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Print marketing is dead.

At least, that’s what many online marketers would have you believe. They make the case that digital marketing via websites and social media is the way to go when advertising your business. But while digital marketing is vital in the modern business age, print marketing is still a powerful tool.

Businesses tend to agree too. Projections from Statista state that spending in the print advertising sector will reach $11.34 billion in 2023. Furthermore, Statista estimates that there will be 51.4 million print advertising readers by 2027.

These statistics show us that print marketing is far from dead. And that means a production printer still represents a strong investment for your business. This article explains what a production printer does and how you can use one to improve your marketing efforts.

What Is a Production Printer?

Production printers allow for high-volume printing by providing rapid print speeds and more efficient workflows. In addition, a production printer offers better image resolution than a standard office printer. As such, many companies use production print to create high-quality physical newsletters, brochures, manuals, and similar marketing documents.

There are many benefits to using a production printer:

• Fast printing speeds that don’t negatively impact the clarity or quality of the end product
• The ability to print what you need when you need it, thus reducing waste
• Strengthening your brand by improving the quality of your printed marketing materials

The Techniques for Using a Production Printer to Boost Marketing

Many companies use third-party production printing services to handle their physical marketing documents. While these services offer access to expertise and equipment, that access comes at a high cost. You may wish to bring your print marketing requirements in-house, which necessitates the purchase of a production printer.

But that brings us to a question:

How can your business use a production printer to improve its marketing efforts?

After all, a production printer is a high-cost investment for a small business. You need to justify the cost, which improved marketing that leads to more sales can do. Here are four marketing techniques you can leverage when you have access to your own production printer.

Technique No. 1 – Create Birthday Cards and Similar Personalized Documents

According to data from HubSpot, 99% of marketers say that personalizing their marketing materials helps to advance customer relationships. Moreover, 78% of those surveyed say this impact is either “strong” or “very strong.” It’s these heightened customer relationships that lead to customers being 80% more likely to buy products from companies that offer a more personalized experience.

The message here is that personalization is critical in modern marketing.

With your own production printer, you can create personalized and high-quality documents that strengthen your relationships with your customers. For example, imagine delivering a birthday card to a potential client that’s printed on quality paper. Though a small gesture, this card shows the customer you care about them as an individual, which means they’re more likely to engage with your business.

Similar ideas include sending customized postcards that include images of something that interests your client. Alternatively, you could use production printing to create attractive welcome or anniversary letters to send to clients to mark special occasions.

Technique No. 2 – Direct Mail

The advent of email led many people to assume that direct mail would become a less effective marketing technique.

However, the opposite is the case.

According to Forbes, people open up to 90% of the direct mail they receive. By contrast, an email campaign is successful if it achieves an open rate of around 20%.

These results may be due to the volume of each type of mail a person receives. Somebody might get dozens of marketing emails per week. By contrast, they get far fewer direct mail marketing documents. Many people ignore email marketing or send it to their spam folders, which they’re less likely to do with direct mail.

With this in mind, your company can use a production printer to quickly create direct mail campaigns that are more likely to reach customers than a simple marketing email.

Technique No. 3 – Achieve Brand Consistency

Standard office printers present brand consistency issues. For example, imagine you’re printing a large run of pamphlets. Your brand has a specific color scheme, which needs to remain consistent across all of the pamphlets. A regular printer may not be able to ensure consistency, especially when the toner or ink cartridge runs low and the printer produces faded colors.

This issue is far less likely to occur with a production printer. As they’re designed for commercial use, these printers ensure consistency across all copies of a document. Furthermore, they use much larger toners and cartridges, meaning color fading is unlikely to become an issue.

Technique No. 4 – Create Door Hangers

Production printers can handle printing on irregular paper types, such as door hangers. But why would your business want to use door hangers for marketing?

First, a door hanger guarantees that the recipient will at least look at the document. They have to as part of removing it from their door handle. As a result, door hangers offer a guaranteed open rate, which you can’t get from email or direct mail.

Second, a door hanger shows that your business is willing to go the extra mile. This feeds into the personalization issue discussed earlier. Somebody has to physically place a door hanger onto a handle, which is a tangible effort that your customers will appreciate.

Reach More People With Production Printing

Investing in a production printer opens your business up to a large audience. It enables you to create attractive marketing literature that demonstrates your company’s professionalism while giving you room to add a personalized touch. The more widespread your physical print marketing becomes, the more likely you are to benefit from purchasing a production printer as opposed to using third-party services.

Perhaps you’re ready to start using production printing in your marketing?

At Stargel Office Solutions, we offer the Versant 180 range of production printers. These printers can print 25% faster than their competitors on paper stock up to 350 grams per square meter. If you’d like to learn how we can help businesses in Houston leverage this powerful production printer for marketing, schedule a consultation with us today.