5 Reasons Start-Ups Need Print

September 30, 2015

When Entrepreneur speaks, small businesses listen. Recently, the magazine published some powerful reasons that businesses—new start-ups, in particular—need to resist the siren call of digital-only marketing and make a commitment to print.

The reason is awareness. When you are a start-up, getting the word out means everything to your business growth and success. Here are 5 reasons start-ups need print to do that.

The digital world is vast.

Whether customers find you has a lot to do with serendipity. If they are in the right place at the right time, or if they use the right search terms, they might. But the digital world is swarming with competitors—legitimate and nonlegitimate— and consumers are bombarded with new marketing pitches with every screen refresh. You’re just one marketing voice in a sea of others.

Digital marketing relies on targeting niches.

If you take a niche only strategy, you limit your business growth. Print allows you to move beyond niche markets and reach a broader audience.

Print has staying power.

Unlike digital marketing, which may only remain in the customer’s field of view for a few seconds, print stays on the desk, the table, or the counter. It isn’t forgotten the moment the viewer clicks out, scrolls down, or clicks to another page.

Print gives small businesses a lot of options.

Signs, banners, window clings, posters, dimensional mailers . . . there is a lot more to print marketing than flyers and direct mail.

Print provides instant credibility.

Sure, digital marketing is inexpensive, but that also creates a world of indiscriminate competition. Small companies look like big companies. Disreputable businesses promote themselves alongside reputable ones. Just by virtue of putting your message on paper, it gives your business instant legitimacy that online marketing doesn’t.

Print is an important part of the mix for all growing companies, but it’s particularly important for small, growing businesses because of the longevity, broad-based appeal, and legitimacy it provides.

This article is based on concepts published in “Don’t Overlook Print When Mapping Out Your Startup Marketing Plan,” Entrepreneur, March 2015.

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