Eight Collateral Marketing Items Every Small Business Needs
Over time, you´ll want to provide information about your company to lots of different people, including employees, investors, existing and potential
clients and the media. Your company´s success may depend in part upon how well you communicate that information — which in turn may depend upon how
well you prepare collateral items ranging from company and product fact sheets to biographies of key employees.
Every business should always have the following eight items on hand, ready to distribute. Get them printed today.
1. Company fact sheet.
Potential investors or employees, analysts and media people should be able to learn important facts about your business with a quick look at your
fact sheet. A company fact sheet should include the following information:
Date the company was founded
Where it is headquartered and has affiliate offices
Names and brief backgrounds of founders and upper-level management
Contact information
Brief mission statement
2. Product fact sheets.
Keep a fact sheet on file for each of your products or services. A product fact sheet should include the following:
The products function
Distinctive features
Comparison to similar products on the market
Quality level
Reliability
Cost
3. Bios on founders and senior management.
Make sure you have a bio on hand for each founding member of the company, every senior manager and each member of the board of directors. Bios should
include the person´s education, relevant experience, awards or honors, and publications that featured the team member or the team member´s work.
4. Mission statement.
A mission statement can motivate and direct employees and give new hires an idea of how your company works. You can also show the statement to
potential investors, lenders or members of the media.
5. Company background.
Whereas the company fact sheet essentially is just that — a list of facts — this document is written in paragraph form and should include more
detail.
6. Current list of clients/partners.
This information may be interesting to investors or potential clients.
7. Press kit. When you open your business or launch a new product, consider sending out a press kit. Press kits also can
come in handy if you decide to pitch your business at a trade show. Your kit should include the following elements:
Folder with your company´s logo
Personalized letter pitching your company, product or service
Company fact sheet
Product fact sheet
Press release
Articles written about your company
Business card
Company background
While you may want to keep a few press kits on hand, don´t keep a giant stack of them around. Otherwise, you risk distributing out-of-date
materials. Instead, keep each element of the press kit in a computer file, and update as needed when you´re distributing a new round of kits.
8. Clip file. Make someone in your office responsible for collecting and maintaining any articles written about your
company. Note: If you are thinking about mounting a PR blitz, consider hiring a PR firm to track where press kits were sent, make sure they are
received and then monitor the press for mentions of your firm.
