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

Last week, I shared a few ideas for original and creative marketing materials. Here are some more ideas for high-impact ways to connect with your customers.

Interactive Business Cards
Time: 10 min
Cost: $9.99 for design, $13.98/100 + shipping
Customer Interaction and Playing with Your Business Card: Priceless

After brainstorming, one of my clients came up with the visual analogy of a Rubik’s Cube.

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Marketing materials are NOT what they used to be. Websites have taken a lot of focus and attention away from traditional printed pieces like tri-fold brochures.  But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t create them.  You still need many of the traditional pieces; you just need to give them a new function and purpose.

If your prospect uses the internet to get basic information about your product and your company, your printed materials are now the second stage of helping them decide if your product or service is the right choice for them.  Take them to the next step and have them start interacting with your product.  Your marketing materials need to “pop” and make the recipient think “I cannot live another day without this product or service.”

That is a tall order for most of us.  But not impossible.  Here are the first two ways you can get the “gotta have that” response from your prospects.

Think Before You Print
Time: 40 min
Cost: $0
Clear Differentiated Position: Priceless

Don’t make the mistake of just sitting down and creating business cards, flyers and brochures.  Answer the following questions first. 

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Press releases are an essential marketing tool.  Media coverage is a great way to promote your brand for free. However, most small business owners are not experienced at communicating with the press. It’s not difficult to do, but it can be intimidating and confusing.

A press release is different from a press kit (see John Jantsch’s great tips on creating press kits and other marketing materials). You can think of a press kit as being about your business in general. They are a good way to make the media aware of your business and how you can be a resource for them as they write stories. While a press release is about a specific piece of news about your business and why they should cover it in their publication.

Here are 3 important press release tips:

1. Have a “newsworthy” story to tell:
It isn’t enough to simply tell a reporter “My business is interesting and you should write about it.” Reporters are looking for news. Even when they write a profile about a company, there is usually a “news angle” that makes now a particularly relevant time to feature a particular business.

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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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