Printed marketing and sales collateral plays a crucial role in securing customers for your business. Unfortunately, many businesses use the “set it and forget it” method, and some pieces can quickly become outdated. It’s smart to get in the habit of auditing printed materials and
refreshing them regularly.
Why should you audit your printed marketing collateral?
Up-to-date marketing and sales collateral ensures that you accurately represent your brand to customers. These materials should communicate what your business does and showcase your current offerings. Out-of-date or irrelevant collateral can cause confusion or frustration for buyers. If your goal is to persuade customers to make a purchase, ensure your messaging is both accurate and up-to-date.
When should you do a collateral audit?
A routine audit of your sales material will help your team catch necessary updates. A good rule of thumb is to revisit these materials every three months, or once a season. This can allow you to capitalize on seasonal promotions and trends in your industry. There are other critical times to audit and update your collateral:
- Any time you launch a new product or change your product line
- Any time you rebrand or update your logo
- Before every industry event or trade show where you’ll hand out printed materials
- Any time your contact information or physical location (such as your address, phone number, and website) changes
How to tell when your collateral needs a refresh
As you conduct your audit, there are a few important things you should look for to determine whether your marketing and sales materials require any updates.
Are they consistent with your branding?
All marketing and sales materials should be consistent with your current visual
branding style. Customers should be able to identify your website, emails, social media, and all printed materials as belonging to your business. Refresh and modernize any outdated imagery and design.
Do they speak to your target audience?
Every collateral’s message should align with what your audience cares about – their needs and desires, challenges they face, and questions they ask. Make sure any photos used reflect who your customers are.
Consider things like age, race and ethnicity, gender, marital and family status, and lifestyle to ensure your customers feel represented.
Do they have a clear call to action?
Marketing materials are not effective without a prominent and clear call to action on every piece. Wording such as, “Visit our website,” “Call today,” or “Redeem this coupon,” drive customers to take your desired action. Use trackable coupon codes, QR codes, custom landing pages, or other tools to gain insight on whether your call to action worked.
Do they reflect your current offerings?
Businesses are constantly evolving, and sales and printed marketing collateral should reflect what your business offers right now. Feature your newest or most popular products, and remove any products or services you no longer offer. It’s also a good idea to switch out products and services seasonally to keep your collateral as fresh as possible.
Do they include your contact information?
Remember to provide customers with a way to reach you by including your website, social media handles, phone number, email, and/or physical address on every piece.
Don’t let your collateral fall behind
As you go through the process of updating your printed marketing collateral, don’t forget to involve your sales team and ask what collateral they need to do their jobs better. Consult with them to find out what messages and calls to action they’ve found successful and integrate them.
Since customers are the key audience, it can be a good idea to survey your customers. Learn more about their needs so you can speak to those in your messaging and demonstrate how your business can solve their problems.
Keeping your sales and marketing printed marketing collateral up-to-date is essential for effectively communicating with your customers. If you haven’t revisted your collateral in awhile, now is a great time to make a plan and do a regular audit and refresh going forward.
About AlphaGraphics Central Business District | Las Vegas
Located between Sunset and Pecos road east of McCarron Int'l Airport, Las Vegas a few minutes east of the LV Strip, AlphaGraphics Las Vegas is local owned and operated and specializes in helping marketing strategy for Las Vegas businesses. We are an extension of your marketing team, we specialize in marketing products that are visual and tactile. For some this might be mailers, for others it might be signs and banners. We consult with you to find out how you want to attract customers, and then we build solutions and campaigns to meet your goals and communication needs.
For further information about AlphaGraphics Las Vegas and their capabilities, and setup and marketing strategy consultation with one of our sales team contact the AGLV team at 702-798-7557 or visit their website, AlphaGraphicsLV.
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