If you’ve made it so far without any (or any good) marketing material, then you haven’t been lucky. Sorry, but despite your success, you’ve surely lost out on additional business. There are people out there who want and need to buy from you, but they don’t, because they don’t know who, where, or what you are.
You deserve better than this, right? So what’s blocking things?
Most likely, if you have ineffective marketing materials, they aren’t working because they don’t, fundamentally, support your sales efforts. You may think that they do, but that’s an assumption that won’t stand up to your scrutiny. Ask yourself these questions about your marketing material: does it create awareness? Does it build credibility? Does it maintain your visibility in the marketplace? And if the knee-jerk answer to any of these questions is “yes of course!”, ask the next questions: how, and how much? (This is where the awkward stare and shrug comes in.)
Don’t worry. Marketing material is only as good as its strategic direction, and you improve things from this moment forward by doing these:
Determine clearly how your materials will be used. For instance, will it be used for prospecting? As a contact piece for existing clients? As a give-away at trade shows and events? How you want to use your marketing materials drives what needs to be created.
Figure out your objective for each marketing piece. Is it supposed to generate leads? Close sales? Increase mind share? Or what?
Decide if you need to version the materials for different market segments. Is your B2C stuff getting in the faces of your B2B prospects? Are you communicating with your target in their language, using their terms and concepts?
Answering these questions can take some time, and possibly some outside help, but it can be done. It can also be surprisingly inexpensive, too. Thanks to digital printing, after your initial development costs, you can save significant dollars by printing small quantities and then re-printing as the need arises.