TO PRINT OR NOT TO PRINT

Having 30 plus years in the printing business, I am amazed at the number "print users" who have turned their backs on what has been one of the most commonly used marketing and communication solutions for the past several centuries. I was sitting at the dinner table the other night and happen to notice a very nice and elegant looking envelope sitting on top of our "collect all" spot on our counter top (yes we all have one of those). So I grabbed it and opened it. It was a very well presented personalized invitation from Visa for their black card. As I was reading it I commented to my wife and started to wonder how Visa would have otherwise gotten my attention if I had not see this printed marketing piece. I guess they could have sent me a an EBlast, but that surely would have been deleted by the Supper Duper Bulk EBlast deletion software I downloaded to eradicate all those thousands of EBlasts I get daily. Visa could have also run an add on TV that I would have missed because I am usually typing on my laptop during TV commercials. Or perhaps they could send a SMS message to my PDA that I don't own.
Obviously, this electronic world is getting the better of us in many ways, but I am one to truly believe there will come a point when we will need to return to our grass roots that got us here in the first place … and print something. Yes, I agree the internet has become a necessary an irreplaceable tool for all our business communications but it is not the end all. There are creative ways available to use a combination of print and the internet with the use of PURL’s (personalized URL’s) to help increase the accuracy and response rate of the printed marketing message. Without the Internet there would be no way to gain specific detailed response information from the prospect receiving your promotion. PURL’s help pique your customers interest and captures your response information in a way that was never available prior to the internet.
Personally, I think it is just a matter of time before the use of print gains speed again as a tool for driving prospects to web solutions or simply as another proven method of marketing as a stand alone.