How Integrated is Your Marketing?

There have never been so many ways to reach prospects. And while that means you have more opportunities to influence buying decisions, you also have a greater chance of sending mixed messages.

That’s why it might pay to take an afternoon to compare your brochures, sales kits, and direct mail pieces to your online materials, such as website copy, e-mail and downloadable case studies or spec sheets.

Audit your collateral
Once you’ve got everything side by side, ask this series of questions:

• Do all the pieces look like they come from the same company and speak with one voice?
• Do they address issues, problems or concerns from the prospect’s point of view?
• Does each piece serve a strategic purpose? What is that purpose?
• Are messages created to appeal to different stakeholders at different stages of the buying process?
• Is there a single, overriding concept that ties them all together?

Maintain a consistent message
After correcting inconsistencies in how you present info, consider developing a central resource for all the messages your company wants to deliver.
That way, staffers can draw from the same well of approved copy.

Your resource bank could include:

• Pre-approved boilerplate language about your company, products and services that can be cut and pasted as needed
• Product images and logos in various formats
• Templates for presentations that need to be created on-the-fly

Source: www.mobium.com (Now Laughlin)