Advantages and disadvantages of website compared to printed materials
Your website and printed materials are your company’s advertising tools. Each has its own characteristics and has its own advantages and disadvantages.
In this article, I’ll discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each for those who are wondering whether they should use a website or printed materials as an advertising tool, and for those who are struggling with their advertising strategies.
Advantages of printed materials
Printed materials can tell people who are not interested in the product
One of the advantages of printed materials is that you can appeal to the people who don’t know about your company’s services or products.
For example, if a person who didn’t know that there was a service that would take care of house cleaning before, the person doesn’t even have the concept of searching for the services. But with flyers and other printed materials, you can tell people who don’t know the cleaning service yet.
Printed materials can appeal to people who don’t use the Internet very often
People who aren’t used to searching on the Internet can’t get to your website, no matter how good it looks. If your company’s service is aimed at an audience that doesn’t use the internet very much, a printed promotion may be more effective.
Easy to hand over
Printed materials, such as product flyers and company brochures, have the advantage of being easy to hand out when you are in face-to-face sales or exhibiting at a trade show. If you don’t have an internet environment like face-to-face meeting, it is easier to use printed materials.
Disadvantages of printed materials
Customers don’t get to choose when they receive it.
Since printed materials are presented at the company’s timing, it is difficult to encounter printed materials of the service at the right time when consumers themselves want the service. If the customers see the printed material at a time when they don’t want the service, it’s unlikely that they will see it properly, and since they don’t consciously try it, it’s more likely that it will be forgotten when they do need it.
It’s hard to change the information.
Once a printed material is created, it is printed and distributed in large quantities. This makes it difficult to change the information when you want to post new information again, or when you print out the wrong information.
Once printed, the information needs to be reprinted to be corrected, and the cost and effort involved. If it’s a webpage, it’s easy to modify or add information. One of the disadvantages of printed materials is that it is difficult to revise or change the information.
Advantages of the Website
People who are interested will see it.
Many people who look at a website want to receive some kind of service or have a problem that can be solved by that service, and they reach the website through a search.
That way, you can reach users who are more likely to buy your products or services. In addition, the website can be viewed 24 hours a day, so customers can receive information about your products or services at any time they want.
The website can publish a lot of information.
There is basically no limit to the amount of information that can be included on the website. Printed materials are limited to the information they can contain, but a website has no limit on the amount of information it can contain, so it can convey a variety of information from a variety of angles.
For example, on the top page, you can easily summarize information, and for those who want more detailed information, you can include information from a variety of angles, such as the appeal and features of your products, photos of your products and how to use them, the strengths of your products and how they differ from those of other companies, your company’s thoughts, and word-of-mouth information from the customers.
It is also possible to set up a question corner on the website to resolve customer anxiety, and recently it has become common to ask questions directly from the website via chat. By providing a lot of information, we can increase the customer’s willingness to buy and relieve the anxiety at the time of purchase so that the consumer can make a purchase with peace of mind.
Customers can pay through the website.
One of the advantages of the website is that the customer can make a payment through the website. As soon as the customer wants to buy, the customer can make a payment.
Even if the customer wants it when they see the information, as time goes by, their motivation will fade and they won’t eventually purchase it. The ability to make payments on the website will increase your purchase rate.
There is no limit to the number of people you can reach.
If you compare your website to your printed material or catalog, there is a considerable difference in the number of people you can reach. For example, if you print 10,000 copies of a 100-page catalog, the maximum number of users who can deliver that catalog is 10,000 users. They don’t go over 10,000 users.
On the other hand, there is no limit to the number of people you can reach if you have a website. A website is not limited to the users who can deliver information like printed material.
If you print 10,000 copies of a 100-page catalog, the cost of design, printing, and printing plate will cost you a lot of money. If a product is to be refreshed in six months or a year, a new catalog will be needed for that. For a similar cost, you can produce a significant amount of content on your website, which you can then spend on advertising.
And the website is reusable and easy to update. In terms of the number of people you can reach and the long-term cost-effectiveness of your website, I’d go with the website.
You don’t need storage space.
You need to keep your printed materials somewhere, but you don’t need a space to store the information on your website. 100-page general catalogs are printed every year, campaign flyers are printed and small catalogs are created for each season, etc. As the number of printed materials increases, storage space becomes more and more necessary and management is difficult.
You don’t need a physical storage location if it’s a website.
Disadvantages of the website
You need to appeal to your website.
Of course, this is also true for printed materials, but a website doesn’t work if you just create it. If users don’t see your website, you can’t make your product or service more appealing. In order for your website to be viewed, you will need to do SEO to make it appear higher on search engines, publish attractive content, and introduce your website through online advertising and SNS.
Use different ad tools for different purposes to attract customers
Both websites and printed materials have their own advantages and disadvantages. First of all, it’s a good idea to understand this point firmly and consider which one is more suitable for introducing your company’s services before using it. One way to do both is to try them and see the results.
Create your own website
Once a website is created, it is an excellent tool for attracting customers for a long period of time. It’s cost-effective and there are many benefits to having a website and it brings in a lot of customers.
A website is a competent tool that can convey a lot of information to the consumer.
Let’s use your website to attract more customers and increase the number of customers.