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Why Do You Need Print in a Digital World?

Print in Content Marketing in a Digital World_Loyalistic Podcast with Jesse Kivialho and Antti Pietilä

Digital has come to stay but print is still needed. The CEO of nopea.media, Jesse Kivialho discussed on a Loyalistic podcast about where to use print, how it best serves the client and how to incorporate it into your content marketing.

Being digital is all great, but you might wonder if the hype has gone too far at times? For the last ten years, an ever-increasing part of organizations have found their way online and customers are pursued in the different channels fluently. And that’s good. Antti Pietilä, the founder of the digital marketing company Loyalistic however feels, that digital is also often forced into situations where it doesn’t really work.

– The client path is digital to an increasing extent, but it’s not solely digital. Distributing content digitally covers perhaps 80 percent of customers. However, the remaining 20 percent can be essential to take over too, states Antti.

And even if the majority of your audience is online, reaching that audience isn’t always easy. This is because you’re not the only one trying to grab their attention. All the other organizations and individual content producers are there too. There’s an excess of digital content and standing out from the crowd can be hard, even if you target your messages right.

If a blogger can produce more interesting content on a certain topic than a company, it will gain more visibility and more followers.

Jesse Kivialho

– Online, a company and a single blogger can be equal. If the blogger can produce more interesting content on a certain topic than a company, it will gain more visibility and more followers. Simply the fact that you go online and produce digital content is not enough. Just because 80 percent of your target audience consumes online content, doesn’t mean you can reach that entire audience easily, Jesse points out.

Print Alongside Digital – What an Opportunity!

Print is often an essential format alongside digital. Print completes the communication in digital channels and helps reach that part of the audience left missing on the web.

A printed leaflet, with a selection of blog posts relevant to the event in question, speaks to the reader.

One typical situation where you can naturally include print as part of the client path, are events like fairs, seminars and client meetings. Typically, you would give out a leaflet showcasing the company and its services in general. However, a generic guidebook is not always the best way to grab your audience’s attention. To best serve your target group, deliver them content that interests them and sticks to their mind. A printed leaflet, with a selection of blog posts relevant to the event in question, speaks to the reader. It can also steer the reader from print to web. For example to read the company blog further.

On the other hand, a printed hand-out works well as a sort of notes. With printed articles it’s easier for the reader to recall what they’ve read. A leaflet is also something you can leave on the coffee table for others to read, or give it to your colleague, Antti points out.

This article has been compiled from Antti Pietilä’s and Jesse Kivialho’s discussion on Loyalistic’s podcast. Watch or listen to the whole podcast (in Finnish).

Read also about the opportunities of print alongside digital – e.g. how to easily keep your printed material cost-efficient and up-to-date.

Also, get to know Jesse’s and Antti’s thoughts on print as part of content marketing.