Don’t Start A Business Without This Marketing Collateral!

What is marketing collateral?

Marketing collateral is any set of assets used to market and sell a company’s product or service, as well as build brand awareness. Marketing collateral is an important part of a business’s brand identity as it supports the visual representation of a brand.

So, why exactly is marketing collateral important?

Great question! Marketing collateral serves many important purposes for a brand. Let’s review them.

For one thing, it helps people remember your brand

Use marketing collateral as an opportunity to capture and sustain people’s interest in your brand. If successful, a great piece of marketing collateral can help people remember your brand next time they see your logo, brand colors, or logo fonts.

Marketing collateral informs people about what you do

Good marketing materials not only capture people’s attention but also inform them more about your product or service. They make it easy for potential customers to find a way to get a hold of you and connect with your brand further. Whether that’s including links to your social media profiles, or sharing your contact information.

It creates a visual aesthetic people associate with your brand

We’ve talked at length about why nailing down a brand aesthetic is so important. It helps people foster connections with your brand in a dynamic and visual way. Marketing collateral is a way to reinforce your brand’s aesthetic. And the more connected people feel to your brand, the more power your brand holds for them.

It encourages referrals

A brand that consistently sticks to its brand guidelines, uses striking visuals, and regularly uses content to connect with its audience, is more likely to get talked about and referred to by its customers! Use printed marketing materials like flyers, coupons, brochures, and posters usually include a promotion code to encourage passive consumers to make a purchase or refer a friend for rewards.

Leads buyers toward a purchase

Lots of marketing collateral is used to encourage people to make a purchase with your brand, or at least take the connection between brand and consumer one step further.

Print collateral like business cards, flyers, posters, and letterheads are an intimate experience between a brand and consumer. They’re either spending time holding something physical in their hands or looking at it online. This is an important moment for brands to use a Call-to-Action to facilitate this connection. CTA’s like following on social media, share on social media, use a promo code, or request a sample all work well on marketing collateral.

So, what are the most important marketing collateral assets to have?

We’ll run through the list of what over 9M Looka customers consider as the most important marketing collateral assets to have for their brand, why they’re important, and how to best put them into action.

1. Logo

Is a logo a marketing asset? Absolutely! A logo makes your brand more memorable and also communicates a sense of professionalism around your business. Your logo is the first visual element a person associates with your brand— it gives your company an identity, communicating what you do in a way words can’t.

How to use it: We’re not joking when we say, “put your logo on everything!” There are endless places to put your logo and the more frequently you use it, the more exposure your audience is getting to your brand.

With Looka’s Brand Kit, you can easily develop a logo and immediately drop it into the top marketing materials every entrepreneur should have. Pick from over 300+ designs tailored to your logo and industry. Re-visit the Brand Kit any time you need to update your marketing materials or design something new!

2. Website

Your website is your digital storefront. 30% of consumers won’t even consider a business without a website. Your website acts as both marketing and sales collateral, by being both informative and convincing.

How to use it: Whether your business is product or service-based, it’s the place people investigate your story, what you’re offering, and what makes you different. So, make sure you have this information readily available. Make it easy for people to contact you through your website, book time with you if you offer services, or buy from you if you offer products!

3. Social Media Profiles

In a digital world, social media profiles have become some of the most vital marketing collateral to have. In fact, social media profiles are the third most-designed marketing assets in Looka’s Brand Kit.

Having social media profiles legitimizes your business and shows off the community connection you have with your existing customers. It is one of the places your brand voice is most commonly used and gives a deeper sense of your brand’s personality to potential customers!

How to use it: Make sure you have social media profile images with your logo added to each of your channels. This makes your brand seem better established, and more professional to the average browser. Use social media as a way to converse with your followers and offer promotions! You can learn more from our blog about how to use social media for your business.

4. Business Cards

Business cards might seem old school, but the truth is nothing has replaced the ability to so quickly exchange contact information in a professional context.

How to use it: Business cards are a kind of print collateral that allows for impressive branding opportunities. In fact, 72% of people say they’ll judge a company by the quality of their business card. Imagine the talking point a fiery color or funny logo slogan could create in the moment! You never know when you’ll need a business card, so it’s safest to always have a few on hand at all times!

5. Email Signatures

An email signature sits in the inbox of every person you correspond with via email. While it might seem like a small piece of marketing collateral, it’s certainly one that’s able to communicate a lot of information in a tiny amount of space.

How to use it: Easily create an email signature in Looka’s Brand Kit and add it to your inbox settings. Your logo and contact information will be visible at all times!

6. Letterheads

If you are a consultant, contractor, or work in other professional services, having a branded letterhead will promote your professional image. Letterheads are a designed heading at the top of company paper. These typically include your company name, address, phone number, and website.

How to use it: Use letterheads for memorandums, notices, legal, and other business-related announcements. Letterheads establish the validity of your brand, and also give clear contact information to past, present, and future clients.

7. Invoices

Invoices ensure you get paid for the valuable work you do! A branded invoice acts as marketing collateral because it reinforces your brand and professionalism.

How to use it: You are 3x more likely to get paid on time if your invoice contains your logo! So, make sure your invoices contain your logo, brand fonts, and brand colors.

8. Cards

Branded cards are one of the most underrated pieces of marketing material out there. The personal touch of a handwritten note never loses it’s charm and adds to your brand experience if it is well designed and captures your brand identity.

How to use it: If you run a service-based business, try using branded cards as thank you notes, invitations, and holiday cards. You can add cards inside your branded packaging as an additional touch to your brand’s unboxing experience.

Things to consider when designing your marketing materials

• Your brand colors: keep your brand identity consistent by applying your brand colors to all of your marketing materials.
• Your logo: make sure your logo is always somewhere visible on your marketing and sales collateral
• The medium: are you designing material for online or in print? You’ll want to use the basic elements of graphic design slightly differently depending on how your marketing material is being shared.