5 Marketing Ideas to Improve Your Print Campaigns

Fall is officially here, which means in just a few short months a brand new year will arrive, and with it, new marketing trends to leverage, social media sites to tame, and tactics to unleash. But before we even think about what marketing will be like in 2017, let’s see this year through to the end.

How have your print campaigns performed this year? Better than you thought? Worse than you thought? Or about exactly how you thought they would? Wouldn’t it be great to see some real campaign success by the end of this year to propel you into the next?

With this in mind, here are 5 proven marketing ideas to improve your print campaigns this year, next year, and beyond.

Understand Your Audience

Print collateral and ads come in all shapes and sizes, from direct mailers to flyers and sales sheets to brochures – newspaper inserts to OOH displays. But what do they all have in common? Someone has to actually read them for your budget and efforts pay off.

Every print campaign must be developed with your audience in mind. Most businesses get this wrong – they start with their product or service in mind. But to be effective, advertising must speak to a person’s pain points. This means you have to understand your audience’s pain points. What do they fear? What do they hope for? How are they struggling? And how can you help?

Once you really understand the needs and wants of your audience, you can create ads that clearly show you have the solution to their problem.

Don’t Skimp on Design and Print Quality

One of the greatest things about print marketing is that it is so cost-effective. Obviously spending less to get more of an ROI is very attractive to any business owner. But, as the saying goes, “Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.”

In other words, when it comes to designing and printing your collateral – don’s skimp! If your budget allows, use the skills of a professional designer instead of trying to come up with a clever design using a desktop application. A designer will be able to choose the right layout and choose the most effective graphics and images that boost your message.

Also, when it comes time to actually print those postcards and flyers, be sure you use a professional printing service that offers a wide selection of papers and inks. Remember, you will be judged on the quality of the materials you choose so, again, don’t skimp.

Integrate Your Campaigns

Print and digital really are like chocolate and peanut butter, they simply compliment one other beautifully. If you haven’t been integrating your campaigns, you’re missing out on increased reach potential. You should be advertising your print pieces on your social media pages and including social media icons and addresses on your print marketing materials. Just be sure your brand has the same look and core message across all channels.

Make it Easy for Readers to Visit Your Biggest Online Asset

It’s still shocking when we see print ads and collateral that do not highlight a brand’s website. At this point in time this should really be automatic. QR codes are an easy way to allow your print audience to interact with your digital assets. Or you can simply print your website address on your postcards and direct mail pieces.

Your digital assets will help you collect prospects’ information and nurture leads. The prospect that didn’t bring in that coupon for a discount may simply need a few emails from you, or read a few helpful Tweets, before they decide to do business with your brand. When your print campaigns point to your digital assets, you are using every opportunity to get people to convert.

Track Your Print Campaigns

Digital marketers don’t send out campaigns and hope for the best. They use a variety of tools and tactics to track each campaign to make sure it is performing well. Data collected helps them make necessary adjustments to the campaign so it can perform optimally.

So why are so many print marketers not tracking their campaigns? It can be easily done by using things like custom phone numbers, vanity URLs, custom landing pages, discount codes and coupons, or by simply asking customers how they found you. Tracking print campaigns does not have to be difficult and the information you uncover will help you spend your resources wisely.

These 5 marketing ideas are deceptively simple. But, if you utilize any or all of them, you will be able to make sure the final quarter of 2016 goes out like a lion.