4 Effective Ways to Marry Your Print and Digital Ads

In the last five years, the death of print media has been talked about almost as much as what the Kardashians are wearing. While we can’t speak to the effectiveness of tight pants and low-cut blouses, we can say with 100% certainty that print marketing is alive and well. In fact, consumers feel traditional channels such as newspapers and magazines are more trustworthy and credible than their digital counterparts.

That being said, most consumers use a combination of print and digital channels when searching for news or information about a product or service, and this can be advantageous to marketers who take an integrated approach to their campaigns. By combining your print and digital strategies, you boost the effectiveness of both channels.

Here are four easy ways you can marry your print and digital ads and ultimately boost your bottom line:

Use Your CTAs to Drive Traffic to Digital Assets

Gone are the days when print ads had to be passive (read boring) and designed with the limited idea of raising awareness of an offer or brand. Today’s print ads can send traffic directly to your digital assets, thereby creating further engagement with the consumer.

Be sure to use your calls to action smartly and send traffic to your online landing pages where prospects can get even more information about your offer or sign up to your newsletter (HINT: this is a great way to continue nurturing the relationship until they buy from you and become a customer for life). Also consider using special promotional codes to incentivize that traffic, while at the same time giving you a way to track the numbers and collect data.

Leverage Social Networks

When it comes to reaching the masses quickly, you really just can’t beat social media. If you’ve grown a nice following on channels like Facebook and Twitter, your pages can act like a launching pad for your printed marketing campaigns. Not only are print campaigns a great way to send traffic to your digital pages, but the opposite is also true. If you’ve got any kind of social media following, leverage that for your next print campaign.

Find the Balance Between Unique and Cohesive

The key to an integrated marketing approach is to make sure your brand remains cohesive, no matter which channel it is found on. It’s important that your messaging is similar across all mediums while at the same time adapting to the particular audience of each. Look at how national brands accomplish this.

A brand like Best Buy will make sure their ads are instantly recognizable with logo and color scheme, as well as overall brand message; yet one of their ads in a local newspaper may use language that will attract the baby boomer crowd while their ad on Instagram will speak to a younger generation.

Coordinate All Departments

Perhaps the biggest challenge of integrating digital and print media campaigns is the in-house coordination that is necessary. It’s important that your digital team and print teams talk to each other and share relevant data so the overall picture can be seen and strategy adjusted when necessary.

(Of course, when you use a media buying agency, they can coordinate for you and make your life a whole lot easier.)

Now is not the time to abandon traditional channels like newspaper and magazines and invest all of your time and money into digital. Instead, integrate your efforts to reach even more prospects and show them your brand is credible and here to stay.