Types of Marketing Collaterals

The most common types of marketing collateral are letterheads, business cards, corporate brochures, fact sheets, press kits, flyers, mailers, posters, thank you cards and purchase order forms.

No matter which marketing collateral you choose, your focus should be on expressing your intended message clearly for it to be easily understood by your target customers.

As your marketing collateral needs to be in line with your brand and develop a brand identity.

Your corporate letterhead refers to letter paper or stationery imprinted with your company name, logo and contact details such as address, email, and fax and phone number.

This may seem trivial to some, but the truth is that the letterhead is an essential part of your corporate identity and brand image.

Your official correspondences will be printed on your letterhead and read by external parties, including your suppliers and customers. A well designed and good quality letterhead reflects your professionalism, whilst a poorly designed letterhead leaves poor impressions and affects your credibility. The thinking is: if you can do a good job presenting yourself, it reflects your competence and proficiency in your core business.

So invest some time and effort in creating a letterhead that sends out the right message. It is possible to print your own quality stationary without having to spend a large sum of money.

Your business card bears concise information about you and your company, and is exchanged during formal introductions to external parties.

Business cards are an inexpensive, yet indispensable tool for introducing yourself, your business and what you do. You give it to potential customers so that they can easily contact you and your company.

Your business card is a representation of your business.

It is exchanged at your first meeting with potential customers and business partners. If you create a credible and professional impression, then these customers may buy your product. If you create an amateur and shoddy impression, then customers might look elsewhere. It is important that your business cards are professional and presentable.

Company Fact Sheet

Fact sheets present data on the company and its products in a concise and clear format to highlight key competencies and achievements.

Your company or product fact sheets can be distributed to the media, shared with customers during tradeshows or meetings and placed in your hard copy or digital media kits.

Company fact sheets allow you to tell stakeholders such as prospective customers, media, potential investors, analysts and employees important facts about your business.

What to Include?

• When the company was started

• Location of Headquarters and affiliate offices

• Profiles of founders and senior management

• Business contact information

• Vision and Mission

Product Fact Sheets

Product fact sheets allow you to list the features and technical specifications of your product. It helps your prospective customers understand and remember your product in greater detail, and provides them with a basis of comparison with alternative products. It gives them facts to decide whether or not to purchase your product.

What to include?

• Benefits of using the product

• Legal and safety aspects, such as safety certifications, to assure customers

• High-resolution (300dp or higher) pictures of the product

• High quality stock photos to illustrate concepts

Other things to note

1) To highlight key points, use bullet points instead of blocks of text.

2) Review and trim the content if necessary. Try and keep to one page per fact sheet. You should never exceed three pages.

3) Label the document clearly. “Fact Sheet”.

4) Use a reader-friendly sans serif typeface such as Arial in 10 or 12 point typeface.

5) Remove any trade jargon. Not everyone knows what you are talking about. Keep the language simple.

6) Have someone proofread your work to eliminate spelling errors and typos. Get them to identify areas which require improvement or clarification.

7) Try and stay away from dark backgrounds with light text. This combination is hard to read and has been found to have poor advertising result.

8) Use full color printing (4C: CMYK).

9) Select good quality, heavyweight paper such as 100# (100lb) gloss or matte text stock.

10) If you want to create your own, check out the many templates available for download online.

Brochures and Catalogues

Brochures and catalogues present your competencies and achievements in an engaging and attractive way.

They bring awareness of your brand, company and product to customers. You need to make sure that your brochure is eye-catching and sends out the right message about your business.

You can create attractive and professional looking brochures within a budget if you imaginatively design them right from the concept stage. Catalogues too, do not have to be long boring lists that few actually flip through.

You have taken the time and effort to create quality letterheads, business cards and fact sheets. Now present them together in a professional package.

At a trade show with countless of companies handing out brochures, catalogues and fact sheets to customers, using quality presentation folders can set you apart from the crowd.

In fact, the folder can do more than just hold the materials together. Think of how the various components can be presented and placed to complement each other, with an interesting theme running throughout that attracts the customer to read through all of them.

What to take note of when creating your presentation folder?

• Decide what to put inside your folder. Are the folders meant to hold thick brochures or single sheets of papers? This will decide the type of folders you will need. To put in more information, consider using a bi-fold or tri-fold folder.

• The look of your presentation folders should be aligned with your company image. Refer to your brand identity manual.

• Most Presentation folders come in a standard size of 9″ x 12″ with one or two pockets

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Other things to note

1) Decide on your print size and design your layout accordingly.

2) Use consistent typefaces. Recommended font sizes are 14 for headline, 12 for body text and 10 for captions.

3) Write in an engaging manner to grab attention and hold interest.

4) Have someone proofread your work to eliminate spelling errors and typos. Get them to identify areas which require improvement or clarification.

5) Select a good quality, heavyweight paper such as 100# (100lb) gloss or matte text stock.

6) Use full color printing (4C: CMYK).

7) If possible, engage a professional printer. If not, print your own brochures on an inkjet printer.

A media kit is a set of materials for giving to the media and potential customers.

It can be given out at press conferences, road shows or trade shows. They are usually used when launching a new product, or introducing a new company. A media kit contains everything that a journalist would need to write a story on your company or product, and everything a potential customer would need to know to entice them to consider purchasing your product.

Your Media Kit should include the following:

• Presentation Folder

• Write-up on the new business or product

• Company fact sheet

• Product face sheet

• Press releases

• Articles on Your company and products

• Business card

Flyers and leaflets are single sheets of advertisement used to announce a sale or a limited-time event.

They are an inexpensive and effective way to grab attention in a very crowded marketplace. Although response rates can be low at approximately 1 to 2 %, it is still considered a good way to place information directly in the hands of your target market. You can improve response rate by working on the design and distribution channels of your flyers and leaflets.

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Tracking Effectiveness

The effectiveness of your flyer or leaflet can be tracked using unique promotional codes or telephone numbers attached to each flyer (and other marketing collateral). This helps you identify where the enquiries are coming from and therefore, determine the most effective channel.

A poster is placed in a public place to convey a clear and powerful message at a glance.

It is usually created for display on a vertical surface, but there are many variations you can try out. It needs to be large enough to be seen from a distance. An effective poster aims to grab a passers-by’s attention and convey its message almost instantaneously. Posters can be powerful marketing tools. They allow you to reach a large audience, at a low cost and in a short period of time.

Designing effective posters

1. Know your target customers. Your posters should connect with them. Use humour.

2. Have only one message on the poster and communicate it clearly.

3. Use large fonts and catchy headlines to grab attention even from a distance

4. Choose a colour scheme and design that best suits the poster’s purpose and your target customers, and is in line with your brand

5. Provide a single point of contact.

Where to put your posters

Consider the same questions as distributing your flyers. Think of unusual places to put your posters.

Outdoors:

High traffic areas that target customer visits

Indoors:

Public place such as schools, shopping malls, hospitals, theatres or sport stadium, depending on poster’s content. Seek Permission before placing your posters.

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Using Photos

• For good printed quality, use images that are at least 300 dpi.

• Consider using photos from stock photography sites such as www.photos.com, www.gettyimages.com, www.123RF.com and www.DreamsTime.com

• Stock photography is being used all over the world, so do your best to select unique images.

• Unique images are useless if they don’t work together with the message

• If you only need a few pictures, look out for sites that allow you to purchase a single image or even those that provide some free images.

• Remember that just because something is on the internet does not mean you are free to use it. Avoid copyright infringement.

• Get permission from people featured in the photos by getting them to sign a consent form

Direct mail are advertisements, letters, brochures, post cards or newsletters that you send directly to each customer on a database. Also known as direct marketing.

You can create direct mail in varying shapes and sizes, but you have to make sure that they still meet the standard post office mailing requirements. As with all other collateral, success depends on your ability to craft an attention grabbing marketing message with a persuasive call to action.

The recipients of direct mail are usually current or past customers or individuals who are on your self-developed or purchased mailing lists. It is critical that your mailing lists are current and consists of the right target customers. Give an incentive so that customers willingly update you if they change their addresses.

Through direct mail, you have total control over the marketing message you wish to send directly to customers. Make sure you don’t create junk mail – those that offer zero value and are not sent to the right target audience – because you simply get thrown away.

Developing effective direct mail

• The first sentence or header in a direct mail should immediately zoom in on benefits of your products

• Keep the offer simple and easy to understand. Use a personal and friendly writing style. Speak as if you are talking to only one person at a time.

• Make your offer more attractive and persuasive by having it for a limited period. This creates a sense of urgency and encourages people to take action.

• Include a call-to-action. Get the customers to respond to your advertisement either by calling you, emailing you or visiting your shops.

• Make it easy to respond or place an order. Include toll-free phone number (24-hours, if possible), fax number, email address and order forms, if appropriate. Offer payment options that are convenient for the customer. You can even offer payment plans that make it attractive to buy now or buy more.

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Creating mailing lists

Buying mailing lists from brokers can be expensive and may not be as up to date as you hope. Build your own mailing list by starting with name cards you have received. Include family and friends and also referrals from them. Tap on membership directories of organisations that you belong to. Invite people to join your mailing list on your direct mail. Create a simple but effective way to manage the information on your database.

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Using Post cards

Post card marketing is a cost effective way to reach out to customers. Postage for a post card is usually less than other types of mail and there is no need to spend on envelopes. In addition, the message on the card can be read directly by the recipients without the need to open an envelope.

Thank you cards are sent to your customers and employees to show your appreciation. Personal and sincere appreciation builds strong relationships and loyalty.

Thank you cards give a personal touch that is often overlooked by many companies. However, you never know when your business project may be confirmed as a result of going that extra mile to add a warm gesture into a cold business dealing.

Writing a thank you card

1. Adopt a personalised and appreciative tone but keep it professional.

2. Remember to thank those who recommended your business, even if it does not lead to a sale. This acknowledges their efforts and they may continue to promote your business.

3. Thank you cards are great morale boosters for employees and can lead to improved performance. Indicate what it is that you appreciate and why. Use them to thank individuals, teams or departments.

The Purchase Order Form shows you what your customers want, quantity required, price of the items and expected delivery.

Companies are moving away from the hand written purchase order forms that require signatures. Today, the forms are either generated by computer, printed and sent out to the supplier or completed online and emailed to the supplier.

Creating an effective purchase order form

1. Keep the layout of the form neat, organized and user friendly so that your customers can place orders with you easily. Remember to also include your logo.

2. Add a message of appreciation such as “Thank you for your Business” or “We appreciate your business”.

3. Make sure that the overall tone of instructions and message on your form is polite.

4. If you offer guarantee for your product, repeat it on the purchase order form. This helps to reassure your prospect.