Yes it’s easy to think that print is dead. With the Internet, all businesses have to do is post content online; everyone will flock to their site to read it, right? They can just send an email at a very low cost. Print and postage prices keep going up – why on earth would anyone print?
There are some compelling reasons why print is not dead. Read on and have a think about your life and how you respond to printed and on line media.
Printed mail gets delivered – It doesn’t get caught up in spam filters. It is proven that the majority of people prefer to hold, touch and feel what they are reading. Quality printed communications have more perceived value. Take Boden for a great example; The below catalogue was mailed out and where ‘you’ appears, the recipients name was inserted along with transactional detail and date of their first order.
Targeted, funny, memorable. Think about it. How many companies are willing to do this? Your customers realise you’re spending money to do it and this appreciation goes along way. Print is sticky. It hangs around. People keep it for further or future reading. Not only are printed items likely to be read from start to finish, but quite often they will get passed around.
Yes…email is fast, easy and cheap. But who cares if it’s not effective?
The real truth is that the vast majority of email lies unopened. Some click throughs are accidental and used to bolster ROI. Quite often large quantities of email are deleted at the push of a button.
Even if you are known to your recipients, you still risk being deleted. Maybe your email got caught in a large chunk of junk mail. Or… maybe they’re just having a bad day. Increasingly people are bombarded by email. Spam accounts for about 90% of it.
An email opens the opportunity for your clients to easily and immediately interact with you and yes an email provides instantaneous track-able results. The beauty of email is that it allows you to have a speedy analysis of your return on investment. Tie the Boden direct mail with juicy discount voucher sent via email and perhaps we have a winning combo?
So, which one should you do: Print or email or both? And what about those of us who rarely delve into our inbox and use social media to communicate ? This opens a whole new range of possibilities (to be explored in a future post!).
We are not suggesting that you stop your email marketing and or never send another printed newsletters. Send an email on a weekly basis. But, send a printed quarterly newsletter too. Or simply ask your clients. Survey them to see which one THEY prefer. After all… isn’t it all about what the customer wants?
What do you think? Let us know in the comment box below
