Three Steps to Making the Most of Your Print and Digital Ads – CCIG

Leverage Your Print Ad Efforts to Make a Digital Impact
Author: Davis Snedeker, Director of Growth Marketing - CCIG

Experts expect digital advertising to increase by 50% over the next four years, so it’s crucial to integrate a digital aspect into your marketing and advertising plan. While digital is booming, print ads will remain a reliable and trusted option in your marketing toolbox, and there are ways to save time and money by combining both tactics to build your company’s brand.

At CCIG, we love that Colorado Construction & Design (CCD) Magazine has both a print and digital publication, allowing us to maximize the possibilities of our content. By repurposing print content for digital and vice versa, we can make the most of our team’s time and budget. Recent studies have shown that campaigns are 400% more effective when digital and print efforts are combined, demonstrating the incredible impact that an integrated campaign can make on your business.

Here’s a great illustration of how you can benefit from print and digital tactics.

1. Create content that can be used in both print and digital.

This article is the perfect example: it will also be published in the print version of CCD, which allows us to share hard copies with prospects and partners.

Other Ways to Share Print Content:

• Share copies at events
• Keep copies in your waiting room or at the office
• Include copies with other print documents you provide to clients and partners (like estimates, contracts, or other leave-behinds)

With CCD’s online magazine, we can link to the article or page and boost its digital impact.

Expand Your Digital Outreach:

• Post a link on your business social media pages
• Share a link on your website
• Include a link in your email marketing or an e-newsletter
• Encourage individual team members to re-share or post the content on their social pages

When writing an article or an advertisement, consider how it could be used in print and online. It saves you valuable time and helps your content reach a wider audience.

2. Measure your success

What does success look like in print and digital media? It varies based on the platform, but here are a few ways to measure the success of your efforts.

Print Marketing and Advertising

• Ask the print publication how many people read the magazine to get an idea of their possible reach
• Learn more about how new partners and prospects found out about your business and if you can attribute any to the ad or marketing piece

Digital Marketing and Advertising

• Review social media statistics:
  • Post reach - how many people saw your social media posts?
  • Engagement - how many people liked and shared your post?
  • Follower count - did your number of followers increase after sharing the content?
• Review web statistics:
  • Website analytics - how many website visits came from your posts or links within the content?
    • Ask the publication if they can share their typical or estimated web reach

3. Refine and repeat 

Once you start using integrated campaigns and reviewing your analytics, you can get a baseline for how well your efforts are working. After each ad or content piece, ask yourself what was successful and what can be improved.

Advertising (both print and digital) is an evolving process that requires testing to see how your audiences respond to your content. By continually reviewing your analytics and refining your message, you’ll develop a strategy to build your brand awareness and boost your business.

Sources: https://www.insiderintelligence.com/insights/digital-advertising-market-trends-predictions/
https://socalnewsgroup.com/blog/print-advertising-isnt-dead