The Internet has leveled the playing field in commerce and marketing as more entrepreneurs have started to grow their online businesses. There are many strategies that online business owners can employ to promote branding and boost sales of their products and services.
Anything that a business uses to spread their brand message is referred to as marketing collateral. It is any media used to improve sales and support the marketing cycle. It spans from print materials, like posters and flyers to digital content, like e-books and e-newsletters.
The rise of online media has unlocked more opportunities for companies to make their products and services known to a broader pool of potential customers. Read on to learn about these marketing collaterals that are proven to reinforce your marketing initiatives.
Blog Posts
Blog posts are one of the most sought-after collaterals that businesses use to raise brand awareness. Readers can be led to check out a company's products, services, or other content as blogs serve to be a hub for answering questions and providing solutions.
Many brands focus on the SEO benefits of blogging and use them to optimize other marketing efforts. Your posts should be about topics that are valuable to your prospective customers.
In sales conversations, identify common questions raised by your leads and articulate the answers to those on your blog content. Blogs should help your prospects understand the information they need through visual aids, statistics, and other compelling ideas in your posts.
Blog posts are highly dependent on your objectives and the type of blog you want to start, this marketing collateral can cost you around $34.50 to $65.40 to cover your first year of expenses.
Case Studies
Case studies are bigger than blog posts and are a genuine form that allows you to teach your secrets to success without bragging blatantly. You must dedicate these to those interested in your style of doing business.
You can demonstrate what you've done exactly to help other clients or customers in achieving their goals and meeting their needs. It has four main components: the challenge, solution, result, and the client's testimonial.
Before writing a case study, interview your clients to get their experience with your product or service. Don't forget to add tips they have for other customers and use quotes to be more convincing.
Reading case studies is a step before a customer decides to talk with a salesperson or considers signing up. Understand first how much value case studies will provide to your business before shelling out the marketing budget for case study writing, which depends on different factors, like length and number of interviews.
Also read: How to Raise Money for a New Business
Infographics
An infographic is any visual image, such as a chart or diagram representing information or data. They can be used as part of blog posts or articles, but they can also be standalone pieces of content.
With so much content on the web, infographics can help your brand stand out because of its visual nature. As humans process visual information better than text, you can create infographics that will get your product or service noticed.
It should always leave a more lasting impression on your audience. Be as creative as possible without compromising style, focus, size, and details. An infographic will cost anything from a few hundred to a thousand dollars, but it varies depending on the source of work and inclusions.
You can either hire a freelance graphic designer or work with an agency based on your budget. It's best to clearly communicate your style guide and brand goals to your graphic designers to ensure their work's quality and usability.
Conclusion
Marketing collateral is one of the many facets of an effective marketing program, and it can be a powerful tool that can dramatically impact the growth of your online business.
You can start creating collateral to keep both new and existing customers coming back to you. Creating collateral may often be challenging and time-consuming, but it allows for more predictable and scalable business improvement.