Looking to Integrate Print and Digital? Here are 9 Ways to Get Started (Plus a Bonus!)

Remember the 1987 classic, The Princess Bride?

When asked how to create the perfect marriage for print and digital, that famous movie marriage quote always comes to mind.

“Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment…”

So, how do you create that “bwessed awangment” between print and digital? Well, here are nine things you can use to get started (and share with your print prospects and customers).

Plus, keep reading to explore a BONUS that will make combining your own digital and print marketing easy peasy!

1. Revisit QR Codes

Think QR codes have come and gone? You may want to think again.

Statistia notes that an estimated 11 million households will scan a QR Code in 2020 in the United States alone. That number is an increase from the estimated 9.76 million QR Code scans made in 2018.

2. Get Personal with Personalized URLs (PURLs)

One of the biggest advantages of print is the ability to get personal.

Continue that advantage into the digital realm by incorporating personalized URLs (or PURLs) on all of your direct mail marketing efforts.

Dairy Queen did this amazingly well with a postcard campaign sent to customers on their birthdays with a PURL for special birthday coupons. It looked something like, “Hey Jodi, make sure you visit dq.com/Jodi123 for your special birthday coupons!”

3. Combine Variable Printing + Targeted Social Media Campaigns

Another winning combination with the print and digital marriage is the idea of combining your variable printing with your targeted social media campaigns.

An example of this would be encouraging your subscribers to sign up for free samples or marketing materials through an online social media campaign and then targeting your direct mail campaign around certain online interest groups. Facebook offers demographics that will blow your mind allowing your targeting to go much farther than just gender or age.

4. Leverage Your Digital Data to Narrow Your Focus

In that same vein, use your digital data across all channels to narrow in on your target audience and create the marketing materials that will really speak to them.

If your LinkedIn post on networking is generating a lot of traffic regarding business cards, create a promo and direct mail piece built around that effort.

Remember, the more you track, the more you’ll know.

5. Duplicate Online Efforts Offline

Just like in marriage, a couple is two halves of one whole, and so should it be when you think of online and offline marketing efforts.

If you’re creating an email campaign, how can you incorporate a matching postcard to go with it or vice versa? If you’re running a social media campaign, look for ways to include event tickets, coupons, etc., to pull the campaign together.

Similarly, you can use your website as an extension of your print campaigns. For example, maybe you start a joke on your direct mail postcard, but the punchline is on your website.

6. Hashtag Campaigns

#everyoneloveshashtags, and you and your print buyers should be no different.

You can easily pull an online and offline campaign together by creating a unique hashtag for your campaign. For example, perhaps, in January, you want to do a special for #newyearnewyou with business cards, envelopes, and letterhead. Slap that hashtag on your social media promos, your email campaign, and your print marketing pieces to bring the whole thing together.

P.S. Click here to visit our Downloadable Resources section and download a free 2021 Social Media Hashtag Calendar with a hashtag for every day of the year!

7. Social Handles Everywhere

Along with hashtags, take that same advice and apply it to your social handles for all of your social media channels.

Never should a print piece leave your business without your social media handles printed on there, so people know exactly how to find you online. This also goes for your company’s banners, business cards, etc.

8. Labels

Yep, you read that right, labels.

Labels can be an incredibly powerful connector for your online and offline marketing efforts. Put a label on each finished product with a label that said something like, “Follow us on Facebook,” or “Visit us online for X Tips on How to Best Use This [Product].”

Labels make it quick to switch out the things you want to promote or use to drive traffic online and can be at the ready to promote everything from your next webinar to your blog sign-up form.

9. Calls to Action + Landing Pages

One of the most effective tools you have in your marketing arsenal, both online and offline, is the almighty call-to-action button.

This magnificent little button (or text) tells the reader what to do next. Without it, no sparks go off in the reader’s brain to actually do anything with the content they’re ingesting.

Include a call to action in all of your print campaigns and combine it with a digital landing page (Hint: Use a custom page if you’re a website subscriber from MI4P). Where do you want them to end up online with your print campaign? Determine that and build around it.

If you want your customers to get started designing online, your offline, direct mail call-to-action might be “Start your next masterpiece today at acmeprinting.com/design-online,” and would then connect to the desired landing page.

Ready to get started making an impact with your print website?

For best results integrating print and digital, be an example to your print buyers. Offer exemplary services digitally through online ordering capabilities on your website and combine that with impossible to ignore marketing both online (social media) and offline (direct mail).

Need help? Here’s a BONUS you won’t want to miss out on:

Bonus! 6 Months of Free Marketing to Help You Combine Digital and Print Effortlessly

Start 2021 off right! From now through December 31st, 2020, you can enjoy all the benefits of a professional print website AND get everything you need to market it well, including:

  • A complete New Website Marketing Kit free! Invite your customers to your digital doorstep with this complete website marketing campaign. Simply customize and go, and you’ll be on your way to sprucing up your little corner of the internet and shouting it from the rooftops.
  • Six months free of social media marketing! No matter the size of your business, you can connect with anyone, anywhere, thanks to the reach and power of social media marketing delivered right to your inbox, featuring:
    • 5 Twitter posts,
    • 3 Facebook posts,
    • 2 LinkedIn posts,
    • and 2 blogs every week!
  • Six months free of one direct mail package of your choice! You know direct mail marketing works, now put it to the test with impossible-to-ignore direct mail packages that are written, designed, and production-ready for you each month. Choose from postcards, mailers, newsletters, and more!

I’M READY. TELL ME MORE!