The New Year is a Great Time to Review your Marketing Collateral

Written on the 15 December 2014

2014 is almost over! It's very easy to become complacent at this time of year, as we look forward to some much anticipated time off. While holiday planning may be at the top of your priority list, make sure you don't neglect the needs of your business. The end of the year is the perfect time to review your marketing collateral such as your brochure design, menu design or catalogue design.

Marketing collateral is an important aspect of any business. It is a way to present your business to prospective customers and clients in a visually-appealing way, increasing your chances of doing business with them.

When looking at your marketing collateral it's important to review everything. Are your brochures designed in a modern way that represent your business? Is your menu designed in a way that makes people want to order 3 courses? There are several areas to be aware of when reviewing your marketing collateral.

1. Visual Components

The first is the visual components of your marketing collateral. Ensure your campaigns colours match your brand colours or at least complement them. This should apply to your brochure design, menu design, letterhead design and all marketing material. The design should be consistent which will help increase brand awareness, which leads to more sales.

Ensure the images and corresponding text is laid out in a visually-appealing manner, enabling the reader to associate the text with the corresponding image easily. Ask yourself, does your catalogue design make people want to turn the page for more?

A confusing layout can discourage potential customers from reading the material. To retain customer attention, your marketing collateral should capture their attention at first sight with strong headlines on your brochure and flyer design.

Reviewing the quality of written content is just as important as the visual aspects of your marketing collateral. Errors in grammar, spelling or punctuation can have a negative effect on your business.

Remember that written content is a reflection of your business, and marketing collateral containing spelling errors will do no favours for your business reputation.

2. Objectives

Does your marketing collateral meet your business objectives and goals? Is your brochure designed in a way that makes people want to pick up the phone and call you?

It's important that your marketing collateral complies with your marketing goals. To do this, examine your purpose in creating marketing collateral was it to increase brand awareness, for direct sales, or merely to inform and entertain?

When we work with our Gold Coast clients on their Marketing Collateral, we work out a plan around how to stand out and how to be different. Having a plan can help you with your overall marketing strategy and can be the difference between a customer doing business with you versus your competitor.

3. Customer Perspective

To conduct a proper review, look at the design from the customers perspective. Would you immediately pick up and read the brochure or catalogue? Would you invest time in reading the catalogue, or just glance at it? Are the words, images and tone of the design enough to encourage you to contact the business for more information?

Well-constructed marketing collateral is a method of encouraging potential clients to do business with you. Therefore, it should accurately reflect the image you want to promote for your business.

If your marketing collateral isn't up to standard, now is the time to improve it with a fresh new design. Start the New Year with a perfectly designed marketing collateral that you can use in campaigns.

For marketing materials customised to your needs, we recommend you work with the most reputable Graphic Designer, the Gold Coast has to offer - us! Contact us today for a free quote.