It makes sense; according to Statista, revenue for the U.S. newspaper industry shrunk by about $4.5 billion between 2011 and 2018, and respected publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post have had extensive layoffs. This downward trend is predicted to continue in coming years, and some publications have resorted to putting their content behind paywalls to survive.

Just because the future of the newspaper industry is grim, marketers don’t need to forsake print in 2019. Print provides incredible marketing opportunities that digital cannot, and will not, ever be able to offer.

The Value of Print Media

According to MarketingProfs, 92% of 18- to 23-year-olds find it easier to read print over digital content and the response rate for direct-mail marketing is 37% higher than the email rate. When making purchasing decisions, consumers trust print advertisements 34% more than they trust search engine ads.

Print media is not going away anytime soon. In fact, it’s an effective way for marketers to stand out from their competitors and attract audiences. The following are reasons why marketers should still be investing in print in 2019.

Get Higher ROI

The payoff for print ads is often higher than digital ones. People keep print publications in their home, re-reading articles or sharing with others. When those publications live in doctors’ offices or other public spaces, they get a longer shelf life and will be seen by more people. When people see ads online, they may forget them in an instant. If they see them repeatedly while flipping through a magazine, that message is more likely to stick.

Reach Multiple Generations

People think that younger generations are so addicted to their screens that they’re no longer reading print. But looking at statistics, the opposite is true, and younger generations are reading almost as much as older ones. According to MNI, Baby Boomers read 9.2 magazines per month, Gen Xers read 9.1 and Millennials read 8.9.

Gen Zers, or people born between 1995 and 2012, have been hailed as the saviors of the future of print media. According to Folio, even though they’re obsessed with their phones, the average Gen Zer will still read magazines for about an hour every week.

Plus, 61% of Gen Zers believe their peers would benefit from unplugging more. Even though they grew up with technology, they see the value in print media and unplugging when consuming content. According to research from MNI, “Gen Z may breathe new life into print — preferring to use newspapers and magazines [without] interruption and trusting these publications over other media to deliver credible information.”

When marketers invest in print media, they’re targeting the younger generation. This is going to pay off in the years ahead, as Gen Z will become the largest generation of consumers by 2020.

Provide Another Revenue Source

Marketers looking to increase revenue for their clients can sells ads and charge subscribers for print publications, which increases clients’ bottom lines. Advertising sales and print subscriptions are more tangible ROIs than, say, social media or email marketing.

Increase Loyalty

If marketers work with clients that have members and/or associations,these clients have built-in audiences that enjoy reading print publications to learn about upcoming events and classes, news about their members and career development opportunities. These publications are distributed at member meetings and association gatherings, increasing loyalty to the associations as well as membership numbers.

Help Clients Stand Out

Most businesses or organizations are investing in digital and forgetting about print. If marketers want to be unique in this competitive environment for consumers’ attention, they can think outside the box and develop print publications. Going “old school” can give them that edge they’re looking for.

Establish Trust

The research is clear: Consumers trust print media above all other types of media, including digital news outlets and social media platforms. According to a Kantar poll of 8,000 consumers in the U.S., France, Brazil and the U.K., printed news magazines are the most trusted resource for news, followed by 24/7 TV news, radio bulletins and national newspapers. The print versions of national newspapers were more trusted than the newspapers’ websites.

If marketers want to help their clients establish trust among consumers, investing in print media is the way to go. Since customers buy from those they trust, this can lead to higher sales for their clients.

Appeal to Visual Learners

Sixty-five percent of people are visual learners. Marketers can appeal to a majority of the population with print media full of great visuals. Visual, printed media is especially attractive in a time when consumers have to read so much content, including social media feeds, texts and emails on their devices day in and day out.

Are You Ready to Invest in Print Media?

Print media is not going anywhere. Marketers can increase their clients’ revenue, gain consumers’ trust, attract visual learners and younger readers and much more by investing in this medium. Are you ready to start experiencing the benefits of print in 2019?

The post Print Still Matters in 2019 appeared first on RELEVANCE.

Just look at these compelling statistics: 

• Buyers are 48% more likely to take into consideration providers that personalize their marketing to address their specific business problems.
• 81% of buyers are willing to pay a premium for industry-specific solutions.
• Three to four buyer personas usually account for more than 90% of a company’s sales.
• A case study from MarketingSherpa revealed that using buyer personas for a client increased prospects’ length of site visit by 900%, boosted marketing-generated revenue by 171% and improved the email open rate by 111%.

While it’s clear that detailed, accurate buyer personas can lead to more revenue, many companies keep their teams in silos, which eliminates any collaboration when creating buyer personas.

When an Econsultancy study asked workers if they felt their customer experience objectives were supported by members of other departments, 40% said they believed other departments all had their own agenda.

This is all too true when it comes to marketing, customer service and sales teams. Each department has its own set of goals to reach, and, within many organizations, the different teams rarely, if ever, communicate.

According to Accenture, 77% of buyers think that salespeople don’t understand them or their business. Bridging that gap could make a significant difference in the overall success of the company.

When sales and customer service departments work together with the marketing department to develop buyer personas, they can help draw a clearer picture of who their customers are. This, in turn, allows them to target customers more accurately and demonstrate that they understand their customers’ needs. With better alignment, these three teams can produce buyer personas that are going to be much more effective and lead to improved results.

Here a few specific reasons that sales, customer service marketing need to create buyer personas as a team.

Real interactions provide more accurate demographic information 

When marketers create buyer personas, they’re basing them on data - but data can only take them so far. Data isn’t nuanced and can’t always reveal specifically who customers are. Sometimes, it takes a bit of communication to determine who the customers are in real life and not just on paper.

Marketers rarely, if ever, interact with prospects and customers, while salespeople and customer service representatives talk to them every single day. With some insight from sales and customer service, marketers can take the basic demographic information about their customers to a whole new level and identify who they’re targeting.

Salespeople and customer service reps recognize customers’ pain points 

Since salespeople and customer service reps are in constant contact with prospects and customers, they hear customers’ questions and concerns and speak to them about what matters most. With that kind of information, sales and customer service agents can instruct marketers on what pain points to include in buyer personas and the kinds of solutions they should communicate to customers.

From the buyer personas, marketers will create content, so the more accurate and detailed those pain points are, the better. For example, if a customer tells a sales or customer service person, “I’m not sure how to install the software,” that employee can pass that onto their marketing teams, who can update the appropriate persona and create personalized content around how to install the software. Now marketers are legitimately helping customers and everyone — sales, marketing, customer service and the company as a whole — will benefit from informed, satisfied customers.

Salespeople and customer service reps know customers’ communication preferences

Whether salespeople and customer service reps are emailing, communicating with customers on chatbots, sending them texts or talking to them on the phone, they know their customers’ communication preferences.

[bctt tweet="How customers want to communicate is a critical piece of the buyer persona puzzle." username="relevance"]

Salespeople and customer service reps can tell marketers what kind of communication customers want (email, text, phone, chatbot, etc.), how often they want it, how short they want conversations to be and more. When marketers look at the personas, they can determine the most effective ways to interact with customers from a marketing perspective.

Perhaps a persona like “Businessman Bob” is old school and likes to read in-depth white papers, while “Millennial Mitchell” prefers to receive short and snappy emails. Once marketers figure out the way customers want to communicate, they’ll be more likely to help salespeople convert.

Interviews can be conducted for the personas 

Salespeople and customer service reps are excellent communicators. They get to know prospects and customers and make them feel comfortable. When writing buyer personas, it helps to include a few quotes from actual customers. Salespeople and customer service reps can interview select customers to get real (and helpful) insight that marketers can include when creating personas.

Salespeople and customer service reps know customers’ personalities 

A buyer persona should include information about customers’ personalities. For instance, are they introverted or extroverted? Do they use their senses or intuition to make decisions? Are they thinkers or feelers? Do they tend to perceive or judge? Using day-to-day interactions, as well as customer surveys, salespeople and customer service reps can answer these questions for marketers to include in the personas.

Marketers will know what kind of message to create based on which persona they’re targeting. For example, “Inbound Ingrid” may be a self-starter who prefers not to be hard-sold on anything. Instead of getting multiple phone calls from salespeople, she enjoys reading e-books and blog posts to make up her mind.

Knowing this, marketers could create content for “Inbound Ingrid” that is informative and will help her make a decision, then deliver that content in a weekly email. They know Ingrid is going to read it, since she’s a self-starter, so they don’t have to send follow-up emails each week reminding her to check out the content.

When marketers, customer service reps and salespeople alignment on buyer personas, the ensure that they are respecting prospects’ and customers’ personality preferences.

Buyer Personas

Writing buyer personas 

In fact, companies with tightly aligned sales and marketing functions have 36% higher customer retention rates as well as 38% higher sales win rates.

When creating buyer personas together, marketing, salespeople and customer service reps can use templates (HubSpot is known for their great templates), and then work to ensure that all the necessary information is there. With some collaboration, they can not just improve communication and understanding within the company, but can satisfy customers and increase sales at the same time.

The post Why Marketing, Sales and Customer Service Teams Should Collaborate on Buyer Personas appeared first on RELEVANCE.