It’s 2014 and print media seems like an aging rock star. If marketing channels were music acts, print is the Rolling Stones. At one time, print was the biggest deal in town and it influenced just about every marketing channel that came after it. When print was young, it had verve and sex appeal. Now, while traditional media is still a huge deal, while it can still sell out stadiums around the world, it just doesn’t seem to have that swagger any more. Your parents liked print. You like digital. If print is the Stones, digital is Beyonce. Digital is young, new and powerful. While it took it a little while to get it’s bearings, it’s found them and is now running full tilt into the 21st century, supplanting the acts that came before it. Every time digital releases a new track, it makes print look that much older, and that much less relevant. Well, print is still relevant, and if your marketing team wants to be an effective DJ, you can sample tracks from both the Stones and Beyonce to create incredibly powerful marketing campaigns. Here are five ways you can mix things up to integrate traditional and digital content.
Stop thinking of print and digital as two separate things.
Print and digital aren’t entities unto themselves. Neither exists in a vacuum. Your strategies for print and digital should be integrated. They should take each other into account, and each should be used to complement the other.
Go beyond QR Codes because no one uses QR codes.
If there is one big lesson that has been learned over the last few years, it’s that QR codes are not something consumers have any interest in actually using. So please, stop putting them on your printed materials. There are new technologies, like _______ that work better than QR codes, though some communication will be required to let your customers know how that technology works.
Always include your digital information on your print media and vice versa. Use each to drive consumers to the other.
Include information about your digital channels on your print media including your web address or Twitter handle. Make sure your digital channels include information about your print media. This way, each channel enhances the experience of the other.
Your consumer is on a journey.
Throughout the course of a day, the average person looks at their smartphone, their computer screen, maybe the newspaper or a magazine, billboards, books, the list goes on. Your consumer is on a journey. Your print and digital media are both part of the same journey. By integrating your print and digital campaigns.
Apply the lessons of traditional to digital.
When digital first came to the fore, it was kind of a mess as brands figured out exactly how it was going to work. As time goes along, digital best practices start to sound more and more like the best practices of traditional media: Content is king. Put the consumer first. Create something inspiring and entertaining.
