Marketing collateral means marketing ready
As a marketing coordinator, it is an essential priority that all necessary marketing collateral is made ready and available. This allows the firm's technical and business development staff to effortlessly put together a package outlining the benefits of the firm—whether for a proposal or for other potential client opportunities. If the materials are not readily available and easily customizable, the firm is not “marketing ready.”
Effective marketing materials are an effective balance between visual appeal, ease, and function. Getting to that final, streamlined product includes several crucial steps. Here are our top five:
1. Understand the clients' needs. First and foremost, you must understand your potential client and what they will be looking for in the firm’s marketing materials.
2. Create content. Enlist the help of technical staff. Sometimes the easiest way to get the information out of their heads and into your materials is by interviewing them. Write down all the questions you have about what they do and how it benefits the client, then schedule an interview at their convenience so they can focus on the information you need. For project-related information, get your accounting department involved. They have critical project data.
3. Make it pretty. Branding and graphic design are significant components of marketing materials. When a potential client looks at your materials, will they know which firm prepared them? Creating a standard template for each type of material you need—brochure, project sheets, SOQs, proposals—will help you to easily create and customize pieces. Look outside the industry for graphic design ideas.
4. Stay organized. Ensure that everyone who needs access to marketing materials can find them quickly and easily. Create and maintain server file and folder structure and organization. Save graphics in one location to allow for easier “linking” to files. Store all information in a centralized location—a firm-wide database is a good resource. Don’t have one? Some helpful programs include Deltek Vision, Cosential, insightly, Airtable, ACT, or Access.
5. Put it out there. Those materials aren’t doing much good sitting on your server! Determine the right clients and get your message out to them.
