Last week, our sales team bagged a deal worth $21,000 in just two hours from creation of the lead. Our sales team was overjoyed and thanked the content team umpteen times saying if not for the marketing collaterals, the deal would have never been possible.

Rewind and replay…

It is not even half hour since the lead signed up and the sales person is already on call with the lead explaining the services he requested for. After ten minutes, the lead requests for collaterals that could give him more information. In the next ten minutes, the sales person sends the lead a marketing white paper about the service. Half hour from then and the lead calls with the quote and after negotiating for fifteen minutes, the lead is ready to buy our service. Another half hour and there we have $21,000 in our account.

This is just one case mentioned amongst a lot where customers rely on collaterals. Yes, customers are now judging businesses based on company’s marketing collaterals like never before.

Oh collateral writing is nothing…

If you think that these collaterals can be created in just a snap time, that’s absolutely a wrong notion. Writers put in hours to create collaterals that can influence customers. Be it a one-page flyer or multi-page company capabilities collateral, it takes time to conceptualize and create the collateral. While creating collateral, there are many aspects that have to be taken into account. Most of the aspects are covered below…

Get into the reader’s shoes: Yes, a very common suggestion that everyone gives. But there are barely any writers who take this seriously. Firstly, know who the audience is and the level of their understanding. Never presume that the readers will be aware of your products/services. Educate them about your product giving them ample information.

However, do not write too much of text boring the audience. Give them relevant information that they could relate to themselves or their business. Simply, after reading your collateral, even a layman should be able to explain what you are trying to explain.

No blabbering about your company: Yes, your readers already know that you are one the biggest companies with millions in revenue. No reader is downloading and reading your marketing collaterals to know when your company was founded and who your CEO is. They definitely can get all this information from your website. Can’t they?

First write about your product/service and later about your company. Writing a brief note about the company at the end of the collateral is what is needed. NO boasting about the company.

Get rid of all the free hanging content: Check for any content that is hanging freely, i.e. content without which the collateral still makes sense, and chop all of it. Just get to the point without brooding over any topic. All you need is a sticky start and impactful call-to-action. This is how most professionals work it out. The more you talk, the more they might get confused.

Different collaterals for different audience: Collaterals should be created based on different segments like industries, company types, products, services, the levels of understanding of the audience, geography and also demographical aspects like age, sex, interests etc.

Quality Matters: Marketing collateral is not a document where you can play around like how you do with a blog post. It needs to be professional without any slang words or jargons. The collateral should be impressive enough for the reader to take action.

Tidbit: All your marketing collaterals should have a consistent design in sync with your brand image.