Content at the Heart of Print

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Content is what drives the print industry and organizational success as a whole. Content marketing has taken over traditional advertising methods and has undoubtedly taken the lead. What makes content have such a powerful impact? The answer is simple. Subtly incorporating accurately phrased content which identifies the problem statement and addresses it, does the job. Also, it can be leveraged to the general public through social media.

Budgeting done at the beginning of a fiscal year ensures that they allocate a proper budget to their content marketing efforts (as 58 percent of B2B brands did in 2014). Driving traffic towards your business, lead generation and fruitful business prospects have shown a rise since the advent and wide-scale propagation of content marketing. What more do you want that the funds allocated are also minimum? As 2015, it drawing to its end, Statistical evidence shows that traditional advertising has taken a back seat, with content marketing in the lead, as analysts and marketing experts had predicted.

What exactly is content marketing?

Fundamentally speaking, the art of establishing an effective communication channel with your customers and prospective business clients without making a deliberate effort to be pushing towards your customers is called content marketing. Content marketing takes many forms and one of them is print. The print should be leveraged in a way that it doesn’t seem to be pitching your service or product. The purpose of content is to keep your buyer updated about product information which can be effectively done via print material. The purpose of content is to deliver value on a regular basis and keep the buyers well-informed, which will inevitably lead to greater sales and brand loyalty.

Reasons to adopt print

Leading multi-national companies like P&G, Cisco Systems, and Microsoft has integrated comprehensive content marketing techniques as opposed to traditional marketing. Why? The answer is simple. Because it works.

The targeting print audience has been a whole lot easier due to the very fact that people profiles are created on the web, which helps us precisely identify our target market.
Useful constructive feedback on various data points can be acquired from the customer with the printed magazines of that brand.
The level of engagement is noticeably higher since a reader obviously spends more time with the physical form of content as compared to on the web.
Traditional print magazines have flooded the market, and those brands that produce quality content stand out from the rest, capturing a greater market share.

By 2016, 60% of companies will have an executive in their organization who is directly responsible for an overall content marketing strategy. (e.g., Chief Content Officer, VP or director of content, Curata).

Content-‘IS’ and ‘WILL BE’ the basis of marketing

Effective content is an integral part of your marketing technique and superior quality content is into all forms of marketing. These are inclusive of social media marketing, SEO, Public relations management, PPC, inbound marketing and last but not the least, ‘content strategy’.

A question that is sure to arise in one’s mind is where does print fit in? Print fits perfectly well into the content marketing mix as it target populations is much more diverse. Printed content differentiates itself on the basis of permanence, durability, importunity and the mere physical existence. Let me give you a very effective example. The tech giant Google employs the facility of direct mail to update startup firms and small businesses about its Adwords SEM program. Doesn’t it come as a surprise to you that the world’s largest online search engine makes use of direct mail to reach their clientele base? To come to think of it, the very fact that they are doing so says volumes about its effectiveness. Despite the overwhelming role of information technology, print has sustained its existence. A magazine or print newsletter has the potential to lurk around the place, being consulted and noticed time and again by people. A major advantage of print material is the fact that it can be re-consulted for further consolidation.

Continuous and power-packed messaged continue to bombard the forums that your potential customers resort to, and it is believed that with time and a well-managed, determined and targeted effort one can reiterate the facts that take over the psyche of the potential customers. Also, since print tries to establish a connection on a personal level; they will show their interest by responding directly with likely chances of a corporate relationship.