Any ABC or smart way of developing marketing material?
I am about developing marketing material. I refer marketing material as brochure, profile, pamphlet, website, lead generating messages, sales speeches/ kits, demo set, video, etc (not exhaustive).
Do you have any robust approach in doing this?
I normally will built basic content first, than get designer to beautify the content, and than transfer to different forms presentations.
Expert Answers
Sort by Date
Sort by Votes
Apr 19, 2014
There are plenty of very inexpensive methods for "beautifying" your marketing materials. The problem with all these materials is conversion. You can have the prettiest marketing materials in the world but it doesn't do much good unless they motivate the receiver to contact your business or otherwise seek out your companies services or products. More important, if you are able to convert, how will you generate repeat business from your existing customers? And, how will you mine these existing customers for referrals? Sure, you can try and use email capture or try and get your customers to give you their phone numbers. Email marketing works but the conversion rates are low and the cycle from delivery to conversion can take up to 90-days. Mobile marketing and push marketing in particular are starting to catch fire. As usual, its the big brand retailers that are leading the way. I focus on small and medium sized companies and provide an integrated approach designed to capture leads as they are in the evaluation phase. Stats show that text messages are opened within 6 seconds of delivery and conversion rates are ten times higher than email rates. Most important, you are capturing the most valuable piece of information in today's market space. Their mobile data. You can deliver rich content, with excellent graphics including pictures, video, and targeted material specific to the customers needs and desires. And, it's all automated. By integrating across all of your marketing materials, you drive marketing ROI and and be able to better track which approached generate the best ROI. I;m very affordable.
Apr 18, 2014
Are you trying to offer a service or product?
I don't really understand.
There isn't any one solution to developing marketing. Each company has aunique service/product/reason to invest with. Therefor each marketing solution would need to be unique for them.
Or did I miss the question entirely?
Apr 19, 2014
No, I didn't miss the word material.
I missed the word "Inhouse", "internal" or "for clients".
Thanks for the helpful answer questioning my reading abilities though.
I wish you well.
Apr 19, 2014
Probably my native language is not English, I may not able to understand how relevant is your answer to my question. Thus reinforce my question to you by the word "material" so that it can greatly differentiate your word "solution". I am confused again by the words "In-house, internal and for clients". Anywhere, thank you for making effort to put some answers to this question.
Apr 18, 2014
I think that you are doing it well, keep in mind the target audience all time!
Apr 18, 2014
You'll want to read and reference Duct Tape Marketing- the Book/Website for a lot of useful guidance on that process.
There are some updates to that book that one of the Duct Tape Consultants can help with if you find the premise of the book/website interesting.
Apr 17, 2014
I believe work out a plan first. Research trends in the community, look at your competitors and how you could uniquely position yourself in a competitive landscape. Then write the key text or outsource it to a professional copy writer with main objectives and expectations and adapt to the different channels you wish to use it for.
Apr 19, 2014
Yap, I think copywriting, designing and editing are necessary skill sets a layman like me need to acquire soon, else the costs of operation will be overwhelming.
Apr 24, 2014
HI JC, consider to outsource to a low labor country with the creative and quality skills to save on expenses. This could be 1/3 of your total expense that you might face in your own country.
Apr 17, 2014
Intent, Audience, Venue and Content: while content is thought to be King I feel it is derived (perhaps the word is informed) by intent, audience and venue. First, what precisely is it that you intend to do. What do you want to accomplish with your marketing campaign. Be specific. Who are you trying to reach? The more you know about the audience the better. If you have more than one audience you have have more than one campaign. Venue- think of this as the area, the arena, the place that your audience goes to get the information that matter to them. Yes indeed, particular groups of people are inclined to have preferences for this. Finally it it is time to write the content. The content is designed to fulfill your intention. It is written in a way that appeals to your audience and in such a manner that it can easily be delivered in a place where that audience goes for their information.
Apr 17, 2014
A. Hire professionals. A real copywriter. A real designer/art director.
B. Give them a real strategic brief - one that is not merely a list of deliverables. And a realistic budget.
C. Have the guts to buy a real idea when you see it. How will you know? It will excite you and make you nervous in equal measure. Look for discipline, craft, brand fidelity and a brand idea that has broad shoulders to carry your messages across a variety of materials and media.
Apr 17, 2014
First you hone your message that will get results, then you can beautify it but concentrate more of what you are saying instead of how nice it looks.
Apr 17, 2014
JC, Your overall approach sounds good; start with basic content, then get a creative or content developer (designer, website developer, graphic artist, printer, etc.) to do the creative execution. Your up-front work needs to include marketing/brand planning, in which you outline your positioning, target market(s), customers' unmet needs, 3C Think Tank's unique value proposition, forecasts, budget, etc. This up-front planning is a lot of work, but it is important to ensure the marketing messages and materials you develop and execute are getting the right messages to the right audiences. There are marketing consultants who can help you with this planning work, but you and other principals at 3C Think Tank need to invest time with them during this phase, as you know best your mission, vision and unique value proposition.
Since you are selling management consulting services, marketing professional services can be a bit more challenging. As I am sure you know, a lot of your growth will come from referrals, and repeat business. These depend a lot on the relationships you develop with existing and new clients over time. Good luck, and let me know if you have any other questions.
Apr 17, 2014
Use the Marketing Equation: Interrupt, Engage, Educate and Offer. It works, but 99% of all marketers don't know it, don't follow it and don't get the results they desire.
Apr 17, 2014
A. Show and tell WHAT you're selling and the BIG thing that it does.
B. Show and tell what makes it DIFFERENT, special, one of a kind -- differentiate from the competition. This is critical.
C. Show and tell, more briefly, the rest of the story -- what else it does, secondary functions and benefits, specs, requirements, etc. as needed.
Do that and you'll be ahead of 90% of other marketers. I also advise finding a designer who's NOT just a "beautifier" but who can understand your business and products; and get that person involved early on. A smart designer/writer can significantly improve the effectiveness of the end result.
Al Shultz
Apr 17, 2014
It's about writing what you offer but first what the clients or the potential purchaser(s) really needs or wants. Go back and look at some of the materials on USP--Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point. This goes back to the 1940's and then the 60's with Rosser Reeves. I'd also look at the strategic differences of the nine P's at http://nineps.com. These can help you look at product, and presentation and much more. Good luck.
Apr 17, 2014
I think it's important to really clarify your brand positioning first -- what are the products or services you offer (the more narrow your niche, the better -- you can be the expert) and determine a clear vision of your audience -- what they are buying. Then develop your message and keep that message strong throughout your materials. I'm also a stickler on good, functional design. Design should support your message, not overwhelm it. It's more than worth it to spend money here.
Apr 17, 2014
Great answer Martha. It is all about a core message. After that, it all becomes easier. The danger of thinking in terms of "materials" is you can easily end up with slightly different (or worse) messages in each. Further, you only need materials that your prospects require. For example, if your typical prospect isn't going to look at a paper brochure, why make one? Or looked at another way, your message is your cargo and the various forms of marketing material are modes of transportation. don't pick a transportation mode just because you can. It should serve a specific purpose.
Apr 17, 2014
The smartest way to approach marketing your product service is to first start with a brand architecture, which will be then used as a basis for your messaging including your tone, style, look and feel.
A brand architecture includes the identification of your companies mission, brand attributes and values, brand positioning and reasons to believe (proof of concept).
From there, you want to use professional resources (copywriter/art director) to design the look and feel of your brand... for ONE marketing element. That becomes the guideline for the development of the rest of your marketing materials.
Without this process, your materials will be all over the board and will not represent one, cohesive, and fully integrated brand message. This is necessary to make sure you're communicating in one brand voice.
Apr 17, 2014
Ha, ABC, that's funny. Yes, I agree with the ABC's of sales. Always Be Closing.
Apr 17, 2014
Research, and the personal experience of most marketers, supports the notion that storytelling is one of the most effective persuasion techniques but it often gets overlooked when developing the kind of marketing collateral you list in your question. I start with story, then use a checklist to re-purpose content in different formats, starting with the longest-form content and boiling it down to short tweets and visuals.
Here's my profile. Get in touch with me if you want my checklist free of charge.
http://www.mosaichub.com/member/p/sean-power
Here's some research supporting the notion that storytelling is effective for persuasive communications, especially when used strategically:
Harvard Business Review on the topic:
http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/the-irresistible-power-of-storytelling-as-a-strategic-business-tool/
The psychology theory behind storytelling:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mar.20203/abstract;jsessionid=01AE78E984425B1F48D8199557612921.f02t02?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false
Empirical evidence on consumer response to storytelling:
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/bm/journal/v20/n4/abs/bm201215a.html
On storytelling in B2B marketing:
http://blog.lewispr.com/2014/03/brand-storytelling-b2b-brands-need-to-catch-up.html
On your story, their story, and our story:
http://www.cmo.com/articles/2013/7/17/storytelling_may_be_.html
Hope it helps.
Sean
Apr 16, 2014
The content or assets you need to create marketing materials usually belong to these categories -mainly from an online perspective, which is my expertise, but can be applied to offline as well:
1.- Curated
Content Curation is the act of discovering, gathering, and presenting digital content around a subject matter. i.e. if you are marketing video games, gather YouTube videos submitted by players of your games or positive reviews and post them on your site, blog or social media properties.
2.- Recycle
Existing content that can be reused on a different format. i.e. reuse an instructions manual by transforming it into a blog post or a how-to YouTube video. The content you create for a website can be reused for a flyer or a product brochure.
3.- Created new
Ad-hoc created content or materials for an specific purpose.
4. CoMarket
Co-create marketing materials with strategic partners. i.e. user testimonials, market research, etc.
I hope it helps.
I am talking of developing marketing material, did you miss the word "material"?