Print Newsletters Make a Comeback

Digital, digital, digital. Print is dead. Digital, digital, digital. Print is dead …

We get why people follow this mantra. We live in a digital first society, where it can be hard to justify spending any of your marketing budget on print (especially if your budget has been cut after the COVID-19 fallout). Your competitors are shifting to heavy digital spending, so doesn’t that mean something? After all, with targeted Google Ads, social media ads and other digital channels, you can get proof, verifiable proof, that people are seeing your advertising and interacting with it. What’s not to love?

Well, for starters, everyone is shifting to digital. This means there’s a lot more noise, and with the bombardment of digital messages, it’s easy for your customer to just tune out.

The resurgence of the print newsletter

Besides, print isn’t dead. In fact, in many ways it’s making a resurgence, and this is particularly true with print newsletters, for several reasons:

• Cost: With the latest advancements in digital printing, such as smaller presses and more sophisticated inkjet printing, it’s now easier to conserve cost on print projects.

• Tactile experience: Despite touchscreen advancements to make screens look and feel like paper, the real thing provides a far superior experience that many prefer.

• Connection: In the wake of COVID-19, connection has become a key component of our lives. After months of isolation and drastic changes to our regular routines, people are craving more tangible connections beyond the digital world.

• Reassurance: People are also looking for some level of reassurance, including from the brands they choose to engage. Sending your customers a print newsletter helps to show them that you’re reliable and aren’t going anywhere.

• Storytelling: In a previous post, we discussed the importance of telling organic, compelling stories in your branding. Print newsletters are a natural storytelling medium, and they give you flexibility in how to do it. For example, you can give each issue an overarching theme that invites interest and encourages engagement.

Nothing beats testimonials

Try to get at least one testimonial in each newsletter issue. We live in the age of choice, where reviews and third-party authenticity are key to getting new customers. Developing a compelling story about a customer’s positive experience with your product or service gives you the opportunity to offer specifics that underscore your brand strengths.  

Case study: Award-winning Synapse newsletter

Synapse is a magazine-style newsletter that’s targeted at referring physicians. When we first took charge of it years ago, the publication had an outdated, copy-heavy design. Unfortunately, there was no budget for a complete redesign. Instead, over the course of several issues, we used our regular issue design budget to implement several changes gradually, which culminated in an issue that won a Silver in the national Healthcare Advertising Awards. These changes included:

• Graphics-heavy approach: Including infographics, sidebars and other visual effects to break up the copy and punch up the overall aesthetics.

• Type hierarchy: We implemented a broader system of different fonts, weights and colors that improved readability, while still giving us latitude to include some longer feature pieces.  

• Hard-hitting features: In addition to testimonials, the award-winning issue included two in-depth features: Henry Ford neurosurgeons helping to reshape the national opioid debate, and their cancer institute and brain tumor researchers leading the charge in the emerging field of precision medicine.

What about email newsletters? Are these still relevant?

Definitely. In fact, by producing content for a print newsletter and then choosing select feature stories to tease in an email version – as well as promoting them on social media – you can save cost by repurposing content, while also ensuring maximum awareness. This offers you the best of both worlds, and having the print version gives you a hedge against the problem of email inbox fatigue. Recipients can easily unsubscribe from your email list, but a print newsletter is harder to ignore.

In future posts, we’ll discuss ways to develop a branded newsletter template that gets attention and which helps to streamline content development, offer some tips for how to rebrand an existing newsletter and explore ways to leverage print advancements to develop multiple newsletter versions – each targeted to a specific audience.

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Vaccine Creative is a hybrid agency that has worked with some of the biggest (and smallest) brands. We specialize in developing thoughtful, effective campaigns that don’t bust the budget. If you’re looking for more guidance on how to plan and implement a new or rebranded print newsletter, contact us.

About Jim

Jim TerMarsch is Founder and Creative Director of Vaccine Creative. He has 24 years of advertising experience both as copywriter and creative director. He has won numerous industry awards including 20 Emmys for his TV series that’s been seen by over 30 million viewers. His experience spans brand campaigns for companies both huge and not-so-huge, immersive consumer installations for the 50th anniversary of the Mustang and others, branded television, customer-experience training and social media.