Modern marketing
Modern marketing techniques center on digital and online formatting. If you’re an entrepreneur, chances are you have experience in online ads and banners, blog posts, and keyword-targeted content. All these things are great and definitely should have their place in your marketing arsenal. However, don’t leave out digital marketing’s predecessor—print marketing. While print marketing may seem archaic, there are actually ways to use print marketing to best benefit your company and advance your professional efforts. Remember, digital marketing doesn’t always trump old-school print marketing. And here are three ways to prove it.
Home-field advantage
1. Use Your Home-Field Advantage – With the current trend of increased support of local businesses, this is your time to really network within your community. A great way to do that is through print marketing—post cards, brochures, posters, flyers, and catalogs. Depending on your target market, you can drop off your marketing materials to other local business that would benefit from your product or services, set up a booth at a local event and hand out informational packets, or send them through the mail to local residents. Some consumers would rather go someplace with a physical storefront than just browse online, and with the use of print marketing, you can reach a whole new demographic.
A little something extra
2. Give Your Customers a Little Extra Attention – Send your customers, whether longtime or new, a little something in the mail now and again. Let them know that you appreciate their business and remind them of upcoming sales, discounts, and specials. However, there is a required balance to this method. You want to send them enough correspondence to let them know that you’re aware of them and their loyalty, but you don’t want to spam and annoy them—that will only drive them away. If you can, personalize the letters, cards, or flyers. This doesn’t just mean you put their name on it. For example, send them something for a birthday or holiday.
As an example, the realtor I used to purchase my first home sends me a card and a five-dollar give certificate to a local ice cream shop twice a year—on my birthday and on my home-buying anniversary. It’s a small, simple effort, but it goes a long way. To me, this shows he’s willing to give his clients a little extra attention. In turn, this keeps his services at the forefront of my mind, so I can recommend him to others or so I can use him again with my next home purchase. Sometimes digital media just isn’t the same as a letter in the mail.
Expanding your reach
3. Introduce an Entirely New Target Market to Your Company – There’s no debate that there is a different set of people who only stay abreast of things through digital and online means and those who prefer the “old-fashioned” way—physical books, newspapers, magazines—to using modern technology. So, instead of choosing one method over another, why not use both? Yes, many of the ways to market your company online are free—blogs, social networking sites, and sometimes even creating your own website.
And yes, it costs money to use print marketing. But they each have their unique benefits. Depending on the nature of your business, you may not be solely targeting the youngest generation of digital-lovers. Perhaps you’re targeting an older, more mature age group or business professionals who don’t have time to surf the web for leisure, but make time to read a magazine or physical newspaper each day. Or, maybe you just want to cast a wider net. Whatever your reason, using print media to reach a new demographic will keep you a step ahead of your competition—who, undoubtedly, is relying on digital marketing.
Redefining the benefits
It’s time to redefine the benefits and usefulness of print media. It may not be hot, new thing in modern marketing, but it has its roots. It has stayed around so long for a reason. Make use of print marketing where you can and combine it with your current digital marketing efforts, and you’ll see the results. A successful entrepreneur always uses all available resources, and one of them is still print marketing.
