As an organization, sending the right message to the right people where they are is especially important today. Gone are the days of relying on one avenue to reach your target audience. There are more outlets than ever before, and consumers have more control over the advertising relationship. This need is central to an innovative promotional approach, multichannel marketing.
A multichannel marketing approach involves spreading your brand message across multiple mediums to drive engagement and achieve specific goals. For instance, it can be a powerful tool for fundraising purposes for non-profits and higher education institutions.
How you execute your multichannel strategy determines its effectiveness. You can achieve the full potential of this approach by combining it with print marketing. Print is a crucial asset that can take your multichannel marketing plan to the next level.
Omnichannel vs Multichannel Marketing
You may be wondering about omnichannel marketing, as some people use this term interchangeably with multichannel marketing. While they can appear similar at first glance, they are different promotional strategies. In an omnichannel approach, you provide different forms of content through interconnected channels for a seamless experience.
With multichannel, you maximize reach and drive engagement with a common message across separate platforms. The customer journey options are different, but both methods aim to get the audience to act.
The Role of Print in Supporting Multichannel Marketing
The main goals of multichannel advertising are to increase your reach and enhance engagement. Print is a great option to complement these efforts. It offers you a unique way to reach your audience that rivals digital avenues. The tangible nature of print media allows a deeper level of interaction with your message.
Personalizing your print marketing and leveraging visual elements like color can make it a powerful response driver. You can easily customize media such as brochures, postcards, and direct mail to align with the needs of your target audience. By combining print with digital efforts, your message can appeal to consumers who prefer traditional media and those who engage on digital channels.
Print also helps you integrate your online and offline operations. This is a major part of multichannel marketing, which encourages your audience to engage you through different outlets. It helps you create a holistic approach that increases your exposure and consumer touch points.
The lasting appeal and impact of print material reinforce your brand presence and recognition. Your audience is more likely to remember you when they come across your message on other channels.
How Print Can Improve Donor Stewardship and Engagement Plans
An important part of non-profits and higher education is building strong and engaged relationships, especially with your donors. This is true whether you received small donations or large planned gifts. Fortunately, print marketing can help create meaningful connections with your advocates.
An effective donor stewardship plan goes a long way in achieving things like loyalty to your causes and larger donations. Let’s say you’re running an education fundraiser. Half the battle is promoting your campaign to your audience to inform them of the opportunities to help.
Print can help your education fundraising success in several ways. In a digital-first world, printed materials are rare and create a personal connection with your message. Receiving a fundraising letter or postcard in their mailbox will make donors feel valued. The tangible communication about something they care about provides a unique and memorable experience. This is because your donors will take more time to read them and understand your message.
Print marketing offers many ways to get insight into your donor engagement plan. By studying key performance metrics and past data, you can optimize your fundraising approach accordingly. You can do this by including interactive elements and call-to-actions in your print materials.
Print marketing can also help you build trust and credibility with your donors. A survey by MarketingSherpa revealed that 82% of U.S. consumers trust print advertising. A donor is more likely to engage with and contribute to an organization or cause because they trust your printed message.
Physical media also allows you to target your support base directly. You can be creative and tailor your message to the values of your donors. If you combine this with personalized messages, you create a direct communication channel where the right message reaches the intended audience.
How Print Factors into Gift Planning Marketing
Planned gifting or legacy giving is usually the largest contribution donors make. As such, gift planning marketing is a great path to fundraising success.
To unlock this support from your audience, your advertising must place the megadonors at the center of what you do. You must emphasize the values and desires of your donor rather than your organization’s needs. Print marketing can be the best way to achieve this.
We’ve already established that print promotion helps you cultivate deep relationships that encourage loyalty. Donors with a deep connection to your organization are the best prospects for legacy giving. Physical media such as direct mail, organization cards, and branded gifts with the right messaging can show donors their value to your causes.
A good example is the case of Snider’s Hockey. This non-profit enlisted the help of PDC Graphics to create a personalized message in the form of an Impact Report, which showed the results of the donors’ contributions. It helped them get better responses from a big ask.
Some contributors may wish to make a bigger impact, but they aren’t aware of planned gifts. Since print marketing is highly targeted, you can create campaigns where you inform qualified supporters on how they can create a legacy. Targeted print campaigns educate your audience on this concept and help them decide on a gifting option that suits their philanthropic goals. You can combine this with other integrated mentions across your channels to maximize impact.
Maximize Your Multichannel Marketing Efforts
Given the value of print advertising, you should make it a major part of your multichannel marketing approach. It influences your target audience in a way that other promotional mediums can’t. You have personalization, enhanced engagement, brand recognition, loyalty, and more. All these aspects enhance the impact of your message, helping your organization achieve its goals.
You can take it a step further through the help of a reputable marketing partner. As a leader in commercial printing, PDC Graphics has developed solutions to help your organization thrive in any marketing landscape. Feel free to contact us today and learn more about what we offer!
