Printed Marketing Material Are Still Effective

When someone talks business communications and marketing today

, they start off stressing the new electronic age and throw around buzzwords such as social networking, viral marketing and "Web 2.0" applications. Certainly, its wrong to ignore the impact of electronic media in the modern word, but its a foolish manager that neglects the continuing role of print services.

The false choice presented by internet marketing gurus is that a business should choose the electronic form and discard the print form. This doesn't make sense. The business card, postcard, brochure and catalog all have electronic counterparts. Why were these forms copied when the internet came along? They were copied because they were effective. And, they still are.

One of the most important functions of the print media is as a physical memory of a human interaction. Social networking is not new. The older and most effective method is physical contact. Having a business card to present means that there is a physical memory tied to that contact. A business card placed in a pocket is a reminder and a reference. Every time fingers touch the heavy, embossed card stock, there will be a memory triggered. A business card is instantly accessible and doesnt have to load or be searched for with a browser.

Print forms can also be more effective than electronic forms in other ways. Emailed information can help the business person reach a large numbers of contacts quickly and cheaply, but he or she needs to recognize that that email can be buried under hundreds of other emails just as rapidly. It also may go astray and wind up in the junk folder. A targeted mailer to a contact will be less likely to be disregarded or discarded. Professionally produced mailings can call timely attention to special products, new services or media events.

As companies taut their latest web redesign and shopping cart, the print catalog has been defamed. But, often times what is supposed to be a wonderful consumer experience is simply an exercise in frustration as code goes awry, categories change in an almost random fashion and product gets lost with the next click. Unlike printbased designers, web designers have little expertise in communicating a business vision to contacts. Companies working with print have centuries of understanding what customers need.

The biggest question of all is reliability. What happens when the server crashes? How can someone be contacted when they are out of range of their wireless connection. Modern methods rely on a constantly connected environment. Unfortunately, the connection is dependent on technologies that arent perfect. Print methods dont need anything external to themselves. Nothing is more universal or reliable than hard copy.

Print services are a reliable and proven method of staying in contact with customers in a wide variety of forms that reinforce the vital physical and human connection.

by: David Andrews

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