Tips On How To Market Your Business With Print Ads

Marketing experts have a thorough understanding of both digital and print advertising, but they often dismiss print due to its being more expensive and more difficult to be tracked. 

Meanwhile, print media advertising can be highly targeted to a specific demographic and geographic area, making it a useful tool for reaching a wider audience. And if you put in a little extra effort upfront, it's surprisingly simple to track the results of your print advertising.

Why Should You Invest in Print Ads?

While an increasingly digitized world creates other options for advertisement, print is not dead, and neither is it completely replaceable. Print advertising is still an important strategy to implement if you want to reach and engage your audience and drive the most impact with your campaigns. They are an effective way to expand your customer base, spark curiosity about your brand, and boost sales. Compared to digital channels, print has a higher engagement rate, and readers are more likely to trust the information presented to them in print.

However, if you're new to printing, you might find the variety of services available to be too much. Here are ten things to keep in mind as you plan your print advertising and marketing campaign

• Print ads should be part of a larger marketing strategy

There is no such thing as a stand-alone marketing strategy.

Traditional media advertising using print ads and online platforms should be complementary, not competitive. They ought to cooperate and complement each other instead.

In addition to using a print ad, you should consider running a promo on your website and increasing your social media budget to further push your campaign. Remember that Branding must be uniform across all platforms, with the same logos, color scheme, etc.

One of the simplest ways to get people to act on your print ad is to use your online platforms within the context of the ad.

You can use a social media hashtag or have consumers respond to the ad on a platform like Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat; all of these should be included in the print ad for the convenience of readers.

Coca-Cola's #ShareaCoke campaign, for instance, involved widespread newspaper and television advertising, a redesigned print label on Coke products that featured different names (Jeff, Lisa, Mom, etc.), and a call to action for consumers to post selfies with Coca-cola products using the hashtag #ShareaCoke on social media.

After the first year of the campaign, more than 500,000 photos had been shared via #ShareaCoke, and the page had gained 25 million new likes on Facebook.

• Use High-Quality Images with Minimal Text

Similar to selecting a "single message," make the print advertisement's design as straightforward as you can. Make good use of white space, pick complementary colors, and use legible fonts throughout.

The adage "show, don't tell" is applicable to print advertisements because the majority of readers will scan through quickly without paying attention to the details. You can accomplish this by making use of visual metaphors, appealing to the five senses, and incorporating other visual elements, like your brand's logo and colors, that are commonly associated with your business.

A product, person, or animal can serve as a focal point to which you can naturally draw the readers' attention. It's important that the print ad's various components all work together to re-enforce the ad's central message.

• Use a Call to Action

A compelling call to action is essential for any print advertisement. If customers are interested in your goods or services, they need some means to progress on the buyer’s journey or contact you. You should use calls to action to get lead your customers in making choices like visiting your physical or online store, learning more about your offerings, or making a call. 

• Offer value as part of your print campaigns

There are numerous ways to add value to a customer's experience, including providing information about your product or service and offering a monetary incentive. To be more specific, retail stores can make use of print ads by including coupons.

According to research conducted by The Omnibus Company and RetailMeNot, 96% of all Americans use coupons and this percentage does not vary significantly across demographics like age, gender, or geographic location.

The best part is that coupons provide a real incentive for shoppers to take action: recent research by Valassis found that 91% of people favor paper coupons.

In addition, a whopping 83% of respondents to the 2018 Inmar Shopper Behavior Study said that coupons influenced their shopping habits in some way, whether it was leading them to a specific brand, making them spend more money, or prompting them to make a purchase before they had originally planned to.

When people see your print ad, they are more inclined to react positively if they think they would be getting a good deal.

• Track the success of your print ad

If you want to expand your business with the help of print advertising, you should set up some kind of response system to track which ads are bringing in the most customers. For example, asking new customers "How did you hear about us?" when they visit or call your company can give you insight into the campaigns that are resonating with them.

• Use a professional printing service provider

Letting a professional handle your print ads can only ever work in your favor. The best designers and printers know everything there is to know about their respective fields and are in the best position to handle your prints. You can save yourself a lot of money, time, and effort by working with a professional. 

Conclusion

You might be missing an opportunity to grow your business if you're neglecting print ads. 

They are still a relevant means of communication in this day and age and can boost the efficiency of your overall marketing efforts.

It's important to do these things before creating your first ad campaign:

• Use other marketing strategies along with print ads
• Determine your audience, then develop some captivating (yet uncomplicated) content to share with them.
• Define the metrics for analytics that will allow you to calculate return on investment.
• Offer value
• Use calls to action, 
• And most importantly, work with printing experts like BrandIt to produce high-quality prints