Have you heard an expert suggest that print marketing is dead or at least on the way out? Some mistakenly believe that online marketing and social media have replaced printed materials. While online marketing and social media are important elements to your donor development strategy, print marketing is far from dead. It’s alive and kicking and may be the key to reaching your donors.
While print marketing is often more expensive than online marketing, your donors will appreciate holding colorful brochures, browsing catalogs, and reading impactful printed stories of transformation.
Here are four reasons why printed material should be part of your marketing strategy:
1. Printed Material Communicates Your Donors’ Value
With today’s print capabilities, it’s easier than ever to personalize letters with your donors’ names. You can add their names throughout the text of your organization’s letters and even hand-address envelopes. Measures like these, when done strategically, show how much you appreciate them. You have taken the time to speak to them personally, and that is sure to capture their attention!
2. Printed Material Drives Your Donors’ Engagement
At one time, people’s mailboxes were flooded with printed materials. Now, not so much. Conversely, pop-up ads and competing offers fill websites and inboxes. All these glaring advertisements can discourage or distract readers. Users leave sites, close pop-ups, and delete emails before they read any messages. With printed material in hand, readers can focus on your message and mission, giving them a chance to make informed and thoughtful decisions about their involvement in your ministry.
3. Printed Material Can Leave your Donors Wanting More
In addition to your ministry updates and feature stories, you can build anticipation by giving supporters a glimpse of what is to come and provide just enough information to make them look forward to receiving future special event communications like a “save the date” for a holiday fundraiser or a “mark your calendars” for an upcoming missions trip.
4. Printed Material Allows for Freedom and Creativity
Using printed material gives you the freedom to choose how to convey your message. You can use letters, postcards, newsletters, and/or brochures for starters, but don’t stop there. Create a ministry calendar, or a booklet, or even a banner. These creative and “uniquely you” mediums will allow your message to come through loud and clear!
No matter how tempted you are to focus solely on online marketing efforts, there’s a place in your marketing strategy for printed material. This valuable medium gives you an opportunity to engage your people in a secure and creative way while communicating just how valuable they are to your success. Planning and tracking your print marketing is an important part of the process, and that process is made easier with a robust donor management software like DonorDirect. With a CRM like DonorDirect, you can plan your marketing campaigns, segment your list in a variety of ways, and keep track of all your communications, including your print marketing. All this means better planning and support for you and greater communication and trust for your donors. You will see a greater return on your investment, and your message is better prepared to impact your donors in a positive way.