If we were to ask you to name some of the benefits of print marketing, you’d probably say something along the lines of
It’s tangible. Readers can hold it in their hands, experience it, and study it in ways they can’t with digital marketing.
It’s unique. With the volume of direct mail marketing going down, the novelty of finding print marketing in a mailbox makes its value—and its visibility—go up.
It has a longer impact time. Unlike emails and other forms of digital marketing, which can be dismissed and forgotten with the click of a button, print marketing makes an immediate visual impression, stays visible longer, and doesn’t even have to be opened to convey a message.
Would it surprise you to hear that print marketing has psychological powers, too? It’s true, according to a whitepaper, “What Can Neuroscience Tell Us About Why Print Advertising Works?,” written by Scott McDonald Ph.D. and supported by the Association of Magazine Media.
The paper, which sought an answer to the question, “Why do magazine media deliver the goods for advertisers – even when magazine audiences have been saturated with ad messages via other media?,” came up with three interesting conclusions:
People read print content differently than they read online content. Readers consume printed information slowly and deliberately. People reading content online, however, skim and look for key ideas.
Print readers are able to focus on the message far better than online readers, who must battle distractions from ads, notifications, and other on-screen components.
Print readers comprehend and remember more than online readers. Even when given the same material, print readers will still retain more information thanks to their ability to slow down, focus, and actually feel the paper.
Print and digital both have value in today’s marketing. Plan your campaigns with regard to how readers view and use each one.