International Print Day 2016: 4 Hottest Topics on Social

The print industry is massive. PrintIsBig.com has the statistics to back it up: The industry is worth $640 billion and when including affiliated sectors and services, that number jumps to $3.8 trillion. Printing is bigger than online advertising, the music industry and the market for video games. Business printing continues to grow at a rate of 6.8 percent annually.

So, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that International Print Day is a huge hit. As social media buzzed with stories, opinions and stats, all were related to how healthy the print industry is nowadays.

Here are some of the hottest topics, trends and information that were passed around in mid-October.

Love live print with the right technologies involved

An article on Pro Print, written by Frank Romano, professor emeritus at the Rochester Institute of Technology, explained that despite all the other methods of consuming information that have been used in the past few decades – think CDs, DVDs and floppy disks – print remains to be a dominant medium. Whether for training, marketing, content dissemination and other corporate collateral such as menus or business cards, print wins. Print has stood the test of time, but as some technologies – ebooks mostly – start to threaten the value of physical materials, businesses feel as though they should evolve their practices. Romano suggested applying new technologies and innovations to existing paper strategies.

For example, online content management and distribution platforms make printing easier than ever, and as a result, print materials and content will remain useful in the everyday workflows of businesses. When employees can upload, order and have content, training books, brochures, posters and more ready to ship to across the country in minutes, not days, using paper just makes sense.

In a different approach to the technology meets print strategy, brands can do something similar to Seagrams. A marketing campaign for the distiller takes advantage of posters, and when customers use a mobile app and scan the advertisement, a video plays on consumers’ smartphones. This represents a new and interesting way to engage potential buyers, and quite frankly, techniques similar to this one are just the beginning of the marriage between print and technology.

Direct mail continues to prove strength

For #IPD16, one topic really stands out: Direct mail. This form of marketing remains a popular choice for spreading the word, inspiring interactions and getting noticed by all generations.

Marketo’s Andrew Field authored a blog post in mid-October in which he discussed a Canada Post-commissioned study on the impact of direct mail on consumer purchasing decisions. Simply put, direct mail is great at pulling in customers. The source stated that 64 percent of shoppers who receive direct mail visit affiliated corporate websites, 54 percent interact with those brands on social media and 47 percent head to stores after getting direct mail from companies.

TECHi similarly backed direct mail, explaining that it has a 20 percent better response rate compared to emails, and those reactions are immediate for 79 percent of customers.

Print By The Numbers

Print marketing statistics spread like wildfire on social media in mid-October, as both brands and consumers were shocked to learn how ubiquitous, useful and powerful physical promotional materials really are.

This Print Works infographic highlights a bunch of interesting facts:

• • 70 percent of consumers would prioritize reading paper.

• • 56 percent of individuals trust print marketing the most.

• • Direct mail has a return on investment of 1300 percent.

• 24 percent of customers share print materials.

Print triumphs over print media

The Dead Tree Edition blog paid homage to IPD with a list of ways that print trumps digital media. Among seven reasons, the source explained that print marketing professionals manage to keep advertisements catchy and not annoying, while digital marketing teams are often responsible for bombarding Web surfers with flashy ads that only get a few clicks. Additionally, the blog asserted that print marketing never encroaches on consumer privacy. This alone will make customers more likely to hold onto print ads, follow up on offers and opt for more. After all, if you click an online ad, users can expect to see that product appear across all of their devices.

For more information on and insight into the print industry, take part in International Print Day 2016 on social media and check out some videos from the Printerverse Panels.