When you surf the net, you are in “nav” mode, i.e. moving from page to page, pointing, clicking, scrolling, searching…and connecting – to the world. In other words, you can move in any direction, and you are not alone. You have the choice to flit, float, jump and zoom around the globe – and the global community – a natural fit if you have a short attention span.
Well, maybe not so natural. Can you imagine learning without this tool? Take yourselves back to a world of just paper. Can you?
Good job. Now you can read, peruse, absorb…one – page – at – a – time. No noise. No distraction. Pure, active learning. The mind paints the picture.
Before the Internet, that’s the (only) way it was.
Didn’t “they” say newspapers would go away? Well, they are still in rather high demand, even though a recent Newsweek issue referred to Amazon creator Jeff Bezos’ digital reader Kindle as the “now generation” book.
So, when to go with paper vs. paperless in your marketing? About fifty percent. If you can’t strike this balance, you need to get inventive.
Paper still delights intrigues, informs, educates and inspires, even though your mailbox may be overstuffed with direct solicitations. There is a place for: direct mail, print advertising, collateral material, etc.
One client of ours has over 250,000 active local clients. That means at least approximately that many printed billing statements in the mail every several weeks. Until our suggestion, nothing but the billing statement. Now we are cross marketing the many other departments with several simple yet colorful pieces.
Voila: additional and tremendous additional interest captured.
So, as you think creative marketing, think paper.
