Digital printing has taken off over the past decade. Now, numbers suggest that businesses spend over $30 billion a year. By 2020, digital printing will comprise over 17 percent of the value of the world’s print and printed packaging.
If your business hasn’t yet made the jump to digital printing for the material and collateral you need to function, you are missing out. There are a few great reasons why digital printing is something every business should consider.
Printing is Better Than Screens for Consumers
One reason to take advantage of digital printing is because it helps consumers more easily digest and understand your material.
A study from San Jose State University found that people’s attention spans decrease when they view material on digital screens. People also spend less time on in-depth reading, and, consequently, demonstrate lower comprehension and recall when they read something on a screen versus a printed version.
Paper is also less distracting than digital, and helps people better manage their time and tasks.
If you want people to really digest your brand messages, try giving them a printed piece instead of just sending them an email or letting them see a post on Facebook.
Printed Material is Superior in Some ways to Digital Ads
Another study – this one from the U.S. Postal Service and Temple University – found that physical ads are better for recall, time spent on the ad, and emotional response than digital ads.
What does this mean? It means that if you want your marketing machine to really take off, you need to incorporate digital printing in some way.
Direct mail marketing is one example of how you can create real, tangible, physical sales and marketing pieces and have people actually hold and touch them. Even the most sophisticated businesses with fully-developed digital marketing systems can benefit from physical products. That’s because printed material resonates with customers and addresses an audience from a direction that digital never can. (Not to say digital isn’t worth it; it’s fantastic and should be a cornerstone of your strategy. But there should be room for printed marketing, too.)
Digital Printing Image Quality is Superb
For years, a debate has raged: is offset printing better than digital printing?
During the early years of digital printing, the image quality you got from offset printing was superior. But, technology has advanced to the point where there is no difference in image quality between the two methods.
Which one you should choose depends on your circumstances. Digital has lower setup costs, allows you to print on demand – even in short batches – and has variable data capability that allows you to make use of customer data (names, addresses, codes, etc.). Formerly, economies of scale meant that offset printing was better for large quantities of material, but even that advantage has become eroded over time.
For most purposes and most businesses, digital printing is the way to go when it comes to marketing material.
The value for digital printing is simple: it gives you a way to make marketing material that speaks to people and gives them a clear path to your message and brand. Printed materials offer a unique and powerful way to reach a target audience. Nothing can ever really replace them, not even in 50 years.
Make use of digital printing with your marketing machine and you’ll see better results.