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The 5 marketing materials you need to start a business

Estimated reading time: five minutes

Marketing is one of the most important elements of successfully launching a new business organization. And to effectively market your business, you need the right marketing tools.

A set of well-designed, on-brand marketing materials tin aid yous connect with your ideal customers and clients, go the word out well-nigh your products or services, boost your brownie and build major fizz around your business.

Just what, exactly, are the right tools for your concern? Let's take a await at the five cardinal marketing materials every small business owner should have…peculiarly when you're only starting out.

1. Logo

Think of your logo as the confront of your business concern. Considering it will be featured on everything related to your business (like your website, business cards and branded clothing), it will be the first design element that clients and customers will associate with your brand. And as the face of your business concern, information technology'due south also one of the about powerful marketing tools at your disposal.

But not all logos are created equal; you tin can't throw together a generic, sloppy, or unprofessional logo design and wait it to drive results. If y'all want your logo to effectively market your business organization, build make recognition, and connect with your customers, you demand a logo that's professional, well-designed, and accurately represents who you are as a brand.

And, unless you're a designer, that probably means getting a professional custom logo pattern.

Is getting your logo professionally designed an investment? Yes. But because your logo is such a critical part of your branding and marketing, information technology's an investment worth making. The right logo won't just brand your branding stronger and your business more memorable, merely it'll exist an invaluable piece of your small business organisation branding package for years to come. Your logo is an nugget you'll use on all of your marketing materials…then make sure information technology's a positive reflection of your business.

Vistaprint Tip

If you lot need a professional person logo design, the experts at 99designs by Vistaprint can create a one-of-a-kind look for your small business.

2. Business cards

Once your logo is designed, it'southward time to create the residue of your marketing materials, starting with your business cards. Business cards are an incredibly versatile marketing tool—you can utilise them to market your business in a variety of ways. When it comes to your business concern carte, all y'all need is your logo, contact information, and the correct business card dimensions. From at that place, you lot tin design your business carte and start using information technology to make connections and get the word out almost your business.

You tin can use your business carte du jour to:

• Connect with clients and customers. The about traditional manner to utilise business cards is as well 1 of the most effective. When you meet a potential client or partner, give them a business bill of fare to share information about your business organization and how to arrive touch on with you lot.
• Build visibility in your community. Many small businesses rely on marketing in their local community—and business organisation cards can be a bang-up way to exercise that. For case, you might post your business card on bulletin boards in local java shops or introduce yourself (and your business) to other local business owners and ask to go out a stack of cards behind. The more business cards yous go out into the community, the more visibility your business will take…and the more successful your marketing volition be.
• Market on the fly. Opportunities to market place your business organization can hit when you least expect—and keeping business cards on hand ensures you're ready for anything. For case, you might meet an interested investor in line at the grocery shop or a potential customer while on vacation. If you're prepared with a business carte du jour, y'all can take advantage of those take a chance encounters to market and grow your business on the fly.

Vistaprint Tip

If your logo is in color, make sure you have your business card designed and printed in color as well. Otherwise, the difference in color palette could confuse contacts—and lower brand recognition.

3. Website

Most people turn to the internet when they want to find out more than well-nigh a business. So, a well-designed website is an accented must. Non only does a website lend your business credibility, simply information technology'southward a bully way to share information about your products or services, build trust with clients and customers and show them why y'all're the one they desire to practice business concern with.

While an effective website design will depend on your business, your customers and what you're marketing, hither are a few universal elements you should incorporate:

• Your branding. For your website to be an effective marketing tool, people need to be able to recognize that information technology'south a website for your business. Make sure to leverage your make'southward color palette and include your logo on each page.
• Contact information. Just similar your business carte, you'll desire to include your contact data (including your email, phone number and accost) on your website.
• 'About us' department. Your website offers the all-time opportunity to tell potential customers who you lot are—and an "Near us" section, which tells the story of your business, is a neat way to do it.
• Product and service information. In addition to telling your customers who you are, your website should also tell customers what you practise—which means including data about the products and/or services y'all offer. (Depending on your concern model, this may include selling those products and services directly on your website.)
• Hours of operation. If y'all ain a brick and mortar business, your customers need to know when you're open. Include your hours of operation on your website in an easy-to-find spot.
• Social media handles. Include links to your social profiles (like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube) on your website so customers can easily connect with you.

Similar your logo, your website is a marketing material that'due south going to become a lot of exposure—so it's of import to nail the pattern. Unless you have a background in web design, you should plan to employ professional website pattern services to brand sure your final site gets you the results you're looking for.

4. Postcards and flyers

Postcards and flyers are some of the nearly versatile marketing materials out at that place, especially for events or local marketing. They're larger than a business carte du jour, so you tin include more information about your business, along with interesting visuals or even a promotional offer. But like business organization cards, postcards and flyers are highly portable. Yous can leave a stack of postcards with other local concern owners to reach new customers, or you tin can endeavour posting flyers on local message boards to boost make visibility.

These items as well work extremely well for mail service marketing. Because of their size and finish, they tend to stand out from other types of mail—making information technology easy to grab your customers' attention and bring them into your business.

Postcards and flyers come up in a variety of styles, finishes, and paper weights, and what yous're marketing volition decide how many yous should plan to guild (for more evergreen postcards and flyers, yous'll want to order a large stack to have on hand at all times—while limited fourth dimension promotional offers you lot would want to order in smaller quantities).

5. Brochures

Sometimes, you need to share a lot of marketing data with your customers—but y'all need to evangelize that data in a compact to-become format. That's where brochures come in handy.

Brochures can assist y'all market your business in a variety of ways. For example, you lot tin can use a brochure to tell the story of your business, like to the "about us" section on your website. Y'all can use a brochure to share in-depth data nigh a particular product or service, to promote an upcoming outcome or to pitch potential investors.

Because brochures are longer and more involved than, say, a business card, they typically require a bit more design finesse to get right. So, while you could endeavour to tackle your own brochure blueprint, a custom brochure design is usually worth the investment. And the proficient news? Once you take a brochure designed, there's no demand to start the pattern process from scratch (or pay for another blueprint) when it's time to promote something new. Instead, you can hands swap out photos and text to highlight a different product, update the offering code to reverberate an upcoming promotion or change the dates to reflect your adjacent event.

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