The Bad Ideas Blog

Open any social media app right now. Search "marketing tips." What you'll find is roughly ten thousand people all saying the same five things, each one acting like they invented the concept of selling stuff to other humans. Here's why it's all garbage and what actually works instead.

FOCUS Verdict: Claiming print is dead is itself a terrible idea -- one that gets recycled every few years by people who apparently don't own mailboxes.

There's a weird cycle in the marketing industry.

Every few years someone writes an article announcing that print marketing is officially dead.

The argument usually goes something like this:

Everyone is online now. Everything is digital. Therefore print must be obsolete.

Sounds logical.

Until you look at what businesses actually do.

Businesses Care About Results

Companies don't keep using marketing strategies out of nostalgia.

They use what produces customers.

If postcards stopped generating calls, businesses would stop mailing them.

If flyers stopped bringing people into stores, companies would stop printing them.

Yet those things continue happening every day.

Print Does Something Digital Doesn't

Digital marketing lives inside crowded environments.

Social media feeds. Email inboxes. Search results pages.

Printed marketing shows up somewhere else.

The mailbox. A countertop. A local bulletin board.

That physical presence can capture attention in ways digital messages sometimes struggle to match.

Print Still Powers Local Marketing

Across the country, businesses still use printed promotions to stay visible.

In Conway, South Carolina, Duplicates Ink, operated by John Cassidy and Scott Creech, has helped businesses produce marketing materials for over thirty years.

Their shop supports companies throughout Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand as well as businesses nationwide.

The reason is simple.

Print continues delivering results.

Bottom Line: The next time a guru tells you print is dead, ask them how their postcard response rate is doing. Then enjoy the silence.