How to create professional sales tools from your desk

Every business needs sales and marketing collateral. Stationery, product literature, case studies, press releases, direct marketing, customer comms… the list goes on.

Whether you choose to go paperless (PDFs and downloads) or use hard copy (traditional print), it all takes time and money… graphic designers, photographers, copywriters, printers, web developers…

There is a way to save time and money…

This year we’ve helped two clients make the most of their marketing budget with powerful use of collateral templates. For one client we helped create almost 100 pieces of collateral from just four professionally produced Microsoft templates. So, if you’re looking for ways to create marketing content on a budget, here’s how…

1) LOOK AND FEEL: As part of a major re-branding exercise we asked one of our favourite designers to create some examples of typical pieces of collateral (a case study, a product sheet, a letterhead and a newsletter).

2) GUIDELINES: We then made sure that they were included in the brand guidelines with detailed instructions on their make up (colours, fonts, use of imagery etc).

3) IMAGE LIBRARY: The designer also recommended some Royalty Free imagery and icons which now make-up a library of images that can be used across the templates. We had these images re-coloured to fit the brand.

4) COPY: We had one of each type of document professionally written (always recommended), along with some tone of voice guidelines. We also created a spelling conventions checklist, which is now used with the tone of voice guidelines in-house to write copy.

5) CONVERSION: We then worked with the client to take these designs and guidelines to a Microsoft template specialist who emulated them exactly in Microsoft Word. These initial four designs were turned into ‘click and type here’ templates that anyone could use. This also included styling tables, charts and flow diagrams into the style sheets. Everything was locked down and pre-formatted, so the brand could not be compromised.

6) CASE STUDY SCRIPT: We also worked with a professional copywriter to prepare a script and list of key questions to enable us to interview customers and get the answers we need to create an engaging case study. And, we always asked for ongoing permissions to use quotes, etc. at the same time to enable us to continually add to our arsenal of testimonials.

7) BRIEFING CHECKLIST: And finally, we left the client with a briefing check list and document ‘structure’ for each item, to ensure no content got missed.

There was some initial investment in setting everything up, but once done, any number of documents can now be created from each of the templates. With practice, 2 or three 2-page documents can be created in a day.

Here are some examples of documents we’ve helped clients produce using simple old Word, PowerPoint and Excel:

So, even if you’re a small business wanting to do your own marketing, you can produce brilliant marketing materials from your desk. Our golden rules for this are 1) Work with experts to get the first few done, 2) Develop checklists, etc. from doing this, and 3) Get Word and PPT templates produced by an expert (we like these guys www.creativetemplatesolutions.co.uk).

Clear Thought Consulting works with small businesses, equipping them with the marketing strategies, suppliers, skills and set-up that they need to become bigger businesses. We do this at the fraction of the cost of recruiting into a full-time position by delivering one-off strategic projects, hands-on training, marketing support, and out-sourced marketing departments. We firmly believe that when you can’t out-spend your competition, you have to out-think them.

By Cheryl Crichton | Associate Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | www.clear-thought.co.uk

Published on 16 November 2009