San Rafael, Calif. – Outlining a new approach for a new age, CohereOne President/CEO Tim Curtis boldly stated that printers need to have a better understanding of digital marketing during his keynote speech at the eighth annual Inkjet Summit, which was held virtually this week. CohereOne is a direct marketing agency and strategic consultancy.

One of the printing industry’s premier events of the year, the Inkjet Summit is an invitation-only conference for senior-level managers and business executives at printing companies and corporate enterprises who are looking to develop strategies, understand their options and make major investment decisions around production inkjet digital printing technology.

During his session titled “Print – An Emerging Digital Marketing Champion,” Curtis used an array of case studies and recent performance data to detail how COVID-19 exponentially accelerated trends already building in the last few years. Stressing data and strategic literacy, he explained the impact on businesses and the printing industry, described why it changes the rules of the game, and provided a glimpse of future strategies and tactics.

Curtis pointed out that print traditionally functioned at the top of a full-funnel marketing plan, but the blending of print and digital campaigns now allows engagement at the bottom of the funnel as well. He explained how forward-thinking brands already embrace the concept of print as a digital marketing champion, and noted that the power of the integration of digital and print marketing comes from identifying digital marketing engagement triggers married to the superior responsiveness of the print format.

Curtis also predicted a further acceleration of a scaled usage with catalogs and direct mail as businesses are required to better merchandise products together. The ability of print marketing mediums to be trackable, measurable and profitable will usher in a new era.

In shifting to a digital mindset, Curtis suggested that printers need to have a betting understanding of digital marketing in order to succeed and align print with other channels. He said they should be looking at when and where are we spending money across channels and how much they are getting back. Also look at the interaction between types of spend.

“It’s a dirty little secret, there’s a very deep link between print and paid search demand. [At CohereOne], we have seen clients where paid search demand has fallen by 50% to 76% when print is not part of the equation,” said Curtis, who has DCMP certification from the Data & Marketing Association.

Curtis noted that marketing is becoming more sophisticated as all of the channels and print and digital approaches merge.

“The old rules of funnels and stand-alone models don’t work. It’s become a multi-channel, multi-model marketing world where change is accelerating. Our best tool is our ability to gather data, learn from it and sell with it. There is no room for channel bias in today's marketing world and you have no choice but to evolve and thrive.”