When we think of contemporary marketing, we’re much more likely to think of SEO, SEM, social media marketing, or even blogging and other types of content marketing. While those practices are certainly important, traditional print marketing still holds a very important place in today’s ideal marketing mix.
One huge problem that digital marketing still has today is a lack of human warmth, physicality, and immediacy. While it’s not impossible to impart these qualities over digital media, traditional print media such as custom letterhead stationery makes this easy to do. The tactile qualities of print and the old-world vibe imparted by good quality stationery make them an especially useful marketing tool.
Here are just some of the ways custom letterhead stationery remains relevant today.
It humanizes your business
Letterhead recalls a simpler time when people actually wrote letters to each other. When designed correctly, or when using traditional processes such as engraving or embossing, your business can have some of the warmth associated with personal letters, and give a more relatable human quality.
Custom letterhead stationery solidifies your branding
Letterhead can capture the imagination and help your brand achieve instant recall with your recipients. However, the stationery has to be memorable in the first place. Investing in the design, layout, and production of your stationery isn’t that expensive, and can help you get the type of recall that can cement you in your customer’s minds.
It can help you set and exceed expectations
Since most businesses these days don’t really seem to care much about print marketing, having a good set of letterhead gives you an opportunity to delight customers and other people your business corresponds with. You can also shape the expectations of your recipient through specific design details that you include in your letterhead.
Depending on the design or what type of printing you choose, you can make letterhead that’s formal, friendly, and anything in between. You can also use it to suggest certain aspects of your business’s core competencies. An unusual design may suggest creativity while a traditional one can suggest stability. And this is all before your recipients get to read the actual message.
People still crave physical letters
People still love getting real letters. Millennials, a fast-growing market segment with increasing buying power, are surprisingly good targets for mailing campaigns given that most report they appreciate getting physical mail. There’s something nice about getting something in the mail, even if it’s just invoices or billing statements.
The fact that we’re able to touch and feel letters allows us to make a physical connection with our correspondent, allowing us to relate to them better – even if it’s a business. This makes traditional mail worth looking into, especially if your business does not deliver a physical product or hands-on service to your customers/
Custom letterhead gives recipients a constant reminder that you exist
Granted, your letter probably won’t be stuck onto a refrigerator unless it’s a bill of some kind, or if there’s some good news in it. But when executed well, we tend to keep the nicer letterheads we do get, and your recipients will tend to think of you or your business each time they see it. This means that if you have a way of making your custom letterhead stationery just a little bit better, you should at least consider it.