Hi, my name is Tim from TM Media and in this video what I want to talk about is the actual communication that goes into your marketing material. Now on a previous video, I talked about what I called “Visual Integrity.” And basically what that is, is basically an overall presentation of your company to a client through your marketing material.
So basically, what’s your marketing material look like? Is it professional, is it up-to-date… if you’re a high-end software company, do you look like a high-end software company through your marketing material or do you look like a local landscaper cutting grass?
So that’s what we talked about in that video. And you can view that labled, “Is Your Marketing Collateral Up To Par?”
On this video, what I want to talk about is the actual communication. So we have a marketing material, we’ve made it professional looking, we have a nice color scheme, it looks visually appealing, now what do you say in it? This is where a lot of companies just let it go. They just don’t even think about it. It’s kinda like a last minute thing they add into a project. It happens all the time. I’ll get word documentations that says to put something in the ad. A lot of companies just don’t even consider how they’re communicating with the client and how to slowly get them interested.
With all marketing material – I’m going to use direct mail as an example – but with all marketing material, this applies to most marketing material. There are differences depending if it’s a billboard compared to a direct mail, but let me use direct mail as an example. I get a lot of direct mail during the day and I see tons of them. I have a few in front of me now. Ones got a logo smack dab right at the top. Real estate ads I get all of the time and these are the best examples of what not to do. If you can imagine – close your eyes – and imagine a real estate ad. You almost can see it. You have a persons face – the realtor’s face on the top left or logo at the top left or near their face, some information… maybe… and we’ll sell your house… and then their phone number. And that’s basically it and it’s suppose to motivate you to call them. Of course, it doesn’t work. And there’s just better ways to go about communicating with your potential clients.
Usually, the first thing people want to know when they’re presenting you with their… say direct mail piece… they wanna find out as soon as possible what you can do for them. And keep in mind that you have a split second to communicate with these clients; so, you do have to keep things short and sweet. Especially in the direct mail marketing. You have 2 seconds for it to be thrown in the trash or put somewhere for someone to call you. So you really need to think about getting your information over and communicating very effectively and quickly.
The first thing we want to do is interrupt their day – we want to stop them in their tracks and tell them that ‘hey, you gotta listen to this, ’cause it’s important to you and your family’ or whatever it is related to. We want them to stop and listen to your piece. The next thing we want to do is give them a little bit more information, not just dump a whole load of information on them though. You’re gonna want to give them a little taste of what’s to come – what you’re going to talk about. And then, the 3rd step is when you get into more detail; so you interrupted them, gave them a little preview of what you’re going to talk about and then you’re going to talk about your company and building a reason as to why they should work with you.
And then usually the 4th or 5th step is getting them motivated to call you. That can be done several ways. There’s a lot more to it, but it’s the general idea of how to communicate in a direct mail marketing piece. That does have a general application to several different pieces, whether it’s a brochure or other type of media kit or something like that. This video is just to get you thinking, not only about putting out professional looking material but also thinking up a strategy on how you’re going to communicate to your specific prospects and what their hot buttons are. What’s gonna get them to look at your piece and what’s it gonna get them to follow through whatever material you’re throwing at them?
So feel free, if you wanna call us, or if you want to email us and contact us our website link is here, or if you have any more questions or have a need for any of these services. We’ll have additional videos to follow as well with some more good information on this whole business. Thanks.
P.S. You can find more information to corporate branding, logo design, marketing collateral, corporate identity and much more on our identity design page.
Tags: corporate branding, corporate identity, dallas graphic design, direct mail marketing, effective communication, identity design, logo design, marketing collateral, marketing material, tm media, visual integrity
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your site.
I really liked this post. Can I copy it to my site? Thank you in advance.