Some marketers are convinced digital will eventually take over. The ones getting the best results know better: the internet is a powerful tool, but it works hardest when it’s paired with print, not instead of it.
The Challenge
Reaching today’s customer means competing for attention across more channels than ever. Relying on a single channel — even a fast, low-cost one — leaves response rates on the table.
Why It Matters
The data backs this up. A recent InfoTrends study found that companies combining print, web landing pages, and email saw response rates improve by an average of 35% over print-only campaigns. Add personalization to the mix, and that number climbs closer to 50%.
No single channel wins on its own. The internet is excellent at gathering information quickly. Direct mail is excellent at driving people to a storefront or a website. Give your audience more than one way to engage, and they’ll choose the one that works for them, which is exactly the point.
A Practical Way to Combine Them
One of the most effective ways to bring print and digital together is by pairing variable data printing (VDP) with one-to-one digital messaging, personalized URLs and targeted emails. This lets you personalize every layer of a campaign: the images shown, the message, even the specific offer each person sees.
Where Do You Start?
Chase Granberry, Founder of AuthorityLabs, suggests starting with what each medium does best. Purchase a prospect list that mirrors your best customers, then send a direct mail piece designed to drive interest toward an informational landing page.
People are willing to share their contact information when there’s something in it for them — a special offer, a contest, an event invitation, a newsletter. This opt-in approach does two things at once: it keeps you compliant with current legislation, and it gives you the details you need to build a more relevant relationship.
“The more information you gather, the more relevant you can make your product or service to the customer,” Granberry explains. “And the better you execute that, the higher your response rates.”
Some marketers have taken this further than you’d expect. Granberry shares one example: a friend received a windshield wiper offer on the exact day it rained in Phoenix — from a retailer he’d shopped with months earlier. Not a coincidence. A well-timed, well-targeted campaign.
What’s Now Possible
When print and digital work together, your customers get a message that feels relevant instead of generic — and you get the data to make every future message even more precise.
This kind of integration isn’t theoretical. Take a higher education client that was gathering prospect information through mail-in, call-in, and online channels — names, programs of interest, nearest campuses — but sending the same generic follow-up mail to everyone regardless of what they knew. Prisma helped build web-to-print products that pull that initial contact data directly into a variable data print (VDP) direct mail application, automatically personalizing each piece and opening additional channels to keep the conversation going. The result: lower costs through automation, and follow-up mail that actually reflected what each prospect had shared — helping convert more of that early interest into enrollment.
