July 10, 2025
Multi-Channel Marketing: Making Your Print & Digital Tactics Work Together
Print will always play a big role in business communications because it offers a personal touch that digital channels can’t match. A well-designed business card or brochure, for example, can really leave an impression on potential clients and help them remember your business and what you do.
We’re living in a digital age, where most people spend a lot of time online, on social media, and using mobile apps. To reach more people and stay competitive, businesses need to use both print and digital marketing in their overall plan. By combining both, businesses can create a consistent image and message across all platforms, which can increase brand recognition and ultimately drive sales.
The most effective way to drive real results with your marketing is to ensure that customers are consistently exposed to your message through multiple channels and touchpoints. By strategically combining print and digital tactics, you can create a cohesive campaign that reinforces your key messaging at every turn, ultimately making your efforts more impactful. For instance, a single advertisement on social media may spark initial interest, but it’s the repeated exposure to your message across various platforms – such as billboards, email newsletters, and in-store promotions – that truly drives brand recognition and conversion.
To maximize the effectiveness of your campaign, it’s crucial that your primary message remains consistent throughout. Focus on highlighting a single product or service, and ensure that your design elements, including logos, color schemes, and typography, are identical across all marketing channels. This will enable your customers to instantly recognize your business and connect the dots between your various messages, ultimately fostering a deeper connection with your brand.
Create a comprehensive campaign that covers all bases by combining print and digital tactics, to significantly boost their individual impact. Integrate them seamlessly by leveraging the unique strengths of each medium to create a powerful synergy. Print media excels at grabbing attention, establishing credibility, and leaving a lasting impression on potential customers. Its tangible nature allows people to touch, feel, and share physical materials, making it ideal for creating brand awareness. Digital media offers an immersive experience, enabling businesses to share detailed information, update content in real-time, and encourage instant engagement.
Technological innovations like QR codes bridge the gap between print and digital media. Design a postcard showcasing products with a QR code that links directly to your website’s full catalog, allowing customers to seamlessly transition from offline to online. Alternatively, advertise an in-store promotion, such as a discount or free gift, exclusively available to followers on social media. By incorporating QR codes, you connect your digital presence to real-world interactions, fostering a cohesive brand experience.
Digital tools provide a practical means of measuring the return on investment (ROI) of your print marketing efforts. Create a unique landing page or append a UTM code to a URL specific to a campaign you want to track. Display this URL (or a QR code directing to it) on your print materials. By monitoring visitors to the site compared to the volume of material distributed, you’ll gain a clear understanding of your campaign’s performance. This data refines your strategy, allocating resources more effectively and maximizing your ROI.
In the traditional customer journey, there are four phases people go through to become a customer: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. To complement this process, different messages are appropriate at different phases to nurture someone along their customer journey. Keeping this in mind can inform the timing of your online and offline tactics. An effective print and digital marketing campaign might look like this:
Initially capture a prospect’s attention with a bold sign outside your storefront. Let’s say you own a framing shop. They see the “Custom Framing” sign as they’re walking past, then go home and remember the poster they’ve been meaning to get framed, still sitting in its cardboard tube.
A few days later, thinking of the poster, the prospect goes online and searches “picture framing near me.” A pay-per-click ad pops up for your store. They recognize the message and remember passing your shop the other day. They click the ad to visit your website and look at some examples of your work in your online gallery. Impressed with your business, they sign up for your email list.
Weeks later, your prospect still hasn’t gotten around to bringing the poster in for framing. However, they received one of your standard marketing emails, promoting a big sale you have coming up. For a limited time only, they can save 20% on custom framing. Not wanting to miss out on the deal, they stop by that evening with the poster and get it framed.
Several months later, your prospect (now a customer!) receives a postcard in the mail from your business. Remembering how pleased they were with your service the first time around, and thinking about the new pieces of art they need framed, they stop by to start planning their next project with you.
In this example, you’re first capturing attention with bold signage and a simple message. Then, because you purchased digital ads that echoed the message on your sign, you were able to draw the prospect in to learn more. You used your website to tell your brand’s story and show examples of the quality work you do to earn their trust. Next, you shared a compelling and time-sensitive reason to make the purchase with the sale email. Finally, you stayed top of mind with a mailer aimed at driving repeat business.
Most likely, any of those tactics on their own would not have won over your customer. But by reaching them with the right message, at the right time, via the right channel, you just won yourself a new customer who may bring you business for years to come.
Ready to launch your next print and digital marketing campaign? PostNet is here to help you plan your campaign and print everything you need to round out your digital efforts. Stop by the center near you today to get started!
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