5 print marketing tools and their uses in Modern Marketing

You have heard the trends. When it comes to marketing, “digital” is the big buzzword, and “social” the new marketing religion. You cannot do marketing nowadays without using digital methods and engaging your market using social networks. From the street, what they say is that print marketing is dead, and we all must embrace the new technologies of marketing.

There is nothing wrong with that. Frankly all businesses should be open for adaptation and innovation with their marketing methods. However, before you throw out those printers and printing materials, you might still want to know what you can DO with some of those print marketing materials. They might not be the trendiest tools for marketing, but they can still actually help you out in marketing.

Let me present to you here 5 of the most popular print marketing tools out there, and their new roles now in modern marketing.

Flyers

For many people now trained with digital marketing methods, flyers may seem to be an archaic tool for marketing. Not only does it seem to have a limited scope, the returns are not as quick and measurable as other digital methods.

These assumptions are correct, BUT these limitations are present because of how people used flyers in the past as general marketing tools. You have to think that flyers nowadays are tools that you can use to market to people as they are offline and are on the move. Today, to make flyers work, you have to do two things. FIRST you have to distribute them effectively. SECOND you should add some modern additions to its design.

As for the distribution, refer to this nice guide from ehow on the best ways to distribute flyers. In summary though, you SHOULD NOT just distribute them randomly. Seek opportunities where there are a lot of people such as events to give out your flyers. Events for example are a great venue to distribute flyers, if there is a big even in your community such as conventions, seminars, sporting events and other kinds of meetings then having a person distributing flyers there is a great way to catch people as they are offline.

For a modern twist to flyers, you can add a QR code. QR codes are those black square blocks that people can scan with their mobile phones. From there they get lead to a website where more marketing content such as videos or even a coupon is located. Get more information on QR codes here from Authority Labs. 

With the right modern additions and distribution methods, your flyers become a complimentary tool to your online digital campaigns as you can “catch” offline markets and encourage them to engage you eventually online.

Posters

The role of posters today is a very simple one. While they cannot be as mobile as flyers, or as targeted as your typical social media campaign, what they have is an enduring presence and size. These are what you put up in your shop windows or at the community billboard. They “FLAG” your marketing offer and sales establishment for attention. Hence, the trend right now is to create very artistic, eye catching posters that entertain or amaze people. The marketing message comes after that fact.

As an example, you can try review these 35 clever poster examples. If you see these in your community, you are bound to eventually checkout the product or firm being advertised by those. While low tech, those posters can keep on doing their job without extra money needed other than the initial printing cost. Posters become part of you real world marketing efforts basically that will lead people physically to your store.

Direct Mail

Sending stuff via “snail mail” is touted by others as useless nowadays. The only things people expect in mail are their bills and even that is steadily being phased out. Interestingly enough though, therein lies the opportunity.  Direct mail marketing these days is actually about creating buzz.

One of the best examples of this is the campaign by grasshopper.com. In B2B Marketing’s Article here, you see how the grasshopper.com site sent REAL chocolate grasshoppers to leading bloggers and other high influence people. THE RESULT is that many of those people blogged, tweeted and shared the experience online. This of course lead to a serious viral marketing wave that came not digitally but from REAL WORLD direct mail marketing.

It is a great idea, and it is something that direct mail materials can now fill as one of their roles. They can be the ones to create the buzz that will light a fire online. So it is all about creativity in that direct mail campaign. Discover more creative direct mail marketing pieces here: http://blogof.francescomugnai.com/2009/12/30-brilliant-examples-of-direct-mail-marketing/  .

Business Cards

The age of the “rolladeck” is over and today, people would rather exchange mobile phone numbers than business cards. Most of the time, you SHOULD always be ready to give out numbers, email addresses and company websites as this is the mark of the modern business professional these days. However, it is this preference in digital exchange of contacts that gives some cunning people ideas and use business cards to stand out.

Think about it. The reason is simple really, since most people are no just giving out their digital contact details, there is a lack of customization and distinction in the process. You just give out numbers and pass along digital data, but they won’t be able to really remember you unless you have a truly charismatic personality.

However, if you send business cards that have very unique designs like the created examples here from myinkblog.com you will see the difference. The memorable factor of these business cards assures you that you will get remembered more than the other people that just exchanged contact information. It works as it is simple and still not outdated. So it is worth it printing business cards these days. Checkout printplace.com if you need some reference on how to create great business cards.

Newsletters or Magazines

If you are waging a more targeted marketing campaign, newsletters and magazines are a great tool even today. Why you ask? While they are pretty hard to distribute these days when you compare it to digital methods, newsletters and magazines have a key factor up their sleeves. Usually the consumers of newsletters and magazines are enthusiasts. That is why we have a lot of community or local newsletters as well as specific hobby magazines of every kind of interest that you can think of really.

The concept here is that every enthusiast will consume everything, both online and “offline” content. That is why printing newsletters and magazines nowadays is usually done if you want to engage your target market. You know they will be interested in YOUR type of magazine because it will cater to their specific kind of interest, which so happens to be your product or service. Take a look at this nice article from  Venture Publishing on why custom magazines work to learn more.

Whatever the case, if you do want to target local markets or your specific  interest markets, these newsletters and magazines are the key tool now to engage them even when they are offline.

Complimenting Online Campaigns with Analog Tools

Now that you know how these “analog” tools may work, you should take note how they can compliment your existing marketing campaigns. All the tools above can actually be fitted with QR codes as well as simple links to your online portals. You can coordinate them both actually supporting each other and giving you a holistic multi-platform approach to marketing. 

This is a lot more effective and you gather a lot more leads both online and offline with complimentary campaigns such as this. So it might be good to invest still in some of these print marketing tools. They still have their uses today.