If you’re planning a marketing campaign for your ecommerce business, you’ve probably already asked yourself the age-old question:
Digital marketing versus print marketing – which is more effective?
Ask most people today and they would probably say that digital marketing is the better option, especially for an ecommerce business.
After all, the very nature of an ecommerce business means that your audience is online, and besides, digital marketing is fast, accurate, measurable, and cost effective, isn’t it?
Well, yes it is all of those things. But digital marketing is also less memorable, can be impersonal, and isn’t always the most effective method out there – which is where print marketing comes in.
The truth is that there are numerous advantages of print media and tons of benefits to using print marketing to boost your ecommerce business.
In fact, a data-led, multi-channel campaign that uses a combination of online and offline methods can provide endless benefits for your ecommerce business, including increased sales and an impressive ROI.
The power of print explained
There are a number of benefits to print marketing for ecommerce. For starters, it builds credibility with your audience, it makes you relatable, and allows you to nurture and retain relationships offline.
Plus, with print, you also attract a more diverse audience, build trust with that audience, and benefit from campaigns with greater longevity.
86% of consumers feel connected to a business that has sent direct mail, 80% of adults open all mail, 95% engage with it, and 87% think it can be trusted – oh, and 70% of people are driven online from mail, too, which means you can bridge the gap between online and offline experiences.
See, we told you print was powerful! So, what are you waiting for? Here are five ways to make print part of your ecommerce marketing strategy:
5 ways to make print part of your ecommerce marketing toolkit
1. Use data to create highly targeted print campaigns
Print marketing has come a long way since the dodgy desk drops of the 90s and 00s. In fact, today’s advances in technology allow for greater targeting and personalisation than ever before.
By leveraging your data from your ecommerce platform, you can create highly targeted and personalised print campaigns that speak directly to your audience, boosting the probability of engagement and conversions.
From customised print materials with unique information such as your customers’ name, to personalised messages, and even using customer milestones such as birthdays to cross sell and reconnect with non-responders, the options available today are endless.
2. Drive online traffic with direct mail campaigns
Direct mail offers a highly targeted and personalised route to reaching prospects in their home or workplace – and it has been proven to have significantly higher open rates than email marketing, too.
Let’s face it, receiving a clever, well-produced price of direct mail is far more effective and memorable than receiving an email. In fact, direct mail boasts a 91% engagement rate, with 79% of consumers acting upon direct mail instantly compared to just 45% who act upon receiving an email.
So, by incorporating direct mail into your ecommerce marketing campaigns, you can combine the high open rates of direct mails with targeted, personalised messaging to drive traffic to your ecommerce site and boost sales.
3. Use inserts to your advantage
Inserts are a highly trusted medium and open a lot of opportunities to reach consumers.
Whether through national titles or delivering a targeted message, personalised note, or offer when shipping a product purchased via your ecommerce site, inserts can deliver cost-effective results for ecommerce businesses time and time again.
In fact, inserts have been proven to drive response and awareness, leading to online and offline actions, as well as localised impact when using regional or local carriers.
4. Overcome any drawbacks with a multi-channel approach
If all of this isn’t enough to convince you, it’s important to note that any drawbacks traditionally associated with print media can be more than overcome by adopting a multi-channel approach that combines print and digital.
In fact, one of the most powerful ways to use print is by combining both print and digital marketing and allowing both methods to complement and enhance the other.
The two work hand in hand: according to Royal Mail, 54% of consumers receiving printed materials engage in social media, and when an advert is seen online after a mail has been receive, people spend 30% longer engaging with those ads.
In fact, campaigns that combine digital and print deliver 25% higher response rates than digital campaigns alone, and campaigns with mail in the mix are 52% more likely to report ROI benefits.
5. Track your campaigns to inform future decisions
One of the reasons people are unsure about using print marketing is because they believe that digital methods are easier to track.
However, methods such as QR codes and unique URLs enable you to track response and conversion rates of your print campaigns, so you can gain valuable insight into your campaign performance.
Alternatively, you can also track direct mail campaigns by running an address level match-back of the customer file to the mailing file to understand the campaign performance.
Whichever method you choose, by assessing which campaigns work best, you can then use the insights gathered for future campaigns, too.
Need help with your ecommerce marketing strategy?
At Join the Dots, we take a truly customer-centric approach to each and every campaign, meaning that our entire process is underpinned by customer insight and driven by data.
As a specialist media agency, we place strategy at the heart of everything we do, and will work in a transparent, sustainable manner to help your ecommerce business reach its goals.
Oh, and because we’re media neutral and proudly independent, you can count on us to create a truly bespoke, multi-channel campaign that works for you and you alone.
Are you ready to Join the Dots and embrace the power of print for your ecommerce business? If so, contact our team today to find out more about how we can help you to enjoy the advantages of print media.
