Banbury I Cheltenham I Coventry I Leamington Spa I Oxford I Stratford-upon-Avon
WHY PRINT?

Where does the future lie between print and digital?
In this report we look at the benefits of print marketing, comparisons between print and digital and how a combined approach, incorporating both print and digital marketing works best.
Maximise Your Impact with Print & Digital
By combining print and digital marketing you can harness the power of a fully integrated marketing strategy that blends the lasting appeal of print with the dynamic reach of digital.
By combining these two channels, you'll drive more traffic to your online platforms, break through the everyday digital noise and deliver messages that truly stick—ensuring your brand stands out and achieves a measurable return on investment.


Why print?
Now more than ever it is important for brands to maintain their share of voice and to ensure that creative communication is more relevant and engaging than their rivals. Print marketing offers this outlet.

Trustworthy
Consumers trust print as an honest, dependable source, especially when compared with digital media. The term ‘fake news’ is often banded about and consumers question the validity of online sources. Research has shown that printed content continues to provide value to businesses and customers alike and survey after survey has shown that consumers trust print more than any digital equivalent.
To grow sales and develop loyal customer bases businesses need to establish trust and create confidence.
“Print advertising is trusted by 82% of respondents, compared to just 43% for social media advertising.”
(MarketingSherpa)
Print gets
Paper can offer a touch and feel experience, it can be interactive and immersive, and stimulate senses, it is tangible.
Whether it is an A4 brochure, pocket-sized die-cut flyer or door hanger it encourages people to hold and interact with it –select the right material and printing techniques then print has sensory appeal that words on a screen can’t compete with. If you want to stand out from the crowd and portray quality then print is the perfect medium.
Digital media can be and is lost, deleted, scrolled past and ignored whereas print demands attention – it receives focus, people pick it up and take time to read it, one of the reasons for this is that it stays in the office and at home longer.
NOTICED

Direct Mail
Now more than ever is the perfect time to send out direct mail, over recent years, the proportion of the British public working from home has risen considerably.
Research has proven that direct mail has one of the highest and most reliable return on investment
It has a higher response rate than all other forms of advertising combined year on year and this is because it is a more targeted form of communication. In addition consent is not required from the consumer to mail them at their business or in their own homes (GDPR).
LONGER
“A piece of mail can remain in a home for more than 28 days, reinforcing a message for a month, and giving the brand presence in the home”
(Nicky Bullard, Chairwoman & Chief Creative Office MRM/Mccann & Royal Mail Market Reach)
is open, read or filed giving it a 94% engagement rate
an open rate of 20% and click through rate of 5-10%
(Royal Mail Market Reach) COMPARED WITH
Millennials are one of the big consumer groups that appreciate print. The younger generation have grown up in a digital landscape and therefore receiving mail is a novelty for them.
Using variable data printing technology you can personalise your direct mail to stand out and make an impact.
LASTING
In our experience digital platforms have become noisy, content needs to be different to stand out. We find that a mixture of digital and traditional marketing methods works best combining social media with print.
Yes we email and direct message potential clients but we also understand how many emails a person receives a day, so it is vitally important not to abandon traditional marketing efforts.
People like to hold a brochure in their hands, something they can touch and instantly make a connection with that person or business.
We have worked with Prontaprint for their print and direct mail expertise, advising us which methods work best and helping us choose the right quality of materials to get results.
So far our direct mail campaigns have been fantastic. Even though the climate is hard work at the moment we have seen results in both our digital and traditional print marketing efforts, which goes to show that they still work very much hand in hand.
Gareth Surdo Operations Manager, PatrolGuard Ltd
Digital world distractions
We are all distracted in a digital world
How many tabs do you have open?
How many times did you check your texts in the last hour?
Did you read your emails whilst you were watching the TV?
How many distractions do you encounter on a daily basis from pop-ups, adverts and links taking you away from the web page you were on.
Digital and online marketing has grown exponentially.
The average person is estimated to encounter between 6,000 & 10,000 ads every single day. (PPC Protect)
The average office worker
emails a day receives 126
inboxes are noisy, crowded and competitive (Radicati Research Group)
Print provides a more tactile human experience, it offers less distractions and competition and the consumer can sit back and enjoy the read in privacy.
Print has better retention and consumption rates
Research by the University in Maryland showed students read digital formats faster but absorb fewer details compared to print and that readers skim the material when reading digitally. Studies have also shown that consumers have greater concentration and retention levels of content when consuming print, giving brands a better chance of readers receiving their messages the way they intended.
Go Gulf (an ecommerce and web development specialist company) produced some interesting statistics about how people read content online; 55% of all page views on the internet get less than 1 second of attention and the average attention span of an internet user has dropped to 8 seconds.
Only 10-20% of readers actually make it to the bottom of the post and on average users read about 20% of the text on an average page.
Consumers read from print more slowly and digest more information which offers brands a better chance of visibility
The digital world has many benefits but...
The pulp, paper and print industry accounts for 1% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, the demand for more content online increases the need for massive servers for storage, it is estimated that the digital technology’s share of GHG missions could rise to which is the current share of car emissions. (The Shift Project. Lean ICT: Towards Digital Sobriety)
8% by 2025
TECHNOLOGY HAS A SIZEABLE CARBON FOOTPRINT. THE TECH INDUSTRY NEEDS TO BECOME MORE SUSTAINABLE.
World leading sustainable industry
How many times have you heard the phrases ‘GO PAPERLESS – GO GREEN’ or that trees are being chopped down to facilitate the printing industry.
These are one of the WORLD’S BIGGEST MYTHS and are collectively known as Greenwashing.
The print and paper industry is a world leader when it comes to sustainable materials, renewable energy and recycling.
Annually global cloud computing demands twice as much electricity as the entire UK (Greenpeace) Only 20% The remaining 80% releasing harmful toxins and heavy metals into the environment (Love Paper) of electrical goods are recycled. will end up in landfill or incinerated
The European pulp and paper industry is the biggest single user & producer of renewable energy in the EU (Twosides.info)
Electrical goods (such as laptops, computers, mobile phones, tablets) are the fastest growing waste stream in the UK, growing 5% each year (Recycle-more.co.uk) of the water used
European forests which provide wood for making paper and many other products have been growing by over the equivalent of 1,500 football pitches every day (FAO) 93% in the European paper industry is returned to the environment (CEPI Statistics) 2/3 of paper is recycled making it one of the main recycled materials in the world (CB Environmental Ltd)
PRINT & DIGITAL WORK HAND IN HAND
To connect with their customers brands should use a combination of print and digital media.
They work hand in hand together and when combined produce more effective results. There is great value in both print and digital marketing, they complement each other and effectively reinforce your brand’s messaging.
For example print can increase traffic to your digital channels; any brochure, leaflet or poster should include social media handles and URLs. The printed format is then read and digested before a consumer goes online to make a purchase or to explore further.
Another tactic could be to produce a glossy brochure which shows off a product range which is then supported by a fantastic social media campaign which has been designed around it.
Businesses who use direct mail marketing can also utilise digital technology such as unique URLs, QR codes or even SMS codes which then enable potential customers to connect online. This can lead to increased response rates and greater tracking of leads.
The list is endless but what is clear is that a carefully considered multi-channel approach combining print and digital is the best method to get fantastic results and achieve your marketing goals.
LET’S PRINT
LET’S GET PRINTING!
BANBURY
01295 584 397
sales@ppbanb.com Banbury.prontaprint.com
CHELTENHAM
01242 395717
sales@ppchelt.com Cheltenham.prontaprint.com
COVENTRY
024 7601 9323 sales@ppcov.com Coventry.prontaprint.com
LEAMINGTON SPA
01926 359975
sales@pplspa.com
Leamingtonspa.prontaprint.com
OXFORD
01865 956 847
sales@ppoxf.com Oxford.prontaprint.com
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
01789 204272
sales@ppsua.com
Stratforduponavon.prontaprint.com
Follow us on @ThisisProntaprint linkedin.com/company/thisisprontaprint