Is Your Copy Making the Cut? Part II - Marketing Collateral

Is Your Copy Making the Cut? Part II - Marketing Collateral

Business cards, brochures, data sheets and media kits are often your very first introduction to potential clients. What statement are you making for yourself? Do potential clients feel that your organization is competent and well-qualified when they read your brochures? Does your media kit give members of the media the perception that your organization is trustworthy and that its representatives are well-spoken?

Powerful marketing pieces can have a tremendous affect upon your audience, moving them to action, or at least getting them one step closer to becoming a client. Poorly conceived, poorly written and/or cheaply produced materials can be quite the opposite – the marketing kiss of death.

Consider your marketing materials, and then answer the following questions honestly:

Are you one of the many small business owners that do not have a media kit?

Did you create your business cards at midnight, the night before a networking event?

Is your idea of a brochure just a flyer folded in half?

If you answered yes to any of the above, or if it sounds fairly close, you are not capitalizing on the valuable opportunities that can be created by your marketing pieces. Sometimes when a problem is too close we have difficulty accepting it. When the problem belongs to someone else, the solution is often quite obvious. So, let’s make this about someone else - our poor, unfortunate, marketing collateral-challenged “friends.”

Our “friends” want their business to grow and succeed, yet they are unwilling to invest in it. Sure, they send out their fair share of press releases; but somehow they just can’t justify the expense of a media kit. Brochures? Can’t they just refer people to their website? Professionally created business cards? Why? Their homemade ones are a bit tattered at the edges but they are rather colorful. Perhaps no-one will notice those tattered edges, anyway.

How will our friends’ unwillingness to invest in their own business impact its ability to grow? Have you ever shared the sentiments of our marketing collateral-challenged friends? Perhaps, you still do. Consider the impact that your marketing collateral can and should have upon your target market:

Marketing collateral should capture the attention of your target market, both visually and through the written word. The graphics, fonts, layout and text chosen must appeal to your audience, or your marketing collateral investment may very well be papering the trashcans of people who could have become clients. For instance, are you an investment banker? Then balloons and a cloud motif are probably not the way to go – no matter how much you like them. Are you a traveling clown? Then ultra-boring, super-serious cards are not going to impel kids to beg their parents to give you a call.

Think of that little 2” x 3 1/2” card as a one-shot audience with your dream client. What type of impression would you try to make in the moments it takes to introduce yourself, shake hands, exchange niceties, and if you are lucky…business cards. Would you be embarrassed to hand your current business card to that dream client? Then it is time to re-think this important introductory marketing piece.

When can saving money cost you clients?

If you can design a professional looking business card – that’s great. All the better. We love to look good and save money. However, if your attempts look amateur at best – invest in getting a card professionally designed. The quality of paper and the quality of printing also weigh heavily upon the perception of potential clients and readers. While several companies offer free business cards, these often have their contact info emblazoned on the back of the card. This is another opportunity for you to strike out with your potential client. If you are not ready to invest in having a business card (and logo, most likely) professionally designed, at least spring for the premium cards from low-cost, mass-printers.

The same rule applies to your brochures, yet these crucial items are a bit more complicated. There is the layout to choose and the font. Will you go with stock photos, or should you hire a photographer? And then there is the copy… How much thought did you give to the copy that went into your last brochure? Was it clear? Did it grab your readers? Did you have someone carefully review the copy for both clarity and typographical errors?

Each marketing piece that you produce is an opportunity for you to shine. Capture your target market’s attention and educate them about your organization through copy which clearly and concisely conveys your message. Tell them what you do, how you do it, and why your company is the right choice for them. Miss that opportunity, and you can be sure that your competitors will not.