As we prepare for the Holiday season and consider last-minute changes to our media spend, it’s essential to ask: Can print media be a digital champion? Overwhelmingly, the data tells us YES.
Print campaigns are often perceived as more credible and trustworthy than digital ads. This trust translates into a stronger brand presence and higher engagement when audiences encounter the brand online. Print media also has a lasting presence; customers and prospects may keep the printed piece for weeks, providing ongoing brand exposure and serving as a reminder that drives people to engage with the brand digitally. Moreover, shoppers tend to spend more time with print media compared to digital ads, which are often skimmed or skipped. This higher engagement can lead to better recall and a stronger inclination to explore the brand online.
Just think of our own shopping experiences around digital ad fatigue. Digital and Meta channels are saturated with ads, leading to ad fatigue. Print campaigns faces less competition, allowing your message to stand out and capture attention more effectively.
By understanding behavior and analytics, we now know that print campaigns can effectively drive traffic to digital platforms through the use of marketing messages, QR codes, dedicated landing pages, or special online offers. This seamless integration helps bridge the gap between offline and online engagement. When combined with digital campaigns, print media can amplify overall marketing effectiveness. It creates a multi-touchpoint strategy that engages consumers at various stages of the buying journey, from awareness to conversion.
Top Five Suggestions to Optimize Holiday Marketing Plans:
- Evaluate All Marketing Programs at the Contribution Level. ROAS is not a useful data point to understand profitability; contribution is. Learn more here.
- Identify Incremental and Non-Incremental Segments. Understand where there are incremental and non-incremental segments in your mail plan. If you are getting low incremental performance from certain customer cohorts from print media, reduce the number of contacts and reallocate the spend to other segments with higher incrementality.
- Maintain an Acquisition Mindset. Customer files are shrinking because of the year-long decrease in acquisition efforts, which has a major impact on your digital ecosystem. Learn more here.
- Create a Checklist of Programs that Drive Conversions. Ensure you have a comprehensive plan to maximize conversions. Learn more here.
- Check the Health of Your Email Program. The Holiday season presents a unique opportunity to engage with your audience, drive sales, and strengthen customer relationships. Learn more here.
By leveraging the strengths of print media, brands can create a powerful synergy with their digital marketing efforts, driving traffic, engagement, and ultimately, conversions.