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Does Your Print Collateral Need a Refresh? Here’s How to Tell

5/20/2021 | admin
Tulsa AlphaGraphic Building Tulsa is beginning to reemerge!  Wasn’t Mayfest great!  Our community is eager to attend Drillers games at ONEOK Field, catch live shows at Cain’s Ballroom, and partake in everything Tulsa’s shops, eateries, and venues have to offer. With these things on the horizon, the question is: is your marketing and sales collateral up-to-date and ready for this newfound energy? Does it represent your current business as it has evolved through this last year? Unfortunately, all too many businesses follow a “set it and forget it” mindset managing their sales material. Marketing created before and during the pandemic may not appropriately address your target audience today. If you fall into this group, it may be time for a refresh. Why should you audit your collateral?  Coming from a finance background, I tend to wince when I hear the word ‘audit’. It’s easy to forget that even a financial audit yields great insights into what can be done better. Auditing your printed collateral will provide powerful and interesting ways you can communicate with your customers and team members more effectively.  Using fresh, up-to-date marketing and sales collateral ensures that you accurately represent your business. These materials should speak to your brand, demonstrate what your business does, and showcase your current offerings.  But most of all, it should represent the personality of your business. When should you do a collateral audit? You’ll want to conduct a routine audit of your sales and marketing collateral at least twice a year:  once during the planning of the coming year and again as you learn how the year is progressing. Not only will this help your team catch necessary updates, but it also allows you to capitalize on seasonal promotions and align with seasonal trends in your industry. There are a few other critical times to audit and update your collateral:
  • Anytime you launch a new product or change your product line,
  • Anytime you rebrand or update your logo,
  • Before every industry event or trade show where you’ll hand out printed materials, and
  • Anytime your contact information or physical location (such as your address, phone number, and website) changes.
Right now is also a great time to audit and refresh your marketing materials! Consider how your printed collateral can best support your sales team as they begin scheduling in-person meetings again. How to tell when your sales material 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 collateral require any updates. Is it consistent with your branding? All marketing and sales material should be consistent with your current branding and align with the style of your other marketing efforts. Ensure that each piece fits in seamlessly with your visuals on other channels, including your website, emails, and social media. Customers should be able to easily identify the materials as belonging to your business. If you find discrepancies or outdated imagery, refresh and modernize the design. Does it speak to your target audience? Admit it, we have all changed over this past year.  Your company has changed, and your customers have changed. Align your message with what your audience cares about today—their needs and desires, challenges they face, and questions they ask. Also double-check your imagery. Consider things like age, race and ethnicity, gender, marital and family status, and lifestyle to ensure your customers feel represented. Does it have a clear call to action? A call-to-action, or CTA, is a no-brainer in this day and age.  But does your call-to-action reflect what you really want your customers to do?  Does it say “Visit our website” when you really want them to see a landing page about your new products or call you directly?  Are you using QR codes to make it easy for the customer to take the action you want?  And if they do take the desired action, will it reflect well on your company?  If you want them to call, are they going to have a pleasing or frustrating experience?   When they respond to your call-to-action, are you going to be able to track it?  You can’t evaluate your efforts if customers are sent to a general website rather than a targeted landing page.  No marketing materials are effective without pointing customers in the right direction and being able to track it. Does it reflect your current offerings? Businesses are constantly evolving, and your company’s offerings might not be the same as they were six months or a year ago. Ensure that every piece of sales and marketing collateral reflects what your business offers right now. Make changes to feature your newest or most popular products and services and remove any you no longer offer.  It’s also smart to switch out seasonal offerings to keep your collateral as fresh as possible.  But whatever you do, don’t wait until the next “big thing” comes along.  There will always be something cool just around the corner.  Take action now! Does it include your contact information? It’s amazing how quickly things change.  You must keep your information current.  How embarrassing is it when your customers can’t reach you because your material has an outdated website address, social media handle, phone number, email, and/or physical address?   Also, are you taking advantage of QR codes so that customers and prospects can easily add you to their contacts, call up a map to your location, or maybe most importantly, leave a great review? Involve those who count. As you go through the process of updating your collateral, don’t forget to involve your key stakeholders! An audit and refresh of your printed material is the perfect opportunity to consult with your sales team and ask what material they need to do their jobs better. Find out what messages and calls to action they’ve found successful and integrate them. It’s also a good idea to survey your customers. This helps you learn more about their needs, so you can speak those needs in your messaging. In doing so, you’ll help answer their questions and demonstrate how your business can solve their problems. Keeping your sales and marketing collateral up to date is essential for effectively communicating with customers and putting your best foot forward as a business. If you haven’t revisited your collateral in a while, take the opportunity to do so now and make a plan to do a regular audit and refresh going forward.  Things are always changing for the better in Tulsa. Make sure your printed material is ready for that change!

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