If you have a sales or marketing force that uses marketing collateral on a regular basis, have you thought of ways you can improve the overall process and get better business results?
That’s what many sales and marketing managers dwell on, primarily because marketing collateral gives us our best chance to connect with a customer and give them decision-making information that can lead to business relationships.
Here are tips you can use to improve the way your organization uses your marketing collateral.
Incorporate Marketing Collateral into Your Digital Ecosystem
We all have brochures, flyers, one-sheets, and lengthier pieces of material that we use to sell our products and services. But what if we could get more mileage out of those pieces?
One of the best ways to do this is to incorporate your marketing collateral into your digital ecosystem.
A digital ecosystem consists of:
• Social media platforms
• Landing pages
• Your website
• Articles and blog posts on other websites
• Online advertisements
Basically, any place where your brand has a presence online can be a part of your digital ecosystem. Using your marketing collateral to help spread the word through this ecosystem is a force multiplier that every business needs to use and use properly.
That’s why it’s important to create digital versions of your print collateral – so they can be easily shared.
Incorporate Collateral into Permission Marketing
As coined by Seth Godin, permission marketing is “the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.”
You can create a permission marketing system that captures contact information from trade shows, newsletter subscriptions, social media, landing pages, and the like. When a person gives you permission to contact them on a regular basis, you can use marketing collateral as the message.
One example is to create an email newsletter that goes out to your contacts. You can include your marketing collateral in these newsletters.
You can also use your collateral as incentives for leads to give you contact information. For example, you can make an eBook out of your material and offer it for download in exchange for an email address and permission to send material, or a phone number.
In this way, marketing collateral can be used to actually draw people in and generate leads, instead of just being there to send whenever a sales rep makes contact with a prospect.
Turn Marketing Collateral into Direct Mail Pieces
Finally, consider conducting a direct mail marketing campaign using your marketing collateral.
People like receiving information. The more info you can send them – and the better quality it is – the more likely they are to turn to you when it’s time to make a buying decision.
Brochures make for great direct mail pieces. So do one-sheets about your products or services. Be sure to include powerful calls-to-action and preferably an offer, such as a discount, a free consultation, etc. Also, feel free to point them toward your digital ecosystem, such as a landing page or a website.
Need help designing and printing your marketing collateral? Contact us today to learn more about how you can add impact to your sales and marketing efforts through collateral.