I’ve been in Marketing for over 18 years. My professional foundation was built on print. I’ve produced hundreds of print catalogs and omni-channel campaigns and can even remember collecting film advertisements.  I’ve also built social channels from the ground up with a collective reach of over 70k. I consider myself well versed in all channels to communicate a marketing message. Here’s what I know: print and social combined are the superpowers behind your marketing strategy.

 Super Strength

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI’s) annual report in 2016,  B2B paid advertising usage for print or other offline promotion was used 57% of the time. Social Ads followed at 51%.

You can achieve the ultimate push and pull with targeted audiences and promotions. Techniques can include variable printing which can be used in conjunction with a social media campaign to encourage subscribers to go to a landing page, subscribe or take action. Take your mailing list and load it into custom audiences for Facebook and target your current audience. Or use your demographics to target. Use creative call-to-actions to drive traffic from print to social.

ESP

Focus on the people. Print needs to be personable and so does social. One size does not fit all. Engage your customers on social, online, mobile, print, broadcast, event marketing, etc. According to Infotrends Group Director, Barb Pellow, print will remain a dominant channel. “The big message is that it needs to work well with other channels,” she continues. The term “omni-channel” may be a marketing buzzword, but it refers to a significant shift—today’s marketers must provide a seamless experience, regardless of channel or device.”

Spidey Sense

At the end of the day, customer engagement is what we are collectively after and it’s a top priority for 81% of marketers. Research by the Gartner group advises businesses to “increase active customer engagement through social, mobile and traditional channel alignment.” As we know, many companies are competing for your customers’ attention. Email inboxes are overflowing and Facebook algorithms are always changing. Printed materials are more likely to get attention and help move you closer to engagement with a strong CTA.

Now it’s time for the lasso of truth moment. It doesn’t matter how great your print or social media is. If your marketing superpowers are not connected and part of a well-planned, strategic marketing campaign then you might as well be working with kryptonite.