Why start-ups need to capitalise on print marketing
- December 14, 2017
- Jack Cunningham
- 0 Comments
Start-ups have a tough job when it comes to marketing. Not only do they need to compete with other emerging entrepreneurs, but they also have to contend with established names that many potential customers already trust.
A major debate in the world of commerce is which avenue of marketing your business should take: digital or print. While many marketers think that digital marketing is the easiest and quickest option, they’d be surprised to learn that it’s actually not necessarily the most profitable or successful.
Looking for inspiration? Check out how print marketing compares to digital and how it can help you create a rewarding campaign for your start-up.
Marketing competition in the UK today
The UK has an incredible entrepreneurial spirit, which is why you need to consider your options when it comes to marketing. According to a report by StartUp Britain (a government-supported campaign), there are about 80 new businesses launching in the country every hour. So, you need a marketing campaign that’s unique, promotional and cost-effective in order to beat the competition.
How does print compare to digital?
With the growing influence and authority of social media and online platforms, it’s understandable why many emerging companies automatically assume that they need to launch their marketing campaigns online. But in reality, digital campaigns don’t necessarily reap many rewards when it comes to marketing. 80% of users don’t bother to click on any online banner advert they see, which makes you wonder if it’s worth paying the competitive price for the digital space. What’s more, print media also appears to beat digital when it comes to marketing in magazines: 63% of UK adults still read magazines (according to YouGov) and only 10% regularly read these online. Businesses who see this can then use websites such as https://www.printivity.com/landing/magazines to create some, and get them distributed to help drum up advertising as well as hopefully adding to a wider customer base.
Statistically, approximately 30% of all items produced in the printing sector is for products such as brochures, newspapers and magazines; while 34% is for advertising and marketing products, including event programmes and tickets. Since such a sizeable portion of the printing industry is devoted to marketing, it’s a fair assessment to say that many companies are successful when using it to promote their campaigns.
Direct mail as part of your marketing campaign
Generally, direct mail gets bad press, which is probably partly due to its other name: junk mail. However, many professionals would be shocked to discover that direct mail is a highly rewarding form of print marketing that could help your start-up excel. In a recent survey; 54% of all consumers said that they’d be happy to get direct mail from brands that might interest them. On top of this, around 2.5 billion direct mail coupons were exchanged in 2015, and approximately 11% of the UK’s advertising expenditure was on direct mail in 2009.
Combine these glowing stats with research that shows 80-90% of direct mail is physically opened by recipients as opposed to just 20-30% of emails, and you have several decent reasons to use this form of print marketing for your next marketing campaign. Plus, if you were to use the best batch skip tracing software, you would be able to pinpoint your exact demographic and find the right households to send the leaflets to. This would limit the waste of certain resources and appeal to those who would be most likely to use your product or service.
How to create a brochure
As you’ll know, there are many forms of print marketing to choose from, including business cards, posters, roll-up banners and stationery. However, brochures are particularly helpful at promoting your brand in a professional, personal and informative way. To create an effective and attractive brochure, it must legibly detail your brand, message and services in short but informative sentences. Just ensure you’ve thought about these essential features to help you whittle down the details and create an attractive, easy-to-read design. These are:
- Layout: make it easy to understand.
- Overall look: make it professional.
- Header: make people want to read more.
- Call to action: make it clear.
- USP: make it easy to see within the layout.
- Content: make it concise, detailed and proofread.
After designing your brochure, consider how many people, homes and businesses you want to reach. Remember; over-ordering means wasted money. The more brochures you buy in bulk the less the overall cost in the long-run, but you don’t want to see any go to waste. Essentially, you must think about how many brochures your start-up needs to save yourself wasting cash unnecessarily while still maximising on your hard design work and outlay.
Print marketing is excellent for promoting your brand and advertising its products and services. Although digital platforms offer speed, there’s no substitution for the professionalism and personalisation you can deliver with a print marketing product.
Sources
https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/01/direct-mail-marketing-statistics.html