Getting a return on your investment in marketing and advertising starts with selecting the right media to reach your audience. Only then will your ad creative and messaging have a chance to make an impact. While there are countless channels to choose from and buzzwords to learn along the way, they all fall into one of two categories: print vs. digital. Let’s take a look at the best uses for each:
5 Use Cases for Print
The claim that “print is dead” couldn’t be further from the truth. In the early stages of the digital revolution, it did seem like print might be on the way out, but it has since evolved to serve proven purposes in the digital age. Print is a strong suitor for the following:
- Local audience – Print newspapers still have surprisingly high readership and direct mailers can fetch better response rates than you might think, making either or both ideal for local print advertising.
- Events – Whether you’re attending an industry conference or hosting a community event, print gets the message into attendees’ hands rather than simply passing by their eyes.
- Brand awareness – There is a lot of brand value in simply being seen. The more you get in front of people in print, the more likely they will be to remember you and eventually buy from you.
- Marketing collateral – With everyone’s email inboxes constantly flooded, we love the tangible impact of a printed leave-behind such as a brochure or flyer. The key is to make it feel important with premium features like foil stamping, soft-touch lamination, and custom die-cutting.
- Creative campaign – The most memorable advertising campaigns almost always find their place in print. When you’re paying an agency to create a cohesive theme with pinpoint messaging and eye-catching visuals, print brings it all to life beautifully.
5 Use Cases for Digital
The capabilities of digital advertising and digital marketing can be truly mind-blowing, especially if your brand is just getting started in these areas. In general, digital gives you more control, flexibility and data compared to print. Tap into digital for:
- Wider audience – Digital advertising allows you to run ads in your selected towns, counties, states and even countries based on where you want your business to grow.
- Exact persona – In addition to reaching more people, digital does a great job of helping you reach the right people when you target your impressions by audience demographics and interests.
- Scalable spend – In print, the price is pretty much the price. In digital, you can start with a modest budget and adjust your ad spend based on the results. If your ads are performing well, double down and level up. If you’d like to test different ads, spend low and slow until you find what works.
- Evolving market – Every industry has undergone changes during the pandemic, and a lot is still to be seen in terms of the way people will live, work and spend going forward. Digital ads are easily customizable, enabling you to update your messaging and marketing focus in tune with the times.
- Big news – Need to get the word out to promote a new product, service, announcement or event? Between the targeting, reach and speed, digital ads will be much more efficient than print.
1 Rule of Thumb to Remember
You’ll notice we’re not crowning a unanimous winner. That’s because it’s not necessarily a matter of print vs. digital, but rather, arriving at a strategic balance between the two. In fact, research shows that combining print and digital ads can make a campaign 400% more effective.
No agenda here. We’re 100% media agnostic. All we care about is putting your brand in the best position to get results, whether in print, digital or both. See how Netwave develops versatile advertising campaigns that squash the print vs. digital dilemma. Learn more.
