Marketing Materials 101

You started a business and created a marketing plan and marketing strategy. Things are looking good and you are ready to launch your web site and your business and sell your product or service.  

Remember your sales staff and professional team will need marketing collaterals and marketing materials to use for client interaction, trade shows and conferences and other sales and marketing opportunities.  

Your marketing strategy probably includes details of where you will sell, how you will address your competition and how your sales and marketing staff will pursue leads.  But you may not have given much thought to the marketing materials. Here are some things you must consider when you design and develop your marketing materials.  

What will you use for a logo? What color will the logo be? Do you know what logo colors and fonts communicate about your business? Do your marketing materials help or hinder your sales team?  

If your sales people always have to fill in the blanks when talking to a client then the marketing materials are not thorough enough. Do you have enough variety in your marketing materials?

You should have something short and sweet and something more detailed for the clients who are ready to dig in and get more information about the product. One type of marketing article or brochure will not satisfy all situations. 

Sit down with your sales, marketing and advertising team – perhaps you play all of those roles – and design a consistent image for colors, fonts and content on your web site, in your product catalogues, white papers, brochures, product specifications, labels, logos, employment applications, client information request forms and conference and event materials.  

Whatever your choice for logo and look, keep it consistent. You may want to make some changes in your logo or color scheme but if you are a new business you should consider waiting to make changes.  

If you spend one, two or three years building an image, you don’t want to lose the attention of your clients and target audience or, worse, make it hard for your clients to find you because you changed your logo, company name, web site address or marketing materials. As your business grows, there will be plenty of time to tweak your strategy and materials. First you have to build the business visibility!