Double the Impact: How Print Ads Can Supercharge Your Digital Marketing Campaigns

The primary focus in most marketing campaigns has become effective digital advertising. However, print advertising, a medium often considered outdated, has proven to be a valuable resource when it comes to reinforcing digital marketing efforts.

When used strategically, print ads can drive digital engagement, increase brand awareness and trust, and boost online conversions. No matter if you’re a local business or a national brand, combining print with digital helps reach a wider range of potential consumers across multiple touchpoints. 

The hybrid approach can prove particularly effective during times when visibility and brand recall are paramount, including when businesses are launching new campaigns, pushing promotions or during seasonal sales cycles.

Combining print with digital successfully requires a key focus on consumers and how they absorb information, trust content and act on marketing messages. Ultimately, an effective campaign can guide readers to online action, forming a powerful one-two marketing punch.

Here’s a closer look at the value that print advertising holds, why it is beneficial to combine print and digital, and how to implement a hybrid strategy that can help your business thrive.

The Continued Value of Print Advertising

While print has a stigma of being a thing of the past, it maintains several effective marketing benefits. Print advertising still offers long-term strategic value, and is a useful tool to enhance any marketing campaign thanks to several benefits, including:

• Tangible brand presence – Whether it’s a direct mail postcard, a magazine or a brochure, print gives your brand a physical presence that digital can’t replicate. This allows for a deeper emotional connection and a lasting impression with consumers that helps them remember your brand. According to worldmetrics.org, 78% of consumers say they are more likely to recall a brand after receiving printed marketing materials.

• Perceived legitimacy and less clutter – Having something featured in a print publication often carries greater weight than it being displayed on a digital platform. Print suggests stability, professionalism and investment, building trust and influencing purchasing decisions, particularly in service-based industries. Meanwhile, print ads can be more attention grabbing for potential consumers thanks to avoiding the barrage of ad messages, overloaded email inboxes and banner blindness that can occur online.

• Longer lifespan – Customers may only see digital ads for a few seconds, whereas print materials often linger in homes, offices or waiting rooms for days, or even weeks. For example, worldmetrics.org notes that the average lifespan of a printed catalog is 2.5 months, often much longer than that of a digital ad. The extra exposure can help lead to campaign longevity and more impressions over time without additional spend. 

• Local market penetration – Geotargeting has allowed digital ads to be placed in front of a hyperlocal audience as well, but being able to target a specific area remains a valuable benefit of print ads. Local newspapers, mailers and community magazines give businesses direct access to neighborhood audiences, often with minimal competition.

• Complement to brand identity – Print can enhance your visual brand identity through rich textures, custom finishes and high-quality images. This contributes to a premium brand experience that can strongly resonate with consumers who value craftsmanship and authenticity.

• Higher engagement from target demographics – Certain demographics, such as older adults and high-income professionals, still respond well to print advertising. Going exclusively digital with your marketing could mean missing out on valuable leads and loyal customers.

Between credibility, staying power and the ability to grab attention without the distractions that can surround viewing an ad online, print has proven that it remains a valuable part of a successful marketing strategy.

Why Print and Digital Work Better Together

While print still holds value, its greatest effectiveness often lies when paired alongside a company’s digital marketing efforts. Digital marketing is fast, measurable and scalable, but it is also crowded, as customers can easily scroll past many ads while browsing. Meanwhile, print retains tangible power that demands attention, often resulting in higher recall and emotional response.

Still, a well-designed print ad shouldn’t just be a standalone message, but rather a gateway to online interaction. Combined, these strategies can have several advantages, such as:

• Higher engagement and website traffic – Print ads engage readers longer than digital ads, increasing the chance that they eventually could follow your call-to-action (CTA). In turn, those CTAs, which should be clearly labeled and easy to follow across all advertising platforms, can directly funnel potential customers to your website, landing pages or social media profiles.

• Increased brand awareness, credibility and trust – Seeing your business at multiple touchpoints should increase brand recall for potential customers, particularly with consistent branding. This also can foster greater trust in a company, something particularly done through print ads. According to worldmetrics.org, 77% of consumers say physical materials like print make a brand seem more credible. Meanwhile, ZipDo notes that 70% of consumers still trust direct mail ads more than digital. 

• Enhanced campaign reach and omnichannel engagement – Print allows businesses to reach additional demographics that might not actively engage with digital channels. A combined print and digital strategy taps into various customer preferences, allowing messaging to resonate with both tech-savvy users, and consumers who respond better to physical touchpoints.

• Improved retargeting results – Print ads can ultimately serve as a precursor to retargeting through digital advertising. For example, direct mail recipients who later encounter your brand online could be more likely to convert. According to worldmetrics.org, 62% of direct mail recipients visit a company’s website after receiving print marketing.

Ultimately, the pairing of print and digital within an omnichannel marketing strategy should provide businesses with a cross-channel uplift. As noted by writersblocklive.com, businesses that combine direct mail and digital strategies see a 28% increase in conversion rates, and a 450% increase in response rates.

How to Combine Print and Digital Effectively

Combining print and digital entails more than just adding a flyer to the mix or creating a good design. Rather, it means integrating each campaign with each other to produce optimal results. To do this, marketers should:

1. Identify where a hybrid strategy works best

Businesses should identify the touchpoints where their customers go from awareness to action, and what spots along that journey are the best to use both print and digital. It’s important to figure out where a hybrid effort can best strengthen your marketing strategy to create the most efficient and cost-effective plan for your business.

2. Strategically implement QR codes or augmented reality (AR)

QR codes and AR – technology that overlays digital content onto the real world through smartphones, tablets or other devices – make it easy for print readers to act instantly, and have become increasingly popular thanks to touchless pandemic-driven trends. These codes can be placed on flyers, magazine ads or direct mail that leads users to product pages, sign-up forms, social media pages, event registrations, product videos, tutorials or an online store checkout page. Performance can be tracked through UTM parameters.

3. Leverage personalized URLs (PURLs)

PURLs are custom web addresses that are tailored to the recipient. They can be used within direct mail campaigns to deliver personalized data, capture lead data, track print effectiveness and trigger automated email sequences. Personalization also has a chance to further drive conversions, as 76% of consumers say that receiving personalized communications is a key factor in their consideration of purchasing from a brand, according to McKinsey & Company.

4. Align messaging across channels

Branding, messaging, headlines, visuals, promotional offers and CTAs should remain consistent across print and digital. This will help consumers connect the dots between the mailbox and their inbox, while reinforcing brand identity.

5. Incorporate social media through handles and hashtags

A company’s digital content can be easier to find through engagement on social media channels. Businesses should encourage print readers to connect with their brand online through social handles or campaign-specific hashtags. On the flip side, businesses can also feature social media reviews within print ads. This can showcase positive things customers are saying about your company that certain demographics might not see if they don’t use social media. It also displays your online presence to offline customers while increasing brand awareness and trust.

6. Use print for lead generation

Print ads can introduce a new audience to your brand before retargeting online, potentially boosting click-through rate (CTR) and conversions. Additionally, offering something of value on a print ad, such as an ebook, webinar or discount code, in return for email addresses or online sign-ups, can make for a dynamic lead generation tool.

How to Measure the Success of Print’s Digital Impact

Measuring results and adapting is key in any marketing campaign. Results derived from print ads alone can be hard to gauge, but their impact on digital can be measured in many ways, including:

• Trackable links – Adding UTM parameters to URLs and QR codes in print ads can help track traffic sources, visits, conversions and behaviors in Google Analytics.

• Dedicated landing pages – Creating print-exclusive landing pages can help track how many users came from a specific campaign.

• Conversion analysis – Compare conversion rates of users exposed to both print and digital versus digital-only audiences.

• A/B testing – Run controlled experiments to test the effectiveness of including a print element within an omnichannel campaign.

With the proper metrics in place, businesses can analyze the impact of combining print with their digital efforts and adjust to the most optimal plan based on the results.

Real-World Businesses That Excel While Combining Print With Digital

Nike

Nike is arguably the most recognizable athletic brand worldwide, and continues to grow thanks to strategically combining print and digital advertising efforts. Through the years, Nike has seamlessly integrated print catalogs, direct mail and in-store print ads with digital campaigns across social media, email and mobile apps.

Nike’s print materials often display QR codes or PURLs that drive customers to exclusive online content or shopping experiences. Personalization, combined with consistent branding across all platforms, encourages customer interaction at all touchpoints, and keeps Nike among the most popular brands worldwide.

One of Nike’s most recent strategies features AR triggers in print ads that unlock exclusive content like behind-the-scenes footage, athlete interviews and limited-edition product releases when scanned with the Nike app.

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is another highly popular worldwide brand that continues to build through a combination of powerful marketing efforts. Coca-Cola has long utilized print through billboards, print ads and packaging, and recently, the company’s print efforts have supported digital campaigns and contests.

One of Coca-Cola’s most famous and successful campaigns through the years has been “Share a Coke,” featuring printed names on bottles. Coca-Cola enhanced the campaign in 2025, immersing digital into the strategy with on-pack QR codes that lead to the Share a Coke digital hub. There, fans are immersed in interactive experiences like customizing packaging with additional names or creating personalized videos.

Through this, Coca-Cola has created deeper emotional connections to its product while sparking greater online engagement and user-generated content.

IKEA

IKEA, a furniture retailer that originated in Sweden, has continued to grow through strategic marketing efforts, as it has expanded to over 60 countries, with over 50 locations in the United States. 

One of IKEA’s top marketing strategies has come through its furniture catalog, featuring scannable images that open with AR previews in its app. This not only maintained the appeal of print, but also drove users to digital platforms where they could conveniently make a purchase.

IKEA has implemented other clever marketing ideas in recent years, one being the “Soffa Sans” campaign. To help promote its customizable sofa range, IKEA created a print ad featuring its own font design based on sofas. Users were able to scan a QR code that downloaded the font, creating a fun experience to engage potential customers while sparking brand recall.

Best Version Media Can Help Manage Your Print and Digital Marketing Efforts

Best Version Media can help your business find success by managing a marketing strategy that effectively combines print and digital advertising efforts.

BVM has helped businesses increase visibility through print for nearly two decades with over 1,300 monthly publications across the United States and Canada. We also offer digital advertising solutions which generate over 300 million monthly impressions.

Connect with BVM today to find the omnichannel marketing strategy that best suits your business.