Posters, magazines, business cards and newsletters – we’ve all come across these items in one way or another. This type of marketing collateral can be defined as ‘print marketing’. Essentially, print marketing is any advertising that is done through the use of a physical printed product, like the examples above.
What is Print Marketing?
Print marketing began with the introduction of Gutenberg’s printing press in the early 1400s. The printing press was a revolutionary invention that changed the way businesses advertised their products and services.
In fact, print marketing was first implemented by a church in 1472, where they nailed a flyer to their door to showcase and advertise a book of prayers.
Before this, however, the art of print and printing had been around since 3000 BC, and even earlier. The first records of printing (also known as graphic communication by multiplied impressions), involved the Mesopotamians using cylinder seals to roll images onto clay tablets, which were then printed on cloth.
From these developments, society continued to use this technique of print to advertise, showcase, and draw attention to products, services, and events across the world.
It’s very likely that you come across multiple versions of print marketing every day. Maybe without realising! Some examples of modern-day print marketing include:
● Billboards
● Letters
● Newsletters
● Newspaper advertisements
● Brochures
● Leaflets
It’s funny to think how all of these marketing resources came from one vital invention back in the 1400s, but this begins to beg the question – with the introduction of an advanced digital landscape, is print marketing still effective and needed in contemporary society?
Is Print Marketing Still Important?
Like anything, there are obviously a few pros and cons. In this case, the pros definitely outweigh the cons – and here’s why.
Print marketing can cost a lot, depending on how you decide to utilise it. With ink, equipment, and the logistics that go into creating a piece of print marketing, its downfall is definitely the time, effort, and equipment that it needs to work.
But, this feeds directly into why print marketing is still so important for businesses today. Print marketing has the innate ability to evoke a tangible emotion, to the point where people feel physically drawn and attached to a form of print. Arguably, the process and time that it takes to create print marketing feed into the way people use it to influence their buying decisions.
For instance, this can be shown through peoples’ dedication to their weekly newspaper, to peoples’ reliance on coupons and reward vouchers, to people’s guilty pleasure of picking up 5 Take-A-Break magazines at the airport before a long flight.
Print marketing makes us feel connected to a product or a service, in a way that digital marketing cannot replicate. This is why print marketing will always be important to a variety of global businesses.
What Can Print Marketing Do For a Business?
There is no doubt that print marketing is still useful for businesses today. All you need to do is step outside, and you’ll instantly see an example of print marketing from your doorstep, no matter where you are in the world.
Other than the main reason that print marketing can generate emotion and influence potential buyers in a way that digital advertising cannot, it can also do the following things very effectively:
1. Print marketing can raise brand awareness on a large scale.
2. Print marketing can drive new leads towards your business.
3. Print marketing can emphasise and draw your target audience towards your new product or service.
4. Print marketing gives your business a chance to stand out, creatively, from other businesses in your competitive niche.
So, there you have it. A brief history of print marketing alongside the reasons why it’s still integral to marketing across the globe today. It’s a dated marketing process, but it’s one that has stood the test of time – and for very good reason.
