Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

Hopefully, by now you’ve concluded that today’s marketing requires lots of content, lots of education, and lots of trust-building via expertise sharing.

The tri-fold brochure just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Today’s smart marketers think in terms of information products more than marketing collateral — education over selling rules the day.

The best way to tap this necessary marketing shift is to think in terms of kits or suites of information. The most practical approach for the typical small business is the creation of on-demand, flexible and personal marketing kits, press kits and new customer kits.

These multiple page-documents, often housed in a pocket of a custom file folder, allow small business marketers to tell the entire story in a range of formats that take in the learning styles and personalities of a broad range of prospects.

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Marketing Materials are an art. I mean sure it COULD be just a print out ~ color copied at kinkos… stuck in a folder… with someone’s business card haphazardly inserted… We get tons of those in the mail and at conventions. They are no fun! So when asked to discuss Marketing Materials, i decided it was more fun to SHOW you some of the fun ones that have found their way across my desk… If there’s one thing about creating marketing materials i think is critical, it would have to be – BRAND IT TO EVERY LAST DETAIL! Seriously. Stand out. Take whatever it is that makes your branding unique, what jumps out about your product, best use of your service, whatever it is ~ and take it all the way! But make sure it looks good, not a hair out of place. Because your attention to detail from the handwriting on the envelopes, to the state of the materials/products you are sending all say a lot about you, and your company.

So on the next page, you will get the cliff notes version in pictures of some of the many marketing materials i’ve received, all noteworthy in their own way! Enjoy! And I hope to add yours to the list soon!

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I’ll never forget how surprised I was to receive the little booklet from Google.

You see, I’ve always thought of Google as the quintessential electronic business.  Who would have thought that they’d print up little spiral bound booklets and mail them to small business owners like me?  But they did.  Here is the booklet I got in the mail one day:

The booklet is called “Tweak Your Way to Profitability.”   The subtitle is “Tips for Boosting Your Income with AdSense.”

It contains tips for running Google AdSense units on your website to earn extra income.

Several things intrigued me about this marketing piece – so much so, that over 4 years later I still have it.  

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When you’re creating your marketing materials, do you struggle to find the right balance between eye-popping promises and reality?  Sure, you can get people to pay attention with claims like:

• Lose 20 lbs in 2 weeks – no dieting.
• Double your income in half the time.

However, there are a couple of problems with making outrageous claims.  You may get people’s attention, but they won’t necessarily believe you.  People will be looking for the fine print of your offer.   They know if it looks too good to be true, it probably is!

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Google inspired me.

Yes, Google inspired me to create a marketing collateral piece for my business, from its little AdSense booklet that I received in the mail several years back.  (See the booklet and read more about it here.)

Today I’d like to share my own booklet – the booklet that Google inspired.  When I saw Google’s booklet, a light bulb went on over my brain.  “A ha!  I can create something like that to drive people back to my website,” I thought.

You see, I run a Web-based publishing business – akin to an informal online magazine.  I have struggled to come up with meaningful printed collateral to hand out at in-person events and speaking engagements that will get people to go online and visit my website.

In my case, going to my website is the single biggest call to action.  My goal is to get people to go to my website, whereupon they read information, subscribe and participate in the community.  So I created my own booklet, which looked like this:

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