Print as a point of difference

Being seen to be different is valuable for businesses – particularly if you want to break into a saturated market or disrupt an established one.

Alongside opportunities to differentiate your business via your ethics, the product or service you offer and how you deliver it is the growing potential to stand out through your choice of marketing channel.

As consumers, we have been exposed to an ever-increasing volume of digital marketing messages over the last ten years. Recently, with the help of a pandemic, the amount of time we spend looking at screens has exploded.

Online spaces are overflowing with overwhelming amounts of information. Organic reach on social media has plummeted. Achieving the same impact means going head to head with those thorny beasts, the algorithms, or investing in paid marketing.

But those businesses that switch to digital also create something of an opportunity.

Zig when others zag

As more and more businesses switch to digital marketing, the value of print marketing as a point of difference increases.

Print can help you to communicate a premium look and feel beyond what is possible on screen. Vogue Business reports that luxury brands are doing just that: using print as a differentiator beyond the products they sell* and as a way to diversify their marketing from digital platforms†.

But while print might be an obvious choice for brands who want to communicate a luxurious lifestyle, it is also a valuable tool for organizations across the spectrum – from products and services that are high cost (whether or not they are considered ‘luxury’) to charities.

Charities are operating in a crowded market. They need to get their message seen by new people to raise awareness of their cause and reach those who are affected. We all scroll past so many news stories online which, if we stopped to think about them all, would quickly become distressing. Print allows charities to cut through this noise, tapping into the effectiveness of direct mail to encourage prospects to take part in fundraising events, volunteer or donate‡.

Potential donors are a critical target audience for charities. This time print can help you stand out by creating a premium-looking case for support with which to target high-net-worth prospects.

In any sector that rarely uses printed marketing, the pendulum has swung so far towards digital that print now offers a golden opportunity. We are all bombarded with a cacophony of digital messages every day, but increasingly few in print. Print cuts through the noise online because it is different. And the value of ‘difference’ is relevant for any business.

* Why content curation rules social, Vogue Business

† Post-pandemic playbook: The return to physical marketing, Vogue Business

‡ 9 Charity Ad Mail Myths busted by JICMAIL, Jicmail Mail Media Metrics