Digital vs. Print Marketing: Finding the Balance

Print and digital marketing are two different ways to advertise your brand, products, or services. Print marketing is the use of physical media such as billboards, coupons, and newspapers to advertise. Digital marketing includes all advertising activities that take place online, such as websites, emails, and social media content.

Pros:

Cons:

Though digital marketing has more pros than print marketing, there is a significant difference in the return on investment with these marketing initiatives. Digital marketing is less trusted than traditional print advertisements, especially with the rise of GenAI. Brand recognition is 70% greater in consumers exposed to print media vs. digital. According to the 2023 ANA Response Rate Report, direct mail received a return on investment of 161% and email only generated a return on investment of 44%. Print marketing mentions the con of being less environmentally friendly, but digital marketing relies on data centers which consume tons of energy and are not as environmentally friendly as you would think.

Tips to Optimize Print & Digital Marketing

• Utilize different textures or heavier paper weights in print material (embossing or spot UV coating can make a brochure/flyer stand out). 
• Create evergreen print media.
• Include OR codes linking to special offers to enhance digital media.
• Include #hashtags on print material.
• Create landing pages for print specific media.
• Stay consistent with branding and messaging across all media.

How to Choose? Don't!

1. Access audience - if your brand, product, or service is targeted towards younger generations you may want to invest more into digital marketing. Older generations tend to prefer physical media, but that doesn't mean to completely cut digital marketing from the plan; over 70% of seniors are online today.
2. Consider marketing objectives - your goals will determine your marketing mix. For example, you may be looking to increase brand awareness which would require more print media than wanting to drive quick sales.
3. Evaluate budget and resources - you may not have all the skills or time needed to effectively run a campaign, so it is important to take advantage of the skills you do have because outsourcing skills quickly adds up. 
4. Test and optimize approach - your first campaign probably won't get the expected results, but that is okay. It takes time to figure out what marketing mix is effective for your brand, conduct A/B testing with print/digital materials and different call-to-actions. 

As print and digital marketing methods continue to evolve, your brand will need to as well. Technology like augmented reality (AR) is revolutionizing traditional print - by using a mobile device to scan a print you can bring it to life with 3D tours, interactive videos, and more. Digital trends like AI, Generative AI, and  voice search are changing the digital marketing world as well. 

Sources

"ANA Response Rate Report, 2023." ANA, February 2024. https://www.ana.net/miccontent/show/id/84511 

"Digital Marketing Vs. Print Marketing." Digital Hill Multimedia, Inc. 2025
https://www.digitalhill.com/blog/digital-marketing-vs-print-marketing/