Is your collateral presenting your company in a positive light?
A lot of small businesses don’t have the budget to hire a professional firm to create collateral for them. Fortunately, there are 5 do-it-yourself collateral tips you can use to make sure your company’s collateral is presenting your business in a positive light:
- Include contact information and a website. It’s extremely rare to be able to include ALL information someone might want on a piece of collateral, and can actually make the document too cluttered. Instead, include the link to a website with more information in addition to your contact info.
- Make sure the document is timely. If you put a date on it, don’t use it more than a month afterwards, otherwise it can look like the person you’re giving it to isn’t important enough to receive it right away.
- Make sure everything in your marketing materials is consistent. Yes, make sure everything is spelled right, but think about formatting and the overall look of the document, too. I always recommend using the same font every time – this is an easy way to build a consistent look.
- Put the most important, interesting and impressive information first. Answer the standard “Who? What? Where?” questions in addition to “Why should the person receiving this care?” If it isn’t obvious, the collateral isn’t doing its job.
- Make sure your headline or title is accurate. Catchy is good, but it needs to make sense. Make sure the title or headline you choose is completely factual, and if it leaves the recipient asking any questions, the answers are easy to find in the content of the release.
What additional DIY collateral tips do you have?
Photo Credit: Engin Erdogan
I would definitely add using Social Media links whenever possible. People may not visit your website right away, but if they know they can find you on Facebook they may find that an easier way to connect! We added ours to the back of our business cards, and those links will be on all future published collateral!