✒️Using print ads to reach overwhelmed web users

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Greetings, salutations, all that stuff. Today, I’ve uncovered some juicy tidbits about why print advertising and marketing methods might be what the doctor ordered the rest of 2025. 

Why? The web has been crowded and noisy for years. You prolly noticed. But with AI content flying everywhere, it’s getting worse. 

And who knows what the digital world will look like in 2026 (less than 180 days away).

After that Feature Story, we’ll get into the following sections: 

• The Knowledge Base  

• Self Help (fit but unhealthy) 

• Facts & Stats (churn)  

• Get Hacking (video captions)

Ok, let’s crack open today’s Feature Story…

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Feature Story

The Web of Overwhelm

Everywhere you look online, you’ll see one of two things. 

1. AI slop

2. Or humans claiming everything is AI slop

Go ahead. Hop on LinkedIn or X for two minutes. I’ll wait…

…see?

The point is, AI does live up to the hype in one way. 

No, it can’t be a good girlfriend or therapist, but it can spew out a hundred thousand words in under ten minutes. 

That means it’s insanely easy for one person to produce 100 blog posts in a week. 

Same for YouTube videos. Where AI is being used to crank out one script per minute, around the clock, if the “creator” thinks that will build a following.

What happens when humans can no longer take the digital overwhelm? 

Or when 75% of humans start to believe most of what they see online is produced by bots?

Well, humans could check out. Maybe not fully, since jobs require being online. Obviously.

But people will check out mentally. 

We’ll start giving no weight and only eye-rolls to content we think is 100% bot-made. Without clear signs of a human touch, we will scroll on by. 

People will still need to buy things and services, though.

That’s Where Print Marketing and Advertising Come In

I’m not saying print is gonna dominate ever again. Digital is going to stay on the throne like Avon Barksdale.

However, there’s a bunch of upside to using print to stand out today.

Not only are people overwhelmed with 2025’s version of the web, they’re also bored with it. 

• Endless political cage matches

• Aggravating phone notifications

• The same tired memes recycled (excluding The Wire, of course)

• Websites that pester you to do everything except what you came there to do

It’s so bad, Gen Z has retreated to retro content like printed magazines.

Plus, online marketing tactics are painfully obvious to even the folks who don’t have any knowledge of the advertising industry. 

Cop buddy of mine knew about scarcity principles because EVERY sales email he gets mentions “only 16 widgets left.” 

With print, you can at least get attention because 96% of your competitors have likely given up on print. 

After You Grab Attention

Once you have consumers’ attention, print also makes your brand instantly REAL. Real means you’re a step closer to being worthy of the consumer’s trust. 

Unlike a LinkedIn post with all the same hooks and emojis lined up perfectly. Just like every other marketer uses on LinkedIn.

It all blends in and looks like a template. The opposite of real or authentic.

Me? I’d even consider using print to point out how sucky the internet is to the consumers seeing my billboard, reading my newspaper ad, or clipping my coupon. 

Something like… “We figured you’re as sick of Facebook as we are, so we mailed you XYZ.”

Or… “We printed this report for you so you don’t have to download it beside the other 2,700 PDFs in your “read-later” folder.”

I’ll close out with a few impressive stats showing it’s wise to test print marketing. Then you can move on The Knowledge Base.

1. 42% of businesses now use AI for long-form online content, while 58% of corporations rely on it for copywriting.

2. WordPress users alone produce 70 million new posts monthly, while 500 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

3. 84% of marketers say direct mail delivers the best response rate, conversion, and ROI.

4. The average response rate for print ads is 9%, while digital ads hover around 1%.

5. Virginia Tech research found 82% of recipients remembered print versions of content compared to only 49% for online versions.

Self-Help

Driving home yesterday, I saw the fittest guy I’ve seen all year.

Sad thing was, he was also the unhealthiest.

Flirting with the Grim Reaper. 

He was running on a main road, with traffic to his back, and wearing big headphones. 

Shirtless too, but sunburn was the least of his health worries.

Trusting drivers he couldn’t hear or see to not run him over — erased all the efforts he’d made toward keeping his body in top shape. 

Something to think about. Why do we do dumb stuff that erases our noble efforts?

Facts & Stats

Bonus: What is a conversation qualified lead (CQL)? Answer at end of email.

Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

Canva just intro’d enhanced tools for adding captions to your videos. 

You can make this automatic for all the videos you create on Canva. Or do it video by video. 

The breakdown is here. It also shows alternative reasons to use video captions besides playing to audiences that watch without sound. Two reasons are below:

• Accessibility 

• Hammer key points with large or animated text

ALT Hack: Create a monitoring system for signs of customers likely to drop your service like a bad habit. A simple re-engagement email with a tutorial or discount can reduce churn by 8% according to Rethink CX.

Thanks for reading Inbox Hacking. Please share it with your peeps - it’s sugar-free but stings a bit.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: A Conversation Qualified Lead is someone who has expressed interest in buying via a conversation with an employee or a bot (New Breed Revenue). 

“People hate advertising until they lose their cat.” ~David Droga