Tracking Your Return on Investment on Print Marketing
Many marketers can be put off print marketing. This tends to be for one, or a combination, of the following reasons;
- Mistakes are not so easily rectified
- It’s not considered to be as cool as digital alternatives
- Print cannot offer the same level of analytics
If done correctly print marketing remains a great way to get your message out to your customers and your target audience. While digital offers so many possibilities for marketers, it is important to remember that print can offer an excellent alternative or support to your digital strategy, and can, in many cases, help you in ways that digital cannot.
Print marketing offers your audience a tangible connection with your brand. It is a great way to cut through (or avoid altogether) the noise of online advertising. In many ways, a less disposable means of advertising – users are likely to spend more time engaging with a piece of print advertising. In this article, we’re going to look at how to track your ROI from a print marketing campaign.
Understanding your audience
Before starting any print marketing campaign, it is essential to understand the audience you wish to send too. Then put in place some expectations about the return that you expect to get from this group of people. If you are considering placing an advert in a particular magazine or newspaper you’ll want to know the numbers in regards to typical readership. Having a good handle on who your audience is and where they are likely to be reached, should play a significant role in determining what kind of print advertising you produce and how or where you publish it.
Tracking performance
While the number of metrics for print advertising is not so comprehensive as what is available online, there remain a few key opportunities to track the performance of your print campaigns and to try to make informed decisions for future similar campaigns or further print runs of the same campaign. Tracking options include;
- Dedicated phone numbers
- Direct traffic (measured in Google Analytics)
- Voucher or QR codes
- Promotional URLs
Dedicated Phone Numbers
If there is an opportunity with your business to get customers to call through then having dedicated campaign phone numbers is an absolute must. Many customers will prefer to call you up, so if your business model allows for answering sales enquiries over the phone, then you should ensure that you take the opportunity to track calls into your sales lines. By having dedicated phone numbers, you can see whether or not your print campaigns have been successful and you can optimise for future similar campaigns. Without dedicated campaign numbers, you will be in the dark as to the real success of your print advertising.
Direct Traffic
If you notice an increase in traffic from customers who have typed in your specific brand name or URL, then it is likely that they have come from the extra awareness raised by your print advertising. By keeping an eye on your daily traffic through to your site, you’ll soon get an idea on the typical number of users coming through to your website and their behaviour while they are on there.
Voucher or QR Codes
Having unique voucher or QR codes is an excellent way of understanding whether or not your print advertising is generating the results that you are looking for. By ensuring that these codes are used in specific campaigns, you can be clear exactly where it has been picked up and which print campaign has generated the interest. Having clarity on exactly which campaigns are generating interested is, of course, critical for making future your marketing decisions based on measurable learnings.
Promotional URLs
While an increase in direct traffic is a good indicator of an increase in awareness in relation to your brand, it lacks the same kind qualitative analysis made possible by having a promotional URL. By having a promotional URL, you can see precisely the number of users coming through to your website from your print advertising, as they will be the ones landing on the URL that you have set up expressly for your campaign purpose.
At Kaizen Print we have worked with numerous clients on their print marketing projects, including all kinds of printed promotional materials from small-format prints i.e. posters, flyers and brochures, as well as a variety of other print marketing projects such as display products for events, labels and stickers, and promotional branding like calendars and planners. To find out more about how we can help you with your print marketing you can get in touch via our contact page or call us on +353 19 036119 for more information.