Myths spread at an alarming rate. Arguably one of the most prevalent ones in modern day marketing is the assertion that print no longer has a place in the modern marketer’s agenda. According to a recent survey by FedEx, four out of five small business owners say printed material helps them stand out against competitors. Moreover, around nine in 10 consumers stated that there would always be a demand for printed materials. If you are starting up a small business, printed material can help you stand out in many ways, particularly when it comes to mailing, exhibitions, and customer loyalty initiatives. Why is print still more alive than ever? And what gaps can it fill that digital fails to provide?
Print Ups Your Professionalism
In the above mentioned survey, 85% of consumers said they were more likely to rely on small business that had professionally printed business cards, flyers, and other material. If you are a startup, print can be extra important, because you don’t have years of experience (or a longstanding client base) to build trustworthiness upon. If you are a new business, marketing emails can surreptitiously get dumped into the ‘spam’ box of the person you are trying to reach, especially if your name is unknown to them. Websites like MyCreativeShop have many custom templates for print material to choose from which can be especially helpful for new businesses that are looking for unique and creative ideas to increase their brand’s awareness.
By sending printed information or handing out business cards to your target clients, you are offering them the chance to store this information for later use. Of course, clients won’t necessarily be hanging onto your printed material indefinitely. But they may do so as long as the information remains pertinent.
A World Above the Rest
Printed material can help your small business gain a competitive edge, especially when it is designed to cutting edge standards. Print is an excellent medium through which to present your branding efforts – including your brand new logo, graphics, and imagery. Printing out industry-specific information can mark you as a trend setter and mark you as a startup to watch out for. Think of the big impact a trends magazine printed by a restaurant can have. Imagine how well received an informative booklet centered on your products and services would be. Consider of how well a sophisticated lifestyle magazine would be welcomed by clients if you have a real estate business (or indeed any business in the luxury sector).
Printed material may take more time to prepare and send out to customers than emailed information, but you can reduce the time involved by using OnlineStamp to print postage stamps online. Staff can also help out by taking charge of local deliveries in your area.
Print for the Legal and Real Estate Sectors
Some industries in particular require printed material to be handed out both at their offices and during conferences and exhibitions. For instance, legal professionals are accustomed to using physical statute books to find specific articles for the legal points they wish to utilize. Real estate professionals, meanwhile, often publish market reports containing graphs and other complex visuals that are easier on the eye when read in print. If your startup deals in complicated data that clients will need to consult various times, printing the information makes it very easy for them to simply mark relevant pages and flick back to them as needed.
Print still has its place in the world, with niche and local publications continuing to do a roaring trade. As a business, you can easily combine the best of digital and print by saving print for material you feel will benefit in readability from the provision of a physical copy. Sometimes, print is the choice for new and small businesses as part of their branding; this is particularly true for any new business operating in the luxury sector.
