Why 65% of Us Need Print to Engage Deeply

Why is print still so effective at engaging customers in our digital world?

You could cite any number of reasons — the fact that print is tangible, and our human senses long for that. Or that appearing in print carries a cachet that can’t be bought via digital. And certainly, print helps strengthen your brand identity.

Yet there’s another factor that can’t be overlooked. According to Hassan Manor in Customer Think, print is the preferred medium for a certain style of learner.

“It’s a fact that most humans are visual creatures and process information based on what we see — 65% of us are visual learners, to be precise,” he notes.

“Print media is an excellent opportunity, then, for companies to engage these visual learners, particularly if you pepper your print with exciting graphics and images.”

This makes absolute sense. I know when I need to dive in and really understand something — whether it’s a long article, or numbers crunched on a spreadsheet — I print it out. It somehow seems more real to me in that moment, when I can mark it up, make notes, and highlight.

This helps explain why print is preferred by students … and could change the way we all look at the current hybrid education style being forced on all of us this year by the pandemic.

So while of course, we do what’s expedient, let’s not forget to honor what our brains crave, especially the 65% of us (self-included) who are visual learners longing for tangible clues.