5 Statistics About Print Collateral Marketers Should Know

On the Internet, content is king. It’s the fuel that drives engagement, helps businesses rank on search engines like Google, and empowers all of us to be more informed. This is great when you are plugged in, but what happens when content is offline? Is printed collateral king in the offline world?

The short answer is: yes.

What Is Print Collateral?

Print collateral, or print marketing, is any printed communication material that is used to promote products or services. This includes brochures, flyers, direct mail, and SWAG. Print marketing is a powerful tool for establishing brand identity and awareness. It has an important role in delighting and engaging your audience and can reach them in ways that online content can’t. 

As a marketer, you might already know the importance that both online and offline content has to play in your marketing efforts, and you probably plan on using both in your next campaign. However, as a marketer, you also have to justify your plan and budget to other stakeholders or teams who might not have the same appreciation you have for the power of engaging audiences in all verticals. As you prepare for your next budget meeting, you might need to back up your choice to use both channels with cold, hard statistics. To help you, we’ve gathered five different statistics to keep in your back pocket for the next time you need to justify print collateral in your marketing mix.

5 Statistics for Using Print Marketing in Your Plan 

1. Printed Marketing Materials Leave a Longer Impact

People engage differently with print media vs. online media. A joint study between the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and Temple University’s Center for Neural Decision Making conducted a neuromarketing study¹ that sought to understand how consumers’ responses differed between physical and digital media. Researchers wanted to learn how the two affected consumers’ buying process, and specifically how it led them to purchase a product. For context, neuromarketing² loosely refers to the study and measurement of physiological and neural signals to gain insight into consumers’ motivations, preferences, and decisions. Neuromarketing can help marketers develop better and more informed marketing plans.

How do print collateral and digital content compare and contrast? The study found that while consumers processed digital ad content quicker, they spent more time with physical ads. In addition, they fostered a stronger emotional response to these ads and remembered them better. Printed marketing collateral, although it may be slower to get one’s attention at first, leaves a longer-lasting impact. That means that while audiences might see your digital ad faster, they are also more likely to close it and forget they even interacted with it. Print media, whether a flyer, brochure, or direct mail, tends to spend more time in the audience’s hands. The study also found that even a week after interacting with the physical ad, viewers had a more impactful emotional response and concrete memory of the physical ads. 

2. 82% of Consumers Trust Print Ads

Research has shown that audiences trust printed materials more than they do digital ads. Specifically, audiences trust a product or service advertised in print (such as in a flyer, brochure, or printed poster) compared to products that are advertised via an online popup. 

In fact, 82% of consumers trust print ads³ the most when making a purchase decision. This means that if you want your audience to trust that your product or services are as advertised, make sure to use print collateral as well.

3. Consumers are 70% More Likely to Remember Print Ads

Since our brain is wired to obtain and collect the information we see in the outside world, it is more likely that a printed ad will be remembered for longer than online ads⁴. This is especially true in a world where every website is bombarding consumers with links, ads, and calls to action. That also means that consumers have become rapidly adaptive and have evolved to ignore and discard most digital ads that are thrown at them. 

Neuroscientists have found that viewers are 70 percent more likely to recall your brand after seeing it in a print ad than in a digital ad. That’s why you want to invest in strong print collateral design for all your printed materials so that you leave consumers with a strong, positive impression of your brand.

4. Direct Mail Boasts a 90% Open Rate

How would stakeholders in your company respond if you told them your mail open rate was 90%? A 2022 study has shown that direct mail open rates⁵ reach nearly 90%, while an outstanding open rate for email marketing would be about 23%. Plus, Forbes also estimates that 42% of recipients read, or scan all mailers they receive. 

5. Omnichannel Campaigns Increase Efficacy by 400%

When building a successful marketing plan, you must consider ROI, or Return on Investment. Without establishing an ROI, your marketing plans not only fall flat, but you may also fail to convince higher-ups to grant you the budget you need to make your plan a success. As you prepare for your next meeting, consider mentioning how studies have found that marketing plans that combine print and digital ads not only interact with audiences in both verticals but also increase the efficacy of online campaigns⁶ by 400%! So even if your plans focus more on engaging audiences in the digital world, adding print marketing will strengthen your marketing efforts and make them more effective. 

Review Your Printing Process

Now that you’ve got the approval to implement a joint print and digital marketing strategy, you might be eager to run to your color inkjet printer and start printing your marketing collateral. But is relying on your in-office printer the most effective or efficient way to begin your marketing efforts? 

As part of your game plan, you should reevaluate your printing capabilities and find a tool that offers easy-to-use online printing services, including the shipping and distribution of your marketing collateral. Reach out to Mimeo, a national leader in on-demand printing, to learn more about how you can improve your print marketing game in the next quarter.

Sources
1. Neuromarketing study

2. Neuromarketing

3. Trust print ads

4. Online ads

5. Direct mail open rates

6. Online campaigns