Print Marketing Trends – Branding 2021
Why Print Will Never Die
When you work in marketing, keeping up with the latest trends in the name of the game. As some technologies and strategies become obsolete others take off like a rocket ship. It’s important to aware of what’s trending and what’s losing steam. After all, it doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with digital or print marketing trends, you have to stay sharp.
The best part about print marketing is there will always be a need for it. Curious to know why?
Marketing Materials
Print marketing gets results. They stimulate customers in more than one way, oftentimes taking advantage of multiple senses of the target audience at once. Digital doesn’t do that just yet.
So, today we are going to focus on the print marketing trends of 2021 and highlight what’s working and what you need to be doing in print to get the results you want from your campaigns.
Let’s talk about what print marketing is briefly, then we’ll talk about what trends to pay attention to.
What is Print Marketing?
Also called print media, print advertisements are geared towards a specific target audience. These ads are mailed to the home, found in newspapers or trade publications, found in the supermarket checkout selling packs of gum or mints, or in the crowded air space of NYC’s time square where advertisements are printed on billboards.
Print marketing is any physically printed advertisement you see offline that uses words to get your attention. You most likely see hundreds of print ads every day.
Now that you have a clear understanding of what print media is, you can understand how print marketing trends are being used and grasp why it’s working.
Trends in Print Marketing 2021
Let’s dive into some of the hottest print marketing trends of 2021.
Minimalistic Design
This has been reimagined and the proof is in the sales. Customers are flocking to the simplistic, and the business world has taken notice as well. Apple, Microsoft, Target, and Portside Marketing all use this design structure in their print marketing. When your style is clean and simplistic customers seem to gravitate towards your product and services. This can be done with muted color, less busy fonts, and a smaller amount of content on your print.
When you look at magazine print, you can see the visual simplicity and minimalism catering towards a more useful design.
Combining Print and Digital Media
We know this is about print marketing trends, but this trend is huge and it incorporates digital and print! This is really cool because it gives a very big boost in interaction.
For example, if you’re reading an article, newspaper, or publication and then a QR code is on the page, you can use your phone, to scan that code. This code may be a 20% coupon you can save to your phone for later, or it may bring you to that article on your phone so you can finish reading it later if you don’t own that magazine and more.
Maybe your reader is in the waiting room of a dentist, doctor’s office, or lobby waiting to meet with a client.
This gives you marketing flexibility and a dynamic that caters to different age groups. It also increases engagement because if the article in the publication is interesting, it can now be enjoyed in more than one way, print, or digital (easily).
Haptic Memory Print Marketing
This may sound weird but stick with us, haptic memory means a specific form of sensory memory specific touching something. You stimulated by touch. Think of raised pictures that have texture differences when they are touch.
This stands out from normal print, because it’s using more than one sense to be unique, and the more senses your customer attaches to your marketing the more they remember your product or service. For example, perfume print marketing trends have always used the peel back flap in a magazine that holds their signature scent.
However, in 2021, scratch and sniff accompanied by changes in color have made marketing more memorable. 3D materials and colors are trends to focus on in 2021.
Customer Case Studies and Stories
This marketing strategy has become more and more popular. The reason is that customers want to know what you are going to do for them. How are you going to help them? Customer case studies and stories are more in-depth than a testimonial.
They offer insights into the customer’s problem, what other options they tried and what made them settle on your product, and how your service or product made a difference.
Provide your prospects with real customer experiences of how your work is making a difference. You can use this new trend to launch specific campaigns for a target audience. Your customer stories will be specific to your demographic, solving the pain-points they are most likely also experiencing.
This offers personalization into your marketing. Which leads us into the last trend.
Creative Customer Personalization
When you pick a target persona or just one person to speak to in your marketing, it can be scary. Think about how many potential customers you are leaving out of the equation. The truth is, however, by targeting a specific type of customer you make your marketing more accurate and specific to that prospective customer’s needs.
This makes your print marketing much more potent and direct, which speaks to the pain points and problems of who needs your service.
This print marketing trend is going to be one that sticks around. If you have multiple products, do multiple print ads. Customizing your publication in smaller sections or single ads that target a laser-focused target audience can be much more productive in your marketing efforts.
You will notice your readers, and customers feel a much better connection to your brand and product when you personalize it this way.
Print Marketing, Advertising, Design and Trends conclusions
In this article, we went over the print marketing trends of 2021. These trends are being used to increase customer engagement, improve brand loyalty, and show customers, there is a shift in how companies are doing business. It’s more about how they can help the customer and less about the companies status.