Why you shouldn’t exclude print when marketing your business

In business, displaying the availability of our goods and services is vital. We must make use of any and all forms of meaningful communication to ensure that our messages are spread as far as possible to draw attention. Yet with so many of us constantly using mobile devices around the clock is there still a place for printed marketing material?

Print is here to stay

Despite the existence of numerous online tools, website builders and social media platforms, printed material still plays a major role in how we market our goods and services. This can be mind-boggling to some of us in the business community. Advertising online is often considered as an instant solution, enabling you to communicate with vast swathes of your chosen market cheaply. Yet, even with the odds stacked against it, print is here to stay.

The fact that many businesses are still using print, and that we’re even talking about it, should stand as a testament to its resilience. But the question you no doubt want answering is why?

The benefits of print

An age-old means of communication that has endured for centuries, it is certainly true that the demand for print has shrunk. Yet, in spite of it’s scale-down, it lingers on and continues to play a vital role in how we market. The reason for this is that print is effective in areas where online marketing fails to touch.

Although many of our consumers view products and services online, they still appreciate tangibility. From posters and cards to magazine entries, being to able to physically hold something is extremely useful in marketing. Why? Because once their eye has been caught they tend to remember it.     

Many of your customers may have old magazines and newspapers lying around their homes, which is where print gains the upper hand over online form. Contained within these may be old adverts for goods and services that may yet still be available. Whilst you update your business’ online posts today, tomorrow they will get buried under another load of posts and so on. Yet with print, your advert is constant. Once it is on paper it is set.

Another advantage that print has over online methods of marketing is its appeal. Customers tend to view posters, decorated cards, magazine images and so on for much longer than an online post. Consequently, printed material tends to stick in people’s minds for longer. If you’re thinking of inserting an advert or article into a newspaper or magazine, you’ll need to get in contact with their editor. This can be easily achieved by creating a Media Contact Database account.

Plus, if it’s unusual it may even stimulate further chatter amongst your customers. Compare this to online marketing, where your customers tend to be much more impatient. So consider this, how often do you think they will stop to look at a random post squeezed into their feed whilst on the go? The answer, not often.

Making the most of your marketing

Rather than narrowing your scope and choosing to employ an online versus print point of view, why not utilise them both? This way you can maximise the potential of your marketing campaigns. In fact, by doing so you can add a new angle of flexibility that you may not have thought of initially, earning you high levels of cash flow.

Some businesses are already blending the two together. By making use of the benefits of online marketing, physical advertisements can be rolled out much faster. This helps to better coordinate your campaign, ensuring that the message expressed remains consistent no matter what your customers see. Plus, print is a great way of displaying promotions and deals at short notice to your in-store customers.

Funding print marketing

Although online marketing offers plenty of ways to advertise cheaply, or even for free, displaying printed adverts will cost. You’re going to have to cover the cost incurred by the printing companies, employ people to go out and hang your posters. Plus if you’re going to have adverts displayed on billboards, buses and bus-stops, you’ll also have to factor in the fees. A standard billboard advert for 2 weeks could set you back around £500 – £600, whereas a poster at a bus stop could cost you £240 – £270 for the same time period.

Combine that with all the costs associated with marketing and you’re probably seriously thinking how your business is going to fund this? However, with Rangewell, we can help you find the perfect business finance package to suit your business needs, including Merchant Cash Advance.

Merchant Cash Advance:

In order to qualify for this means of finance, your business must be able to support credit and debit card payments using devices such as Chip & Pin. This is because the product relies on your monthly receivables or revenue. After reviewing 3 or more of your business’ consecutive monthly sales reports a potential finance lender may offer to purchase your potential earnings for one particular month, at a discount.

However, what makes this product stand apart from a business loan is how repayments are structured. If a lender was to offer you a rate of 18%, this means that they recover 18p for every £1 your card customers spend, until the product has been fully repaid. Consequently, if you make fewer sales in a particular month you pay less but should you experience more then you’ll pay more.

Why Rangewell?

Our values are simple – We’re on your side. Our services are clear and transparent. We support a wide range of SME businesses of every shape and size, for finding every type of finance. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn for business tips and tricks, and feel free to call us on 0203 637 2340 if you’d like to chat about what we can do for you.