Is Print Still Relevant?

Much has been said about the fact that spending on digital advertising eclipsed spending on print ads for the first time in 2010. Of the $368 billon spent by 1,008 advertisers tracked in an Outsell study, almost 34 percent was put toward digital media, with 30.3 percent put toward print.

Rather than see this “first” as evidence of the slow and steady demise of a beloved medium, some marketers see it as an opportunity. According to another finding from the Outsell study, they could be on to something. Ad spending for magazines rose by 1.9 percent, to $9.4 billion (a spending boost of 4.2 percent for consumer and 1 percent for B2B). What this means is that businesses still interested in making print work for them have a chance to penetrate niche and local markets like never before.

Custom magazines, newsletters, catalogs and direct mail can be effective ways to make initial contact with your consumers, especially if you’re trying to engage a wider audience or an older demographic. Some experts argue that these mechanisms are actually more trusted sources of advertising than new media methods. This is not to say you should turn your back on Web ads or email marketing campaigns, but that you should think of print as your foot-in-the-door tactic for certain campaigns. Engage consumers enough to drive them to your company’s website or social media pages for further interaction.

Cross-marketing in this way also gives you the option to use Web analytics to track the results of a print campaign. Look at your analytics to see if visits to your website spiked on the day printed material started arriving in homes to gauge the initial effectiveness of your efforts.