Is Print Marketing Dead?

There has been a buzz in the marketing industry about the life-span of the traditional print campaign. It’s no secret the speedy emergence of social media marketing has put a substantial dent in the print industry. Many businesses have migrated their marketing budget toward the digital space because of the fact it can reach a limitless audience and has the capacity to go viral.

It’s a surprise to most marketers that print maintains its stance as a powerful component of an overall marketing plan.

Print campaigns are tangible. Print is forever while digital campaigns are gone in the blink of an eye. Magazines and newspapers stick around for months, even years.  Because print campaigns are becoming a rare form of marketing, they lend credibility to your business. With an abundance of popup's and banners ads, coupled with the threat of clicking on spam or a virus that prevent people from clicking, a print campaign does not inspire fear to the consumer.

Branding with a print campaign is an excellent way to solidify your brand identity because they are around forever. You can identify brands from your childhood just based on their logo colors, which is the power of branding through print marketing. You are able to better reach your target audience with print marketing by placing ads in publications that you know your target audience is reading. It’s more difficult to reach your intended audience online.

Forbes says, “Consumers are more engaged when reading printed material, unlike websites, which are often skimmed in as little as a 15 second visit. A study shows that people read digital screen text 20% – 30% slower than printed paper. (Alshaali & Varshney, 2005)”

With more businesses relying solely on the internet for  marketing there are less print ads circulating making it easier to compete for space with lower ad costs and more exclusivity in the market.

For a well rounded marketing campaign we recommend using several form of marketing both print, if it’s in your budget, and digital marketing. 

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