Marketing Matters A Guide to Marketing Your Business

This series of short presentations is based on a collection of articles originally published in Sign Directions under the banner Marketing Matters. In the three previous presentations we looked at Why Marketing Matters, Advertising and Direct Mail in this part we will consider Literature

4: Literature

When a prospective client approaches you for more information about your business and your capabilities, how do you respond?

He doesn’t want a visit from a salesman yet, but he needs something that will allow him to compare your business with your competitors.

You need to send him your literature and if you don’t have any – you’re going to the bottom of his list! If you do, but it’s badly designed and poorly produced – you’re going to the bottom of the list again!

Your literature is your representative on paper – the impression it makes and the information it provides to clients can mean the difference between winning their business and not.

What is Literature? The term covers a vast range of printed material It could be… Corporate brochures Sales leaflets Product data sheets Technical data sheets Catalogues Price lists… and a whole lot more besides! The key question is… What do you really need?

Literature – The Basics At the very least you need something that makes a statement about your business Who you are Your experience Your capabilities What sets you apart from the competition What form should it take? That depends on the nature and size of your business So let’s have a look

Literature – How it Should Look If you are a multi-million pound corporation Your need literature which reflects your status As a small, family-run business your needs may be less grand but the fact is.. A carefully planned, well written, well illustrated, professionally designed piece of print Which may be only a few pages long Can provide precisely the impact you need But what about other media?

Print vs. Other Media It’s true that in this electronic age, some might argue that printed literature has had it’s day Not so… the web, DVD, CD Rom and other electronic media have their place However… have you ever tried to compare three web sites or to watch two DVDs simultaneously? It’s no easy task Most people are still more comfortable with the word It is easier to read than text on screen and pictures and diagrams are of much higher resolution

That’s not to say you should ignore electronic media and we will touch on it later, because done well they can make an effective statement about your business. However, if a customer is looking for a supplier, the web is usually only the starting point.

Case Studies: In the original Sign Directions article we used two examples to illustrate the benefits of well designed literature. We don’t have the time to consider these in detail here however, you can download the original article from the Member’s Area of the BSGA web site or from the Sign Directions archive at

Having taken a brief look at Literature, the final presentation will deal with: Public Relations

If you would like further help and advice with your marketing programme please contact Ray Stewart at Trinity Marketing, whose contact details are on the final slide of the presentation.

Trinity Marketing Melrose Nurseries Longlands Lane Farnsfield Nottingham NG22 8HD Tel: