The biggest mistake that marketers make when developing their collateral materials is focusing too much on their brand and not enough on their products or services. Rather than focusing on the Who, what marketers should really be focusing on is the Why. Whether you are creating a new brochure or adding to a website, the best way to set yourself apart from the crown is with effective content.

Effective marketing materials should be constructed to persuade and inform. And as much as it pains me to say, design isn’t everything. You really need to have solid content to support your flashy graphics because once they snap out of their sense of awe and wonder about your stellar design (which they WILL experience 🙂 ), they will be ready to feast on the information your materials have to offer. If there is no substance to be had, they will leave and move on to a company that can satisfy their hunger.

The 5 D’s
In order to give yourself a fighting chance against all of the five-star competition out there you just need to ask yourself a few questions as you go through the process of developing your content:

1. Definition – Is your product or service clearly defined and are all of the important features enumerated?
2. Differentiation – Have you clearly stated how your product or service differs from your competitors and what specific pain it remedies?
3. Demographics – Does your content clearly speak to your intended audience?
4. Design – Is your content easy to read and understand and will it get your points across without confusing a layperson about your product or service?
5. Distribution – Will the material you plan to produce be easy to distribute to your target market and be understood without interaction from a member of your sales team?

Answering these questions as you develop your materials will help your content to be more effective which will translate into more sales.

The trick to creating truly effective marketing materials is finding the right balance between form and function. As I have stated before, content is king but great content is useless if you don’t have anyone reading it. Enter Content’s flamboyant cousin, Design. Good design can have as much of an impact on the bottom line as content because the flash of a great design, like a carnival barker, is really what brings in the crowd.

So what can you do to make sure what you are creating is both visually and substantively powerful?

The 5 C’s of powerful marketing materials

1. Clear Headline – Think about it, you are standing in line at the grocery store, you glance over at the magazine rack and see one headline that says “Cow has Human Baby” and one next to it that says “Beige is the new Off White” which do you gravitate toward? Unless you are planning on auditioning for the next edition of Project runway, you will likely be more intrigued by the former. Although this may not be a good example of a brochure headline, it illustrates the point that the right headline can make the sale.  A clear and catchy headline can be the difference between someone stopping to read your material and moving on to the next more “off white” marketing piece in the rack. Make sure your headline is clear and catchy. Make people want to read more.
2. Clean Layout – A good layout bolsters that great headline and helps direct your prospects eye. It leads them through the content and helps them digest the material the way you want them to. Using short paragraphs that are broken up by larger (and sometimes colorful), informative headings allows your reader to get the point even if they only have time to scan the material. Good layout maximizes the efficacy of your content.
3. Clever Graphics – There really is something to the old adage “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words”. Maximize your exposure with graphics that help to define the information you are trying to get across or at very least helps draw the reader further into the content you have worked so hard to develop. A nice graphic presentation can draw as much attention as the aforementioned “Cow has human baby” headline. Make the most of the little time you have and give those visual learners out there something to absorb. Whether you use drawings, maps, or photos as long as they help illustrate your products benefits, visuals can help tell the story when they don’t have time for the words.
4. Call to Action – One place many marketers fall short on their materials is in the lack of an effective call to action. No matter how savvy your prospect base is, when you are marketing to them, they are sheep and you are the little pig asking them to kindly move along. Don’t be afraid to be forceful. They are looking to you for guidance so don’t disappoint. Make sure to tell them what they should do next. Click Now, Call Today or whatever is appropriate for your product or service. If you don’t tell them, how can you expect them to do what you want them to do?
5. Contact – Don’t forget to tell them who you are. You got their attention, you have directed through the information, you have stunned them with your graphics and you told them what to do. Make sure they know who you are. Always include your branding and multiple ways to get in contact with you. You need to ensure that you don’t blow the excitement generated with your awesome graphics and brilliant prose.

Make a Memory
The bottom line for any type of marketing material is usefulness. The goal should be to create something that clients will want to hold onto. They might not be ready to purchase immediately but if you find the right balance between content and design, they will hold onto your materials (or bookmark your site) until they are ready and when that time comes you will be their first contact.

Whether you are creating a website, a brochure or a full on ad campaign there are a number of things that need to be considered before starting the process. Considerations vary depending on the type of marketing you are doing but some things stay the same.

1. Know Your Audience. You have to know your ideal customer in order to effectively communicate with them. Putting yourself in their place will go a long way toward developing the type of relationship you want.
2. Know Your Materials. The approach you take when putting together a particular type of marketing material or campaign will vary depending on what you are doing. The content that goes into an ad campaign is much different form that of a brochure. Make sure you have a complete understanding of the medium before you start so you can properly organize your selling points to maximize the effect on your indented audience.
3. Know Your Audience. I can’t stress this enough. Stay away from jargon or any kind of industry specific language that may distance you from your customers. The more you know about your intended audience, the more effective your communications will be no matter what types of material you decide create.
4. Know Yourself. Know your products and services inside and out. Be thorough in the information you give to prospects and above all make it meaningful. If the content of your brochure, ad, mailer, etc is not valuable to your target audience, your materials will quickly find their way to the recycle bin or worse, the shredder.
5. Know Your Audience. I may have mentioned this one before but I thought I would mention it again because too many companies produce materials that are really good if you already know all there is to know about their product or service but they are not quite as meaningful if you are not in with the in-crowd. Knowing your audience well allows them to be let in on the joke and gets you one step closer to your goal…a sale.

Keeping these things in mind as you begin to develop your marketing plan will keep you on the right track and hopefully help you begin to build the types of relationships you are looking to build with your customers.

When it comes to marketing materials there are a great many things you can choose from to get your message out to the masses, the most popular of which is a website, but we are talking about offline materials here. So what to create?

In order to determine the best type of collateral for you, you first need to decide the primary function of the piece. Is it something for use strictly on sales calls, is it something that you want your clients to come to on their own or are you trying to reach out to cold sales prospects? The answers to questions like these will help determine the format of your material and that format will help determine the content.

There are several types collateral materials, here are five of the most popular:

Brochure
A standard brochure or leave behind as they are sometimes called are something that you would take with you on a sales call. These materials usually contain an overview of your products or services and generally summarize your sales pitch for why someone should use your company.

Point of Sale
Point of Sale materials are similar to a display advertisement (magazine type ad) and are generally used to get potential customers attention while they are standing in line or waiting for something. These materials are usually characterized by a catchy headline that draws immediate interest followed by a brief description of the product or service involved. They usually have a strong call to action driving potential customers to request more information or contact a sales representative.

Sales Support
Sales support materials in the form of individual sell sheets are very similar to your standard brochure but while your company brochure has a cross section of your entire business, your support materials will give specific details about a single product or service. these types of materials can also be used as a follow up to direct inquiries and responses from ads, or point of sale materials.

Direct Mail
Direct Mail is used when trying to connect with current or potential customers about a specific product or service. The space is usually more limited for content on these and comes in the form of a post card or other such simple communication. Direct mail can be a very powerful tool if done correctly but it generally allows for much less content so it has to count. Like the Point of Sale pieces, it needs a headline that will capture attention quickly, but in this case it has to be done before it finds its way to the trash. They must have a specific call to action and it is important that responses to this type of material be measurable. Direct mail can often expose you to a much wider audience but response rates for direct mail in general hover between two and five percent so you have to consider your potential return on Investment (ROI) before you even begin.

Downloads
The last type of materials have become the most popular in recent years, Downloads. While these are technically printed materials, they also have an online component. Most often these resemble a sell sheet but since you are not specifically limited by material cost and deliverability, they are much more flexible. If you have created printed versions of any of the above materials, you should also have a downloadable version to give you additional delivery options such as through email or from your website. These materials are generally in a PDF format for the widest possible distribution. Although they are more flexible and you can create online versions of all existing printed materials, one thing to keep in mind when creating materials that are to be download only is standard computer printer limitations. Download only materials should limit bleeds (unless of course you don’t care how they will look when printed – which they will be) and the best case is to leave 1/2″ border of white around the entire document to ensure that the materials will be displayed the same on every device (by default the printable area for most printers leaves 1/4″ of white space on the top and sides of a sheet while having at least 3/8″ at the bottom for gripping the paper – some go as low as 1/8″ top and sides but the tail is usually the same).

No matter which direction your marketing takes you (and it may just be all of the above), just make sure that as you develop your materials, you gear them toward your intended audience in both style and content to ensure that they are as effective as possible for your specific marketing purpose.

Welcome to the new frontier. Now that you have made the decision to make the leap to the web, what is the next step?

It seems daunting. Instead of just marketing your products or services to locally or even across the country, you now have a global audience to deal with. This can present a set of problems that many small businesses are not sure they are ready to handle.

Fear not. Although Internet marketing can encompasses the world wide web, e-mail, wireless digital media,  management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management you can ease your way into it with just a few enhancements of existing business standards.

Just like with your existing offline marketing, branding is the most important thing you can do to differentiate your business online. Everything starts with your logo.

A well designed logo will help you stand out against your competition and help augment the position of your products or services in the global marketplace. But an identifiable mark is is only the beginning. The cornerstone of any good brand is the differentiation of your product. You need to explain to people what makes your company unique and this is when you begin to realize that when it comes to internet marketing content is king.

Once you have made your mark and identified your strengths, its time to tell people about it.

Like with the offline marketing collateral you have always used for sales support, you will want those same materials for online. But when you place them online they can now take on new and exciting forms. Not just as downloadable versions of the existing materials (although those are good), but as new interactive versions that help you truly differentiate yourself from the competition.

The most common interactive form of these materials is a website. Here you can extend your offline identity into a more complete online experience for potential customers. Instead of a flat boring experience that talks about a single product or service, you have the ability to bring your entire business right to your customers in a way that can service them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. But just putting the information out there is not enough, in order for it to be useful, it needs to be seen.

Once you have your brand and online identity set up, the real work begins. Cutting through the clutter.

Stay tuned to learn different ways to enhance your online marketing efforts with topics including logos, branding, websites, search engine optimization, social networking and more.