Print was supposed to be finished. Instead, as everybody moved online, the inbox got crowded and the postbox got quiet, and print quietly became effective again.
Here is why it still earns its place in a marketing budget.
IT IS PHYSICAL, AND THAT CHANGES HOW IT IS TREATED
A printed item has to be picked up, held and then actively thrown away. A digital ad is scrolled past without a thought.
That small physical commitment is why printed material gets more attention per impression than almost anything online.
IT IS NOT COMPETING WITH TWENTY OTHER THINGS
Your email arrives alongside a hundred others. Your flyer arrives on a counter where it might be the only thing there.
Attention is the scarce resource in marketing, and print currently faces less competition for it than digital does.
IT STAYS
An advert runs and then disappears. A business card sits in a wallet, a fridge magnet stays on the fridge, a brochure sits in reception for a year.
Work out cost per day of visibility rather than cost per impression, and print looks very different.
IT SIGNALS THAT YOU ARE REAL
Anybody can set up a social media page in ten minutes. Printed material carries a small but genuine signal that a business has invested in itself.
For trades, professional services and anyone asking a customer to trust them with something valuable, that signal matters.
IT REACHES PEOPLE DIGITAL MISSES
Not everyone is online in the way marketing assumes. Plenty of South African customers are reached far more reliably by a flyer, a sign or a poster in the right place than by a targeted ad.
WHERE PRINT WORKS BEST TODAY
- Business cards, which no digital equivalent has replaced
- Local flyers for a service with a defined catchment area
- Posters and signage where people already are
- Printed quotes and proposals, which look considerably more serious than a plain email
- Packaging inserts and thank you cards with an order
- Vehicle and premises branding, which is print that works all day
Our paper and print and signage pages cover most of these.
THE BEST RESULTS COME FROM USING BOTH
This is not an argument against digital. The strongest campaigns are the ones where the two support each other.
- A QR code on a flyer that takes people to a page built for them
- A printed piece that lands before a follow up email
- Consistent design across both, so the two reinforce each other
- A unique phone number or landing page so you can actually measure the print
HOW TO MAKE IT PAY
Print less and print better. Target it tightly. Make it look like it came from a business worth dealing with. Then measure it like you would measure anything else.
Talk to us about what is worth printing for your business, and what is not.