How Your Physical Marketing Can Back Up Your Digital Marketing

Getting your physical marketing to align with your digital marketing is often the holy grail of creating a viral brand. When you bring both together and bridge the gap, you can engage customers at multiple levels and create a full sensory experience that goes beyond just viewing a screen.

But how are you supposed to do this in practice? Well, we have some advice: 

Focus on trust and credibility first

Start by focusing on establishing credibility first. These days, many people view visual ads as spammy, at best, or fleeting. Meanwhile, physical collateral like business cards, brochures, and custom presentation folder printing has real substance. These are the sorts of things that people really remember.

As a marketer, you should look for any tactic that gives you a psychological edge. People value physical objects more than digital ones, and physical flyers serve as real-world validation. Anyone can put an ad online in five minutes, but it takes more effort and dedication to distribute flyers.

Bridge the gap with QR codes and NFC

Another way to combine physical and digital marketing is to use QR codes or NFC tags. Place QR codes on physical objects to direct users to specific landing pages where they can explore the rest of your brand. You can also send them to your link tree.

NFC tags work well in signage or business cards. Users just tap their phone, then follow you on various social media handles.

The goal is to create more actionable data. If you can turn digital data into physical touchpoints, you can generate more engagement. People are more likely to sign up for your services.

Real world retargeting

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Digital retargeting works by placing cookies on people’s computers, but real-world retargeting happens through direct mail.

If a customer engages heavily with your digital content, you can build a profile that suggests they want to engage more. If that’s the case, it may be worth sending them physical mail. They may appreciate it, especially if they’ve given you their address with the intention of receiving mail.

When you do send physical mail, you can market to them consistently and do something different from what usually fills their promotions folder in their email inbox. People skip over even the most incredible promotions in their email inbox, but they’re more likely to pay attention to flyers in their mail, considering how rare they are these days. 

Improve brand recall

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Another way your physical marketing can back up your digital marketing comes in the form of brand recall. When customers can see physical items, they immediately become more memorable to them and they want to explore further. 

According to research, it actually takes less cognitive effort to process physical media compared to digital media. This finding is something that shocked researchers but it may be due to the fact that humans have been dealing with physical objects for much longer than digital ones. It could also have to do with the fact that they’re sensory and involve touch as well as sight.