Hey, MarCom!

Thinking strategically about content helps lower development costs

In the current economic situation, it’s sort of platitudinous to say that everyone’s looking to cut costs. But it’s true all the same. And a lot of MarCom specialists are trying to figure out how to produce the collateral they need despite ever-shrinking budgets.

Well, here’s one way to think about it: too many companies develop collateral on an as-needed basis, producing one-off brochures or white papers in order to fill immediate needs. Yes, internal clients will always drive spontaneous demand for more collateral tools—but marketing organizations that constantly operate from this reflexive mode will spend unnecessary time and money developing content.

In short, plan your content and collateral proactively, not reactively. 

Collateral doesn’t have to be a cost center. Well-planned content strategies amortize costs by taking best advantage of existing resources and allowing you to leverage content across multiple formats.

We have a lot to say about that in our recent survey report—just download it for free right here. 

Is print collateral obsolete?

The short answer is no.

Granted, in our recent survey of technology decision makers, 77% of respondents said that they would rather read content on their desktops than in print. That’s a solid majority—but let’s not forget that nearly one-quarter would still rather read a printed copy.

You also have to consider how content gets delivered during the sales cycle. Even the most technologically advanced sales teams—the teams that regularly use Web collaboration tools for sales presentations—still want leave-behinds when they meet with prospective clients face-to-face.

The key is to make sure that you deliver collateral in both electronic and print forms. Optimize it for viewing on the desktop, sure—but always leave print as an option. You don’t want to neglect 23% of your potential customer base.  

Purchasers interact with your content before they interact with you

In our recent survey of technology decision makers, we traced the role of collateral in the sales cycle. One of our most telling findings was that purchasers are most likely to engage with content in the pre-sales and initial sales stages. That isn’t too surprising if you consider that most collateral is designed to inform or educate potential purchasers, but it clearly illustrates a simple fact that many marketers easily forget: namely, that today’s technology purchaser is more likely to interact with your content before they interact with you.

So what does that mean in terms of strategy? It means that your collateral needs to engage with potential customers in much the same way that a live salesperson would. Collateral should be made available in the widest possible variety of formats and should be delivered on as many channels as possible. If a customer is reading your product brochure and wants a deeper dive on a particular service offering, make it easy for him or her to access that information by providing hyperlinks within your collateral. And it always helps when the language of your content is conversational, approachable, and focused on business value.

The point is that you want your collateral to be responsive to individual customer needs. Just as a salesperson can shift her strategy or approach depending on the customer, collateral should be flexible enough to engage with customers right where they are. We have a few ideas about how you can create collateral that maximizes its impact in the early stages of the sales cycle—just download our free survey report right here.