MailChimp are the latest digital giant to embrace print

“We believe in the power of print. It goes without saying. But when organisations who have built their vast empires on promoting digital marketing choose to embrace print, it shows that it still has an important place.” writes Jon Hart, Regional Account Manager at St Austell Printing Company.

Many in the print industry would call these companies “enemies of print”, but we’ve always taken a more considered view. We see that day-in, day-out, digital and print marketing are a formidable combination – hard to beat.

Google regularly send postcards to businesses encouraging them to sign up to Adwords (usually with a money-off voucher). Facebook have launched their first magazine, and Amazon have opened their first physical book shop in New York.

Now MailChimp, one of the world’s most popular email service providers has launched a direct mail postcard feature – giving their clients the chance to send physical marketing to customers.

While direct mail might seem an unusual next step for a company that’s previously focused on internet marketing, they have noticed that many of their clients see the value of direct postal marketing – so wanted to develop a system to tap into this market. Also, it’s offering their clients a GDPR-compliant platform of engagement.

As Mailchimp put it themselves: “A postcard campaign helps you stand out from the crowd, and gives people something tangible to remember you by. Postcards reinforce the messages you’ve sent through emails, ads, and elsewhere, which makes them a smart addition to your multichannel marketing strategy.” We couldn’t have put it better ourselves.

This new service has been promoted with a range of online articles about how print and email marketing work well together, including how Hamburg-based agency Finc3 helped a client launch an email-and-print campaign.

“In Germany we see more and more that direct mail is increasing in [business-to-consumer] efficiency again,” says Bjoern Sjut, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Finc3. “The main reason: email inboxes are full, mailboxes are empty.”

People continue to fall back in love with print.

St Austell Printing Company offer design, printing, specialist finishing and mailing and fulfilment services all under one roof. If you’d like to learn more about how printed and direct marketing can play a part in your next campaign, please get in contact with me on jon.hart@sapc.co.uk.