If you talk to marketing people working for the big brands
one of their top requirements is the ability to measure how much response they
are getting. Or if they are more
sophisticated, how many of these respondents actually convert their interest
into a sale or number of sales over a set period of time.
The trend these days is for multi-channel marketing activity
– maximising the impact of the message to different audiences. The younger generation have a social media
bias and the older generation often prefer the touch and feel of a personalised
direct mail campaign.
This synergy effect tries to influence consumers who are now
spoilt for choice for most of the typical products and services they wish to
purchase on a regular basis.
So which is the best for your marketing or promotional mix,
online or print?
When it comes to price there should be no contest. Online wins hands down.
Transmission costs are minimal compared to traditional
advertising or postal methods.
Online is also easily traceable and you get probably more of
an insight of the time the recipient takes to look or act upon your
communication.
The message can easily be personalised and can be changed
easily and instantly. Again, anyone who
has undertaken a mail-merge can testify to the potential difficulties that
arise in a print run.
Online digital marketing can reach a broader audience within
a few seconds. And you can easily test
the market and the effectiveness of the message.
However, there are still plenty of negatives. It is still a scattergun approach and any can
often be seen as an unwelcome bit of soliciting by many.
The majority of the recipients are not impressed and would
never respond or even open an online message.
I have even sent e-broadcasts to friends and colleagues who have opted-
out within a few seconds of opening the email.
Increasingly more and more marketers are seeing that the one
size fits all approach of online is not working as well as they thought.
Those that opt for print are tending to get better results
by using the power and technology that this industry can now offer.
With digital printing you no longer need to have huge print
runs, you can print only what you need.
There are now even more eye-catching substrates available –
appealing to the sense of feel and touch and even pleasant smells in some
industries.
Variable data means sophisticated personalisation of both
text and images – so that each brand can reach out personally to every
individual if necessary.
Essentially, the effectiveness of print has increased
because there is less of it. Printing
100 highly targeted printed messages rather than 1000 leaflets can give far
more effective results because the budget allows for more intricate design and
finishing processes.
Junk mail is becoming increasingly rare in our letterboxes
because everyone tries to evaluate marketing spend. And just leaflet dropping cannot easily be
measured. Sure, you may only need one
direct sale to pay for the whole campaign – but it is becoming more and more of
a gamble.
Direct mail print properly undertaken has a history of
effectiveness. There are numerous
studies that point to the fact that people still value print.
They believe it is a more secure, trustworthy, credible and
eye catching method of communication.
They also tend to look at it in more depth and comprehend
the message better because it is designed for interaction.
Research regularly demonstrates that something that is read
in print is retained and remembered better than when seen online – so if a
brand wants the message to be remembered then print is the way to go.
It is also an anomaly that two of the largest producers of
print are Microsoft and Google. In fact,
Google uses direct mail as a major source of leads for the Pay per click
Adwords marketing campaign.
So your online campaigns may not be noticed or even considered
a nuisance to some of your customers.
Whereas a beautiful piece of print that is sent, especially with a
quality envelope, is usually something you will want to open and possibly
respond to.
There is no doubt that print will continue to have a particular
place within the overall marketing mix for companies of every size and in every
market. The approach recommended is to
have a balance rather than a reliance of just one communications channel.
The world of marketing communications has come around to the
view that the balanced promotional mix,
albeit with increasing emphasis on electronic communications is the best way to
go.
To survive and prosper print must always remain transparent
and measurable.
This will involve working hand-in-hand with all the other
methods of communication.
Print should remain a key part of your promotional mix and
by using the full capabilities available could help your business to grow and
prosper in the years ahead.
If you need any help with any aspect of direct mail contact
us free on 0800 0345 845 or our normal landline on 01384 376640.
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