The numbers game

Cost vs. Value

The numbers game

Cost vs. Value

Recent years have seen a major switch to digital marketing channels, driven by the increasing ubiquity of the internet across smartphones and tablets as well as laptop or desktop computers, meaning that many consumers are effectively ‘always on’ and reachable just about wherever they are, as far as marketers are concerned.

Further, the two-way nature of digital communication channels provides a degree of direct feedback and monitoring capability that enables expressions of recipients’ interest – such as email open rates and links to websites followed – to occur automatically, giving some immediate measure of the effectiveness of a campaign or specific communication.

These apparent strengths were further boosted during the Covid-19 pandemic period when digital communications became even more prevalent, replacing face-to-face meetings, in-person shopping and a host of live events. Outside areas where the use of print – or at least the option to receive it – is mandatory, such as regulated, transactional communications, print appears to have in many ways become the poor relation, being seen as slow, expensive and not trackable.

But for all its seeming disadvantages, print still has an enduring appeal, and not just among the demographic that grew up in the pre-internet age. Even ‘digital natives’ who have grown up with pervasive internet access like receiving print, though their expectations may be different from previous generations in that they also want it to be personalised and ‘more like digital’.

There is also an important distinction to be made between necessary and desired communications. For an increasing number of people, it’s satisfactory to have transactional and functional communications in digital form for speed and convenience, but for discretionary and aspirational matters, where leisurely browsing and selection are a key part of the purchase, there is a desire to have the permanence and presence of print, whether it’s a retail catalogue or a brochure for a high value item such as a home improvement, car or TV.

Digital downsides

The obvious attractions of digital channels are also their undoing. Their ubiquity and apparent low cost have lead to over-use, channel saturation and ‘digital fatigue’. This manifests in plunging email opening rates, ignored or immediately-deleted SMS messages, and the use of web browsers with ad-blockers and increasingly powerful privacy functions to avoid users being ‘chased’ around the internet with poorly targeted adverts.

Another factor that is overlooked or simply not recognised when comparing print with digital channels is the increasing cost of acquiring sales leads via the latter.

Google has increased its rates for clicks threefold in 12 months. It is not only possible to see what the costs of acquiring leads this way is, but also to see how it’s increasing rapidly.

It might cost £40 – £50 to acquire a lead via digital channels in a B2C setting and several times this in a B2B one, anywhere from £200 to £1000, depending on the product or service. This cost has to be evaluated in terms of the lifetime value of that customer acquisition, which varies widely by product or service type. Armed with the relevant data it is simple to calculate return on investment.

Against acquisition costs like these, print can be very competitive. That level of expenditure per lead/sale would pay for a considerable number of creative personalised print options to be created, produced and delivered. Used in conjunction with online activity, these could yield equal or better results at a lower cost.

Further, once a lead has been acquired, digital print is able to follow up flexibly with targeted or personalised materials to help progress a sale. Depending on the product or service being sold, this could be a full brochure or a simple discount offer leaflet. By adding QR codes to link to personalised landing pages, printers can provide traceability for the printed items too, helping to demonstrate and quantify the value of print.

It is also possible to combine the values and strengths of print with essential messaging. This was the fundamental argument in favour of transpromo or ‘ads on bills’ but the combination of data skills and print quality, flexibility and ability to track response available in the early days of that application – now some 20 or more years ago – meant that the application was limited, although in some cases quite successful despite that.

Now that the integration between print and digital channels is simplified via QR codes being widely accepted and used, the missing link between print and online is in place, enabling the channels to mutually complement and reinforce each other via a multitude of touch points. This also means that it is possible to track print and measure how well it performs. Print-only conversion rates are well-understood in the direct mail industry, so it becomes possible to evaluate cost-per-lead or cost-per-sale of print in the overall marketing mix.