Edward Boatman • Mar 21st, 2022
Marketing collateral is any asset companies use to communicate with consumers throughout the buyer journey. This includes everything from downloadable e-books to blog pages, webinars and more.
Need some inspiration to create your own brand collateral? Our guide will help you learn everything you need to know, including asset usage and creation, storage and more.
Marketing collateral is any media used to promote a company’s products, services or brand. Traditionally, collateral specifically refers to brochures or papers that support sales. To define marketing collateral today, we must look further than just sales.
Nowadays, marketing collateral refers to any media, print or digital asset that aids in the promotion of the company overall. This includes everything from email newsletters aimed at consumers to HR branded values aimed at employees. If it helps, you can think of marketing collateral as simply marketing materials.
The main purpose of collateral marketing is to create content that moves buyers through the sales funnel. Generally, this works in four stages:
When creating your marketing collateral, it helps to think of these four stages. Since buyers need different information at each stage, it’s important your collateral reflects these changing needs.
For example, you wouldn’t want to send a warranty sheet to someone who’s never purchased from you before. They aren’t at the point in their journey where warranties matter. You may, however, want to provide them with an informational blog post or newsletter opt-in so they can learn more about your brand.
When crafting your collateral marketing strategy, ask yourself, “What does my buyer need at this stage?”
With so many different types of marketing collateral, it can be helpful to see examples for inspiration. This list will walk you through a few different marketing collateral ideas that you can apply to your business. Whether you’re looking for assets that are digital or print, that bring awareness or build loyalty, these collateral materials can help.
E-books are digital asset management tools used to share your expertise. They can be short- or long-form and cover a wide variety of topics. Depending on what topic you share in your e-book, these assets are often great for buyers in the awareness or consideration phases.
If using an e-book during the awareness phase, gating your content is a great option. With this strategy, a user will usually exchange their email for access to your content. You can then use email newsletters to introduce consumers to your brand and product or service offerings.
Source: BigRentz
Like any magazine, customer magazines include a variety of stories, visual content and even promotional offers. What sets customer magazines apart from typical magazines is their focus on your brand.
Depending on what stories you share within your magazine, customer magazines can be useful for any stage of the buyer journey. You could feature an article outlining your company values to speak to buyers in the awareness stage. Or you could offer special promotions to push buyers through the decision stage and make a purchase.
Airlines often use customer magazines to market to consumers in-flight. Delta Magazine is a great example that’s available both in-flight and online. Ownboard Magazine is another example from the Brazilian airline TAM.
Source: Maurício Santos via Unsplash
Like customer magazines, member magazines focus exclusively on your brand. The only difference is the exclusivity level. Member magazines are a perk offered to consumers who have already bought into your offering in some way. Usually, they are hidden behind a login portal or mailed only to subscribers.
Because of their exclusivity, member magazines are great assets for building loyalty. You can use them as a member-only perk or promotional offer.
Blog posts are a great way to connect with consumers in multiple stages of the buyer journey. Depending on the blog’s topic, you can increase awareness of your brand name or encourage consumers to consider buying into your offering.
Source: Lingo
Landing pages are perfect for consumers who have reached the decision phase. These webpages are geared toward sales with direct language and prominent calls to action (CTAs). They’re tied to specific marketing campaigns and often follow an ad click.
Codecademy’s landing page is a great example. Its simple form makes the barrier to converting low and user testimonials showcase how Codecademy works. These user testimonials are also known as social proof. It’s clear all aspects of this page are geared toward pushing the user to make a decision to opt in.
Source: Codecademy
While blog posts and landing pages provide great written information for users, not everyone prefers learning through reading. Video content can help you capture users that prefer absorbing information visually or auditorily.
Like blog posts, instructional videos work well for several stages of the buyer journey — it just depends on what type of videos you make. Educational videos are great for the awareness stage, while detailed video guides are ideal for consumers in the consideration stage.
We love how OnePageCRM did it: Their learn videos walk users through how everyone, no matter the experience level, can use their customer relationship management (CRM) software.
These videos show beginner-level customers what OnePageCRM’s product offering is. They also include information about their software features to push consumers through the consideration and decision phases.
Not sure how to create your own videos? It always helps to start with good lighting and professional tools like microphones, cameras and editing software.
Webinars usually deliver high-value education in exchange for an email opt-in. In light of changing workforce norms like hybrid and work-from-home models, webinars and online events are becoming increasingly popular.
Webinars can also be great places to introduce product offerings to warm leads. Consumers in your event have already opted in, so it’s clear they’re interested in your offering.
Webinars work well for pretty much every stage in the consumer journey. Free valuable information is a great incentive to make consumers aware of your brand and opt in.
While they attend your event, you have a special opportunity to connect with them, build trust and even pitch your product. You can walk them through your offering as they consider and even decide to invest in your brand.
Source: Oozle Media
Oozle Media’s Virtual Beauty Summit is a great example of this type of marketing collateral. As an agency that specializes in beauty school marketing, Oozle Media provided a full-day educational conference complete with speakers from beauty industry leaders.
To further convert warm leads, free marketing consultations were offered to attendees. Oozle recorded the conference and converted the event into a digital library to reach even more leads in a different digital format.
Case studies show potential buyers exactly what you can do. By showcasing results your company had with past clients or projects, you can build buyers’ trust.
Case studies are typically longer than blog posts and focus on sharing behind-the-scenes data. This marketing asset is geared toward consumers making a decision about whether or not to invest in your brand.
For some inspiration, check out the examples from Intercom.
White papers are typically 2,500+ words of persuasive facts. These documents promote your company’s products and services, usually offering a solution to a current problem. If you want to be seen as an authority in your industry, consider creating white papers.
Check out Cisco’s white papers, which describe a complex product specific to their industry. This helps Cisco be seen as a thought leader in their sphere of influence.
Infographics are most often used during the awareness stage. They can stand alone or be added to blog posts or other pages. Because of their visual nature, infographics communicate information in an entertaining and easy-to-digest way. Infographics can include any information, but they often feature at least a few statistics.
Since infographics are typically long, they work best on digital platforms where the user can scroll through the information. If an infographic is printed, it’s usually in a poster format to avoid having to break the infographic into sections across multiple pages.
Source: Quicken Loans
This infographic from Quicken Loans does a great job of concisely communicating important information on marketing your small business. The most important information and statistics are bolded to make it easy to skim, something especially important in today’s digital arena.
Today’s users have shorter and shorter attention spans — you only have about eight seconds to grab their attention, so the faster you can communicate information, the better.
Newsletters help your brand stay in touch with customers and further the relationship. They can be used throughout the buyer journey, from awareness through consideration, decision and loyalty.
Newsletters can include anything from a welcome message to a hard sales pitch for your upcoming product launch. Additionally, coupons can encourage existing customers to come back.
Source: Charles Deluvio via Unsplash
Check out this welcome email from Shopify. We love how it tells Shopify users how important their satisfaction is (loyalty). It even provides a free trial to test out one of their resources to hook users into a possible future buy (decision).
Awards are a great form of social proof. When consumers see that other companies or organizations recognize your work, it helps them build trust in your abilities.
Has your company won any awards or honors? Be sure to mention them on your website or in your printed marketing assets.
Don’t have any awards yet? That’s OK! Try researching competitions or other opportunities in your niche and start applying. Good luck!
If you don’t already feature customer reviews or testimonials, it’s time to change that! Today’s consumers use reviews and testimonials to guide purchasing decisions. Nearly 8 out of 10 consumers read online reviews before purchasing, and about half of people trust online testimonials or reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends or family.
Depending on your product, you can collect reviews either directly from other sites like Google reviews, or simply ask your customers for a review directly.
Source: Social Media Worldwide
Nomiki’s testimonial shows other potential customers that Social Media Worldwide can create results. Increased social traffic and even in-person traffic are impressive metrics for brands looking to increase their awareness. Nomiki’s testimonial is a powerful asset for consumers considering or deciding to invest in Social Media Worldwide.
Catalogs are usually book-length, so they have the space to showcase product features and specifications in detail. If your company has a wide array of product offerings, featuring them in a catalog is a great choice. They can even highlight featured stories about your products.
Catalogs are great for the consideration and decision phases of the buyer journey. The copy within the catalog provides information to distinguish your brand from competitors, which could be the gentle nudge your target audience needs to buy in.
Check out this catalog from PATLITE. By featuring certain equipment useful for the food industry, PATLITE makes it easy for these consumers to find exactly what they’re looking for.
Brochures are an introduction to your company and usually fall under the awareness stage. They provide the most important details about your company, like what products or services are offered, as well as contact information.
If your target market is often on the go, creating a podcast can be a great investment. Audio content is perfect for consumers to listen to during open pockets of their busy days — like in the car during their morning commute.
You can use podcasts to feature your brand’s experts, or you can bring on guest speakers your audience may want to hear from. Just be sure to invest in the correct equipment — poor audio can be a turnoff for listeners since it can make important information difficult to hear.
Check out how The Real Estate Pod from RentRedi targets real estate investors by providing useful tips to scale their businesses.
Think of your business card as a mini resume. Tell clients what you do, how to reach you and provide links where they can learn more or see your work.
Business cards have traditionally been printed cards containing your company’s contact information, but now you can go digital with contactless business cards. Check out HiHello’s digital business cards for a great example of how you can use business cards in the digital age. Share your information in more ways than the traditional passing out cards — like through QR codes, emails, texts, NFC transfers and more.
Does your company have any partners? Featuring other brands you work with is similar to featuring customer reviews or testimonials. It shows consumers that others trust you, which can help them build trust in your brand as well.
If your partners add functionality or value to your product, be sure to showcase that. We love how Asana features its brand partners in an integrations section. This shows consumers that Asana can easily function in systems they may already be using.
Source: Asana
Once a consumer has purchased from your brand, it’s important to continue nurturing that relationship. Warranty sheets are perfect for nurturing consumer relationships during the loyalty phase of their buyer journey.
Warranties are a guarantee. It shows consumers that you stand by your product and care about their satisfaction. Your warranty sheet doesn’t need to be complicated. So long as you outline what is covered and how customers can be in touch if necessary, you’re good to go!
We love how Whole Latte Love keeps an updated digital warranty record for all their products. This makes it easier for customers to see what’s covered on their machines — and anything that’s easier for the customer breeds loyalty!
With so many different marketing collateral options available, it can be difficult to know where to begin with design. Creating a consistent brand that can scale at large involves mapping out core elements of your design language and knowing how to implement them.
It can help to walk through these core elements with each collateral material you make.
Here’s a simple marketing collateral checklist to use when considering your design:
Using this checklist will help you build a consistent brand that can scale. Being able to communicate your design language and style guidelines to team members will prevent inconsistencies that can cause your brand to look unprofessional. You will also gain the other benefits of creating a strong brand.
Many companies face challenges when it comes to tracking marketing collateral KPIs. For example, you can easily track PDF downloads, but you can’t easily track engagement on the PDF. You also can’t track shares the PDF receives after download. If consumers pass along your asset through email, you won’t know.
One solution is moving away from static files toward digital files. It’s much easier to track metrics on a blog post than a print magazine article, for example. You can also maximize the data you can track while recognizing you won’t be able to track everything. If all you can track is PDF downloads, that can still tell you a lot about how useful your consumers find your asset!
When it comes to organizing marketing collateral, companies have often had to choose between expensive management software or messy decentralized storage. Too many files across email, Google Docs and Dropbox can easily lead to lost files or even security breaches.
Marketing collateral is all about communicating with your target audience throughout their buyer journey. By developing and maintaining digital brand guidelines in your designs, you can build a strong brand that speaks to your consumers.
Not sure how to organize your existing marketing collateral? Give Lingo a try with our fully featured 30-day trial.