What is Marketing Collateral and Why Should You Care?

What is Marketing Collateral and Why Should You Care?

Anuja Lath 22/06/2021
What is Marketing Collateral and Why Should You Care?

Marketing collateral has evolved over the years.

Earlier, all you needed to boost your marketing were brochures and flyers.

Marketing_Collateral.jpeg

Today, your marketing materials shouldn't be limited to ordinary outbound advertisements. When a prospect visits your website they want to see more than just a product description and a pricing page. One kind of content that helps get you there is known as marketing collateral. 

In this article, you’ll get a better understanding of the concept and go over 8 important marketing collateral ideas that will help you improve the sales of your products or services. But first, let’s start with what is marketing collateral.

What is Marketing Collateral?

The collection of media or marketing content formats, typically more informative than usual advertisements is called Marketing Collateral which helps to inform, educate and guide the prospects.

When creating marketing collateral, your first priority isn’t to capture attention but to retain and enhance it. The prospects looking at your collateral might be curious about your company, but they might not be familiar with what you're offering. Well-crafted marketing collaterals can help to guide them and build the trust necessary to start and sustain a customer relationship.

Why is Marketing Collateral Important?

70% of the buyer’s journey is completed before they even reach out to sales. Today’s consumers are more informed than ever. Before they even reach out to your sales representative, they have done their research, looked for product reviews, and compared similar products. This makes marketing Collateral a must-have for all types of business. It influences how you’re seen by your prospects. 

To make a good first impression of your business, you must have well-designed marketing collateral. A common theme amongst all marketing collateral is the presence of a call to action. It can be a social media share button or more specifically like a signup form. Regardless, the goal must be to entice your prospects and help them make a decision. 

Here are the top 3 reasons why marketing collateral is important:

1. A weapon for Sales Team

Your sales team is on the front line and the driving force behind success. Therefore, salespeople need the tools to be effective in sales meetings. You can enhance your chances of landing quality clients by arming your sales department with marketing collateral.

Your marketing collateral can help your sales team to tell your brand story better. Not many people prefer and have the patience to listen to the long speeches by salespeople. Here comes the marketing collateral, which makes it easier to show the story instead of telling it. Your sales team can simply share the marketing collateral with the clients and they can refer to it at their convenience and make a final decision.

2. Enhances Your Brand Image

Your marketing collateral reflects the quality of your brand. It will give your prospects a glimpse of your company’s culture, vision, value proposition, positioning and portfolio. It helps you make an impression and highly influences the buying decision of customers.

If your marketing collateral is good enough, your prospects will engage with it repeatedly. The more often they see it, the more likely your brand will stay at the top of their mind. Therefore, putting a little effort into your marketing collateral design will help you boost your brand image.

3. Builds Credibility and Trust for Your Business

Your marketing collateral is active when you are not. It is visible in the shared channels to the potential buyers at all times of the day. It lets your business speak for itself and explains how your business can solve people’s needs and challenges. Also, it shares your brand messages and encourages conversations among your potential customers, helping you to build a bridge of trust with your audience that helps facilitate a strong connection.

8 Important Collaterals You Can Start With 

5 Trending Website Design Practices You Need to Adapt

1. Blog Posts

Articles on your blog are a great way to both promote your brand and attract visitors. Blog posts work as a tool to inform users and readers about your activity, product, and services. They also help to position yourself as an expert. Writing posts that address the problems of your prospects can help them find a solution, and spread brand awareness at the same time. Use SEO tools and strategies to help you improve your reach and target the right people.

2. E-Books

E-Books are a good way to increase your user base. Brands that want to share expertise on specific topics use eBooks. They are an excellent way to inform and educate your audience. Make sure to make it less technical, more entertaining and engaging enough to keep your audience reading as they are lengthy. Add social links to sections that are highly visual and worth sharing. When you put out ebooks, you reinforce the prospects’ knowledge of your industry and convince them that they’re in good hands.

You can use Gating for eBook distribution. If your prospects are ready to share their lead information for your expertise, it’s a win-win situation for both of you.

3. Case Studies

You can show what you did without bluntly bragging through Case Studies. Bigger than blog posts, they are usually for those interested in your way of doing business. Users that are reading case studies are very close to signing up. So, case studies are an effective way to know which visitors are likely to stay or buy.

4. Testimonials

Testimonials are positive reviews and feedback from customers explaining their experience with your brand. These days, most customers don’t make a decision without seeing what others have experienced. This makes testimonials one of the most important collaterals. Genuine testimonials and reviews prove that your business is what they need and you have outstanding services.

5. Your Portfolio

Portfolios are another way of humbly bragging about your best work. You must always keep your portfolio updated. They are also proof that you’re doing your job well and your work is appreciated. Make sure to include all your best work, their execution and end results to build the trust of your prospects.

6. Landing Pages

While the website talks about your entire business, landing pages focus on only one aspect, to provide a targeted message and to persuade your visitor to take action. Your audience lands on these pages when they click an ad. They usually include a form asking for your prospects’ contact information in exchange for downloading a document or registering for an event. The information you receive can be used to generate leads later.

7. Explainer Videos

Many people prefer watching instead of reading. Use explainer videos to demonstrate a process, present a new product or explain its main features. You can use these videos across various platforms such as websites, social media, emails to draw attention and increase brand awareness. Explainer videos can boost your engagement, credibility and relatability at the same time. Tools like Biteable and Animaker can help you create such videos in minutes.

8. Re-Engagement Emails

Use automated emails across the sales cycle to re-engage and make following up with clients or leads more dependable and simpler. Monthly newsletters, abandoned shopping cart reminders, or follow-ups to completed forms can be used as marketing collateral. Do not forget to add an email signature. Use a template for all your employees and add all the important details of your business such as phone number, address and website. You can also add a link to an important project you want to promote. You can even create an electronic signature to give it an extra flair.

Conclusion

Now that you’re equipped with knowledge of the important marketing collateral ideas, you can create any collateral to keep both new and existing customers coming back to you. Learning and reviewing the different types of marketing collateral will allow you to decide which type will present your information in the most beneficial way. You can save this guide and come back to it whenever you need help to choose the right ones for your business.

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Anuja Lath

Digital Marketing Expert

Anuja is the Co-founder and CEO of RedAlkemi Online Pvt. Ltd., a digital marketing agency helping clients with their end to end online presence. Anuja has 30 years of work experience as a successful entrepreneur and has co-founded several ventures since 1986. She and her team are passionate about helping SMEs achieve measurable online success for their business. Anuja holds a Bachelors degree in Advertising from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chandigarh, India.

 

   
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