7 Assets That Raise Marketing Content's Value

Last week we talked about how Corporate Network Services (CNS) realized that it could use its "corporate culture booklet" as a powerful sales and marketing tool (see "How an MSP Made 'Corporate Culture' More than Just a Buzz Term"). You probably have assets lurking on hard drives or your SharePoint portal that could be working just as hard.

Below are seven places you should be looking at to give your marketing a boost. Hopefully, they can shake a few ideas loose so you can find some unidentified marketing content and put it to work.

The Obvious Places

1. Company blog. If you have a blog, especially one that has been active for some time, there are probably posts that cover the same topic from different angles. Combine those posts into one document for an e-book to promote through your newsletter.
   
   
2. Case studies. Case studies are great, but the technology cited becomes dated pretty quickly. Another e-book idea is to gather a number of older case studies and summarize the business problem solved. On each page, include the quotes of customers singing your praises with a paragraph or two about the business issues and outcomes.
   
   
3. Sales/marketing presentations. While many PowerPoint presentations should die a fast and sure death, why waste a great presentation by using it only once? Presentations that cover one specific subject are best suited for reuse. Reformat the presentation, adding text to graphics that need explanation, and you have a nice call to action for your Web site or newsletter. 

Unexpected Places

1. Proposals. Whether or not you win the project, a lot of effort goes into building proposals. A clear definition of the business problem and the recommended solution provides the foundation for a great proposal -- and a great marketing piece.
   
   
2. Visio solution diagrams. Visio is a sorely underutilized tool in the marketing world. Your system designers probably use Visio diagrams to depict before-and-after workflow. While you may need to simplify, Visio diagrams can be a powerful tool to illustrate the time savings that a new business process can achieve. You could use the diagrams to create a booklet like "5 Ways to Transform your Business Processes." 
   
   
3. Screen shares. Does anyone on your team show clients or prospects how to use an application through screen sharing? Ask your consultant to capture that screen share so you can edit it down to a screencast to post to the Web site. You can either use the meeting recording service or Jing for great results.   
   
    
4. Internal systems. While most partners suffer from the challenge of internal systems that never seem to get implemented or upgraded, you may have a SharePoint portal or CRM system that works pretty well. Showing "real-life" systems through a demo, webinar or screenshots helps prospects believe the solution could really work for them. And you might even receive a side benefit of getting a few issues fixed before the demo.

The only rule for marketing content is that it should provide value to the reader -- your customer or prospect. In the case of CNS, its corporate culture book provides an inside view into the company, giving prospects confidence in the partnership. Every document, video or presentation your team produces likely has the potential to be used for marketing content. Get creative with what you've got.

Using something unexpected for marketing content? Please comment below or let me know so we can share the knowledge.

Posted by Barb Levisay on August 25, 2011