or piece of direct mail will ever contain a computer virus or spyware. In fact, paper direct mail has proven popular despite e-mail and social media, even among younger adults. A recent survey revealed that Millennials feel that direct mail advertising is reliable, at a 90% rate. Similarly, a neuromarketing research project done by the Canada Post found that recall is 70% higher among those who get direct mail rather than digital ads.
Direct mail, flyers, and other products printed by digital printing companies also prove useful when a campaign is only meant to affect a certain geographical location, such as a town, city, or county. In this case, digital media can help, but paper mail and posters, as well as flyers, can be very potent in getting people’s attention about something. After all, everyone goes outside sooner or later, and in a city or town, people are often looking at signs, flyers, and more, and many companies will have the bulk of their customer base living within a five-mile radius. Here, the limitations of paper are practically irrelevant, and paper mail and posters can deliver their message to everyone that they are meant to.
Even if a print campaign is limited to a city or town in scope, this is still a lot of print work, and may overwhelm a company’s in-house printing, which is probably limited to printing off financial reports and memos. Digital printing companies will have many sizes and types of paper, ink, and printers to create nearly anything from a few thousand small flyers on colored paper all the way to large posters that can be taped up to the wall of a store, or anything in between.