| In this day and age of over-communication, how do you make your training collateral stand out in a crowd of marketing paraphernalia? How do you ensure that your collateral provides the greatest impact?
1. Assess your collateral requirements
What are you trying to accomplish with your collateral? Do you have specific communication objectives in mind? You may need a corporate brochure that lists all your company's products and services or specific product literature that lists benefits at a glance. Who is the collateral intended for? Does the collateral address their issues and talk to them in a language they understand? What are the requirements of your sales team that need to be addressed? Would it help them close the sale? Conducting such an analysis would ensure that your goals of communication are achieved.
2. Provide concise but complete information
Once you've decided on the content, present it in a concise manner for busy schedules and shortened attention spans. Keep the language at the level your audience, though simplicity usually works best. But do provide all the information that is relevant - it may tip the scales in your favor. Be sure to display your contact information prominently. Your collateral can serve as a quick and easy point of reference for your contact details.
3. Accurately reflect your positioning
Your collateral is a good opportunity to communicate and reinforce your positioning in your prospect's mind, to let them know what you stand for and why you are uniquely capable of delivering the solution. Provide this focus in all your collateral - putting multiple messages out there will only confuse your prospect.
4. Make good use of graphics
A picture is well worth a thousand words - provide graphical representations wherever possible. Whether you've succeeded in reducing a client's costs or have impacted revenue growth, a graph is a great way to show that. If you have a cost-benefit analysis or an ROI model that can be visually demonstrated, more power to you!
5. Include case studies and client testimonials wherever possible
Nothing proves you can do it like a track record; include case studies at every opportunity. And if you have a client who is willing to provide a testimonial, be sure to highlight it in your marketing material.
6. Use an overarching branding theme for all your collateral
A corporate identity is an asset, and your collateral is an important vehicle through which you can establish or reinforce that identity. Include both visual (such as company logo, color palette) and textual elements (standard boilerplate, contact details) that provide this common thread in all your marketing materials.
If you are in the business of delivering training, a training catalog with course listings and schedules is a critical collateral item. Some customization is needed to adapt this to print or online media. For instance, a printed catalog usually has a portrait orientation, but will do better as landscape in its online version. But whether online or in a printed format, it must be easily navigable and provide the highest level of ease-of-use. Ensure that all information related to a course or set of courses appears on the same page so that your prospect doesn't have to search in multiple places.
Creating your collateral does not have to be an expensive process.
Some money-saving tips are:
- Sending out electronic versions of your collateral to clients may be a very acceptable option, but if you have to print, select a number that ensures that print shops give you the best price possible. Printing a number between 2000 and 3000 usually gives you the most value for your money.
- There are many economical print options available. Some internet based print shops let you place an order online, turn around proofs in one day and can ship out an order within 4-5 days.
- Save by using standard sizes: Non-standard sizes might get your collateral noticed a little more, but will push up your printing costs quite a bit. 8.5x11 (single sheet) 11 x17 (half fold - 4 pages) are standard sizes for brochures while a standard of 5.5x8.5 can be used for catalogs and booklets
- Go for 4-color printing on good quality paper if you can afford it. Hard stock will prevent it from getting dog-eared and ensure longer life. But feel free to do a 2-color job if that's what your budget permits. Having 2-color content rich collateral with the right messaging is better than no collateral at all.
Developing your collateral may seem like a long and arduous process, but the returns are well worth it - increased visibility and reinforcement of your corporate identity in a critical space - the minds of your prospects.
About the Author
Ragini Sharma is a marketing communications consultant focused on the training and knowledge management industries. Experienced in the design and implementation of a variety of marketing programs for multi-national Fortune 500 corporations in both B2B and B2C environments, she specializes in developing content for different types of marketing collateral and thought leadership pieces based on principles of sound strategy and positioning. She can be reached at ragini.a.sharma@gmail.com. Learn more about Ragini: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/92/b38
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