Why Bundling Print and Digital Media Makes Sense for ROI

If there is one thing that will drive your dollar further in the marketing game it is the ability to leverage an audience. That is to say, assuming you know who your ideal customer is, that you can repeat your message to them in a variety of their day-to- day media consumption activities.

To the individual receiving your messages, this not only creates the sense that everyone in their community is buying your product, but gives you an opportunity to tell the story in different ways. The total bundle of messages delivered via social media, programmatic display ads, articles online and print media has the target audience member moving quickly from awareness to desire. Action – the thing that happens when funds and time are available – is easily directed to your product because they have learned about it before.

This construct revolves around a good awareness of who your customer actually is. Your observations as a business owner or manager are invaluable to professional marketers who ultimately serve you better by honing in with extreme granularity to exactly your target market – using every possible indicator available. Say you have a home makeover product – once upon a time we may have used simple demographics to describe a target audience i.e. “women aged 45+”. That is a lot of people and it will cost a lot to reach them all. Today it is more common to use extra attribute-based filters of the audience such as “women aged 45+ living in homes of $2M and above in key locales, with mature families, high disposable income and an interest in interiors”, or just to look for behavioural intent signals in digital data. This is where the digital part of bundled print and digital advertising starts to really deliver.

Publishers, by nature of the fact they produce content and publish it in a variety of print and digital formats, have access to some of the most useful data a marketer could ever wish for. They collect IP addresses at large scale, they collect email addresses as a default, purchase/delivery data for their products, as well as engagement data from various surveys, competitions and programs. These data assets can inform highly granular digital campaigns. It is possible therefore, when working with a publisher with assets in the home space for example, to not only find “women aged 45+ living in homes of $2M and above in key locales, with mature families, high disposable income and an interest in interiors” but to also add a behavioural indicator like “has entered a home décor store in the last 30 days”.

So back to bundling. Once you know your target audience a smart buy would be a bundle of print and digital assets that expose your brand, and tell your brand stories, at high repetition over a number of months subject to the length of the purchase cycle of your brand. Brands that are a quick pick up at the supermarket can run short term 3-6 Month campaigns quite effectively, but brands with a more long-term outlook such as renovation services, need to be there for a longer play – 12-month campaigns being the norm.

Bundling print and digital in an advertising sales plan maximises your reach, creates cross-platform synergy, and increases your average order value.

Here is a breakdown of why this strategy works and how it benefits your bottom line:
Key Benefits for Marketers

• Maximised Reach: Combines the targeted, engaged readership of print with the broad, measurable, and interactive capabilities of digital.

• Frequency and Impact: Delivers multiple touchpoints across different mediums, dramatically improving brand recall and audience conversion rates. There are no conversions without desire, and there is no desire without awareness, so build awareness and desire in the minds of the audience members most likely to buy.

• Cost Efficiency: Multi-platform packages often provide a lower cost-per-impression (CPM) or cost-per-acquisition (CPA) than buying print and digital separately.

At Universal Media Co we specialise in targeted audiences. By honing in on our customers most desired audience we save our customers money and increase the chances of their key messages hitting home. Other approaches focus on creating a large number alone. Work with your Universal Media Co team member to really hone in on what your ideal customer looks like. Even if the attributes seem superficial – you know your buyer, and your intel on that is a key tool for the professional marketing consultant who wants to help you win.