With the growing influence of digital media and online platforms, can print marketing compete with the virtual world? It’s not surprising that many people seem to think it can’t. Online ads and social media posts reach millions in seconds, but this doesn’t mean that print is without its advantages, too.
Print marketing in the UK is a cost-effective and personal alternative to online marketing. So, what can it do for your company? Printing specialist company, Where The Trade Buys, has researched the main benefits of print marketing — including why start-ups should try it and how they can make it successful with limited company funds.
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Print and digital marketing in the UK today
We know marketing still exists in the print industry, even with the advent of digital, but how much of the sector does advertising take up? Surprisingly for some, 30% of all printing is for products such as newspapers, magazines and brochures; while 34% is for advertising and marketing products, such as event programmes and tickets.
Evidently, marketing is popular in the print industry. But how popular is marketing online? Not so much, apparently, with only 20% of users bothering to click on any online banner advert. Bearing in mind that most of this 20% won’t even convert into a sale, is it worth paying the competitive price for the digital space? What about print media? If you also consider that 63% of UK adults still read magazines (according to YouGov), and only 10% regularly read these online, maybe digital isn’t so perfect after all.
We pass multiple billboards and roll up banners as we go about our business every day, which takes us to another key point in creating a marketing strategy on any platform: competition. There are about 80 new businesses launching in the UK every hour, according to a report by StartUp Britain (a national, government-backed campaign), so you want something that’s going to be unique to your business, effectively promotes your services and is cost-effective.
The pros of brochures for start-up and small businesses
Brochures are a great way to spread brand awareness and give your company a professional look for potential customers. To create an effective and attractive brochure, it needs to legibly detail your brand, message and services in short but informative sentences. Just ensure you’ve thought about these essential features to help you whittle down the details and create an attractive, easy-to-read brochure:
- Unique selling points.
- Strong call to action.
- Well-ordered layout.
- Short, informative and proofread content.
- Attention-grabbing header.
- Professional overall look.
Next step; how many brochures does your business actually need? You don’t want to run out, but you also don’t want to see any go to waste. The more brochures you buy in bulk the less the overall cost in the long-run. However, you don’t want to lose money, so you must think hard about how many you truly need to save yourself wasting cash unnecessarily.
The pros of direct mail for start-up and small businesses
Unfortunately associated with the term ‘junk mail’, direct mail is actually a lucrative form of print marketing that your business might excel with if used for your next marketing strategy. In fact, more than half of all consumers in a survey said that they’d be happy to get direct mail from brands that might interest them. On top of this, almost 11% of the UK’s advertising expenditure was on direct mail in 2009, with 2.5 billion+ direct mail coupons exchanged in 2015.
Direct mail also gives a glowing performance when compared to online ventures. 80-90% of direct mail is opened as opposed to just 20-30% of emails — a win for new companies looking to get their brand across to potential consumers.
Print marketing provides the personal and professional touch that you sometimes lose in digital marketing. If you want an effective platform for promoting your brand and advertising its products and services, print marketing is well worth considering.
Sources
https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/01/direct-mail-marketing-statistics.html