The Truth About Print: Myth vs. Reality

For one reason or another, there seem to be a surprising number of misconceptions floating around surrounding print marketing. Whether concerning its efficacy, functionality, or even its ethicality, there seem to be rumors swirling around every aspect of this time-tested marketing practice. Unfortunately, taking such misinformation at face value can result in missed opportunities to strengthen your marketing strategy. That’s why we’re here to debunk these printing myths for you and show you the light when it comes to print.

Myth: Print is bad for the environment.

Reality: Print is sustainable.

Paper is often misconstrued as being a leading cause of deforestation, and thus, bad for the environment. To be fair, the logic behind this sentiment seems solid at first. Paper is made from harvesting tree and deforestation is caused by over-harvesting trees. So, paper must cause deforestation. However, this is simply not the case.

Most paper companies in North America certify that their paper comes from sources that practice sustainable forest management. These practices ensure that trees, one of the planet's only renewable resources, reach the end of their life cycles before being harvested, thereby keeping forestland sustainable. This initiative also financially incentivizes landowners to continue sustainable harvesting of their woodlands, rather than urbanizing them or permanently converting them for some other purpose.

Myth: You can’t track the ROI of print marketing materials.

Reality: There are plenty of ways to track the ROI of print marketing materials.

You might be thinking, “How on earth could you possibly track the ROI of print marketing materials?” You may not be able to track how many people look at your printed materials. However, your marketing pieces don’t need to be digital for you to measure their success. There are several trackable elements that you can include in your print campaigns to measure your ROI:

• You can use unique coupon codes to see how many sales occurred as a result of customers viewing your ad.

• QR codes are another great way to track your print. These can be connected to campaign-specific landing pages that allow you to gauge print-driven traffic.

• You could also include unique social media hashtags that are easily measurable by looking them up on a given platform.

• If the main goal of your print campaign is to simply get customers to reach out, unique emails and/or phone numbers are a fantastic tool to track these interactions.

Myth: Print can’t be customized on a customer-to-customer basis.

Reality: Print can be easily personalized via variable data printing.

Many people believe that you must print one cookie-cutter design for each individual print job. This poses a problem, especially when it comes to direct mail. Naturally, you would want to add touches of personalization, like names, greetings and other components that tailor your campaign towards different segments of your audience.

Luckily, this insinuation couldn’t be further from the truth. Technology now exists that allows you to modify individual aspects of your print, from one piece to the next, in one single run. This is known as variable data printing. Modern machinery has made it possible to do this quickly, effectively, and economically. So it’s perfectly within reach for the average business owner to create personalized print for all their customers.