Imagine a room full of people all trying to market their products and services and sell to the same person at the same time. The room is packed with people talking at the prospect. The prospect is looking out into the crowd and he is getting frustrated because everyone is talking at the same time and he really can’t hear anything.

As time goes by the prospect is getting frustrated. The people marketing and selling to the prospect are also getting frustrated and some begin to shout in an attempt to get their voice heard. Soon, the noise level in the room gets louder and louder and the prospect starts to think about putting in earplugs. Do you want to join that crowd of marketers and have your message blend in with all of the other messages? NO WAY! You want to be the person who finds a microphone and stands on a chair!

You goal is to rise above the traditional marketing hype.

Your marketing materials are tools meant to assist your customer in their buying decision. The old way of marketing, pushing your products on your audience and focusing on how much money you will make, is no longer working. The new way of marketing, pulling your prospects to you and focusing on making it as easy as possible to decide to purchase your products and services, is the secret to your marketing success.

To make your marketing compelling, you must include a crystal clear statement of benefits and advantage in a very prominent place, like the headline or first sentence. You must ensure them that by viewing, listening to, or reading your marketing material, they will learn something new or receive something of value. And, you must make it easy to make a decision and take action.

Compelling marketing materials are the perfect combination of a persuasive message, a crystal clear call to action, and simple, attention-getting, professional graphic design with the right marketing piece. They also communicate the right message, to the right person, at the right time. And, with well-designed, benefits driven, compelling, easy to understand marketing materials you will be able to successfully cut through all of the other marketing messages out there to reach your ideal client. Your marketing materials need to address your ideal client’s problems and position you as the obvious “duh” solution.

Remember, your ideal clients WANT to buy from you. But they don’t want to feel like they are being pushed, pulled, manipulated, or sold, and they don’t want you to waste their time with irrelevant information. They want you to guide them to the important information. They want you to make it easy for them to make a decision. They want accurate, honest information not big promises, omissions, and hype. They want genuine help, not manipulation posing as help.

You only have one opportunity to make a first impression, and trust me, you don’t want to risk making a bad impression with an unprofessional marketing piece or confusing your audience with items look like they are from completely different companies.

Each and every piece of branded marketing material, whether it is online or offline, should represent your brand, your promise, and your value authentically and consistently. A cohesive marketing strategy and strong visual brand will not only help you communicate feelings of stability, credibility, and dependability, which are key factors in building trust, but they will also help the recipient decide whether they are going to save your sales piece, or throw it away.

So do yourself a favor, hire Bourn Creative to create compelling, eye-catching marketing and sales materials that will blow your competition away and pull your ideal clients right to your doorstep! Or, if you’re still on the fence, check out my blog post on Why Do I Need to Hire a Professional Graphic Designer?

What Marketing Materials Does My Business Need?

You know you need some professional marketing materials so you can get out there and promote your business, your products, and your services. But what do you need exactly? A brochure, ezine, stationery, folder, flyer, website, blog? With all of the different options you have to choose from, how do you know what to do first and how do you know which is the best choice for your business? And more important, which pieces will get you the biggest return on your investment and bring you the most value?

These are questions I get asked all the time and my answer is always the same. There are three main marketing pieces that every solopreneur, entrepreneur and small business owners must have. They are:

1. A business card
2. A website or blogsite
3. A follow up marketing piece

Check out my blog post on this very topic: 3 Marketing Pieces Entrepreneurs Must Have and learn more about why these items are the top three I recommend and what they need to include.

Unfortunately, the next thing that usually happens is that others try to copy the successful ad for their business.

Here is the problem, they don’t adjust the ad to fit their marketing or their focus and the ad fails to answer the three key questions every marketing piece must answer for its audience in order to be successful.

The result is failure and money and time wasted on a marketing piece that was copied instead of thought out and planned.

I don’t want to see you make the same mistake, so I am sharing with you the top three questions every successful marketing piece needs to answer to produce the results you want and attract the clients you want.

1. What is this about?
First, you need to make sure that the content and the message is crystal clear, ensuring the reader can quickly figure out the purpose of the marketing piece, who it is for, and what action you want them to take.

2. What’s in it for me? / Why Should I care?
Second, you must communicate the benefits the reader will receive as a result of taking the requested action. Tell them how it will help them, make their life better, or increase their business. This is your chance to tell them why they should care about what you have to say.

3. What makes you an expert?
Third, you need to establish your expert status and build your credibility. You need to let them know why they should listen to you and what makes you qualified to be an expert. Your audience needs to trust you and believe you before they will take the action you are requesting.

By answering these three questions in all of your marketing materials, you will soon see your conversion rates increase. Just don’t forget to include your contact information, including your address, phone number, and website at minimum!

See something I missed? Let me know!

I can also bet that even though you may be an expert in your niche, keeping your marketing pipeline full of new customers isn’t your specialty.

That is why I want to share with you three things that you always need to think of when you are working on your marketing materials.

1. Think of Your Mother.
Write the content and design the piece with your mother in mind. Your mother represents a great cross-section of your audience. Would she understand the message? Would she understand the action that you are asking her to take?

2. Think of Your Audience.
What may look great to you, may not look great to your audience. Make sure the piece you are developing makes sense to your target market. Yes, you can ask your friends what they think. But, if they aren’t in your target market, their comments aren’t very relevant.

3. Think of The Result.
What is the end result you want to receive from this marketing piece. Start there when designing the postcard, poster, flyer, advertisement, or brochure. Keep the marketing message simple, clear, and focused on the desired action the audience needs to take.

Make sure the graphic design plays a supporting role to the content. The graphic design should help guide the user through the piece and not overpower the message. For example, if you want the reader to pick up the phone and call you, the design and the content all need to be focused on encouraging the reader to do just that – and nothing else.

Do you agree? Disagree? Have any other suggestions? I’d love to hear them!

If you’re anything like me, you pause just for a moment when a business person hands you something like that, and you wonder how they can represent themselves so poorly.

Investing in professionally designed marketing materials instantly gives your business an image upgrade.

Investing in professional graphic design services also shows your prospects and clients that you value yourself and your services enough to invest in them, so they should too! Think of it this way, if you don’t value yourself enough to invest in professional materials for your own business, which will help you build your bottom line, how can you expect anyone else to value your services or products enough to pay for them?

If you are concerned about cost, look at the total needed and figure out how many products or services you will need to sell to earn your investment back. Or better yet, how many you need to sell to save enough to invest in high quality professional design.

Remember, it only takes one bad impression or one bad experience to lose a prospect or even a client forever. Consistent, custom design and compelling marketing materials help your business appear professional, credible, and dependable. They are also are your best client attraction tool.

When high quality design is combined with an attention-getting headline, targeted copy that speaks right to your target market, and an irresistible call to action, you will begin to pull your ideal clients right to you!

Marketing is often a word that when mentioned around business owners draws out grumbles, moans, and sighs. While the task of marketing your business may not be your first choice, it is a vital part of the success of your business.

Here are three simple things you can do to make your marketing, advertising, public relations, and sales efforts much easier:

Differentiate yourself

When your marketing and sales message is too similar to your competitor’s message, your prospects and customers are left with price as the only differentiator. Trust me. You never want to be in that situation.

To differentiate yourself and truly set yourself apart from the rest of your industry, you need to clearly define your unique selling proposition (USP) and your “why” statement. You need to know exactly WHY you are doing what you are doing, why you started your business, and why you have such a passion for what you are doing. Your clear why statement is your basis of who you are and what you stand for and that will remain constant.

Provide Value

Once your point of differentiation is clear, you need to focus on the value that you bring to your prospects and customers. You want to get clear on the benefits you provide, how you can make a difference in their business or life, what you are going to do for them, and how are they going to feel when working with you or using your product.

You can provide value to your audience by sharing your expertise and knowledge with tips and strategies they can use, by educating them on new products or services, or by introducing them to other experts they need to know.

Whatever you do, make sure you are the expert and not just the solution. As the solution, you are what you do, but as an expert, you are valued for your experience and knowledge, which is worth much more and will take you much farther.

Generate buzz

You started a business because you are really good at what you do. You have an innate talent and skill that very few others have. You need to share it with the world because those who don’t have your skills need you! If your audience doesn’t know you exist, they can’t hire you or buy your products.

You need to get your name or your business name out there to be seen and heard. Use social media to comment on blogs, post links and tips to Facebook and Twitter, join groups on LinkedIn, and attend live networking events. But remember, make sure you participate, communicate, interact, and engage with other people in the social networks you are a part of.

You can also update your website continually with new fresh content, send out an ezine, use direct mail and postcards, send a letter, post flyers, or place an advertisement. Just be sure you do something to keep your name and business name popping up in your audience’s view.

Do you have any other suggestions?

So, to help you get the most bang for your buck, I recommend creating print materials that not only use your colors, graphics, message and typefaces to reinforce your branding. But I also recommend materials that can be used for different purposes and in different circumstances.

For example here are five simple multi-purpose strategies:

1. Print a Rack Card with a perforated business card on one end that tears off. This way they can save your materials and file your business card in their rolodex.
2. Print a promotional postcard and leave the mailing area blank. Take it with you to networking events instead of your business card and write each person you hand it to a personal note in the blank area.
3. Print a marketing flyer shell. A shell is just the border or branded areas of the paper. You can then print the main content for the flyers as needed from home, allowing you to customize it for any occasion. Your designer should provide you with a Microsoft Word template to use with it.
4. Print a bookmark. Bookmarks are a great marketing tool because people save them and actually use them! One side may have a great quote, business tip, or holiday reminder, while the other could list your services and contact information.
5. Print custom greeting cards. Use the graphic elements on your logo and your brand support graphics to create interesting artwork for the front of a greeting card. By keeping it graphically focused and not including type, you can use the cards for thank yous, follow up, birthdays, holidays and more!

These are questions I get asked all the time and my answer is always the same. There are three main marketing pieces that every solopreneur, entrepreneur and small business owners needs. They are: 1) A business card, 2) A website, and 3) A marketing piece.

Your Business Card

Your business card is typically the first thing a new prospect will see. Their first impression of your business is often based on your business card. It is a key way to connect with others and give them your contact information. Your business card should clearly communicate not only who you are and what you do, but it should capture their attention and make them want to learn more.

Your business card should contain the following:

• Your logo
• Your brand color palette and typefaces
• Your contact information, including a mailing address. Providing a mailing address on your cards immediately adds stability and credibility to you and your business.
• Support information. This may be a tagline, call to action, sales pitch, or a list of services.

Your Website

If you are in business, you absolutely must have a website. Not having a website could be driving your prospects to your competition’s door! Not only does a professional, easy to navigate website give you an online presence, it adds credibility and instantly makes your business feel more established. It also is a great tool for marketing your business, educating your prospects and clients, and automating repetitive tasks.

Things to remember when developing your website:

• The images should be crisp and clear and load quickly.
• The content should be written at the fifth or sixth grade level, making is clear and easy to understand. Be cautious of using too much technical jargon. Remember, a confused shopper usually doesn’t purchase.
• The design (the look and feel) should blend cohesively into your brand, reinforcing your message and supporting your brand positioning.
• The site should be easy to use, allowing visitors to quickly find the information they need.
• Scalability is key in the development of your site, making sure it is able to grow and expand with your business.
• The site should be easy to update by building in templates or a content management system.
• The website should include basic search engine optimization, including title tags, keyword and description meta tags, HTML heading tags and ALT tags.

Your Marketing Piece

To further build your brand and connect with your customers and prospects, you will also need some sort of follow up item. This could be a brochure, a rack card, a postcard, a note card, or an HTML email. The specific type of item will be different for each business. You may use an HTML email newsletter template to keep your target market updated on your business, or your may use a note card to write a quick personal follow up note after a networking event.

However you decide to keep in touch with your target market and stay top-of-mind, the key is to actually do it and be consistent. Have a system in place with a clear follow up process for each aspect of your business – for example, your follow up process for someone you met at a networking event, may be different from someone who just purchased one of your products or services.

Here are some quick tips on choosing and creating your follow up items:

• Examine the ways in which you come in contact with your target market and what type of follow up would be the most appropriate and the most preferred in each case. Would a postcard be more appropriate or maybe a thank you note, or maybe an HTML email?
• Examine the amount of time you have available for follow up. Do you have time to handwrite or customize each follow up message? Or would it be better for you to develop a printed piece that could be used over and over? Also, look at how often you are going to do follow up and schedule the time into your calendar. Will it be once a week or twice a month, etc.
• Examine what part of the follow up process can be delegated to an employee or virtual assistant. Will you make all of the phone calls yourself, but outsource the mailing of postcards? Or, if your target market prefers email communications, will you use auto responders and schedule out a series of messages?
• Make sure any marketing materials you match your brand and consistently communicate your message and reinforce your identity. The content should be valuable and timely, it should give them a way to join or leave your list and it should always include a call to action.

Together, these three marketing pieces your business card, your website, and your follow up item are a combination your business can’t live without. Separately, each is important, but when used together, they are a powerhouse trio that will help you build your brand, generate leads and increase your bottom line.