If you’re a business looking to differentiate yourself from competitors, switching up your marketing strategy should be your go-to.
Creating killer marketing assets allows you to stand out, convert potential customers, and create an instantly recognizable brand identity.
But what exactly are marketing assets, and how can you make them as effective as possible? Let’s dive in!
What are Marketing Assets?
Marketing assets are tools used by organizations to promote their products or services. The most common examples include landing pages, blog posts, social media posts, infographics, videos, and eBooks.
Marketing assets help you differentiate yourself from competitors, explain your unique offering to customers, and convert prospects.
With the rise of video platforms and sites like Instagram proving just how valuable visual content is, making your digital marketing assets visually appealing has never been more crucial. Creating landing pages that look stuck in the 90s or social media posts with questionable filters is a no-go.
The good news? There are tons of stock photos, videos, and vectors you can use to set your marketing assets apart from the rest, as well as fresh content ideas to keep your site and social media page up to date.
If you’re new to design or simply need a refresher, here are our top tips for creating marketing assets that will have your customers scrambling at your (virtual) door and your competitors scrambling to keep up.
Create a Strong Brand Identity
If you think about the biggest, most popular brands, they probably have one thing in common - a strong, instantly recognizable brand identity.
Consistency is key in cultivating a strong brand identity with the help of your marketing assets. The most important marketing assets will be your website, blog, and social media page, so keeping the types of images, font, and colors consistent across all three is critical.
Your tone of voice is equally as important as the visuals. Whether you write in an informal, conversational style or a formal, more authoritative one, picking a tone of voice that resonates with your audience and sticking to it is a must.
Make the Most of Social Media
Social media posts are some of the best marketing assets you can use in your strategy. People worldwide presently spend an average of 2 hours and 28 minutes per day scrolling through social media platforms, according to Hootsuite.
The best part is that creating a business account on a social media platform is free, so it’s one of the lowest-cost marketing techniques you can use.
To keep things simple, start by working with the channels most likely to connect you to your target audience. If you’re targeting Gen Z and millennials, this will be Instagram or TikTok, while Gen X and baby boomers are more likely to use Facebook.
Moreover, you can create a Google My Business account and further engage with your audience by sharing updates, offers, and events directly on Google. Next, you can pre-schedule GMB posts to ensure consistent and timely content delivery, aligning with your overall marketing calendar and strategy.
To create a coherent brand identity across your social media profile, use the same colors, typography, and tone of voice that you use in your other marketing assets.
No design experience? No problem! You don’t have to be a professional graphic designer to create marketing assets that look good. Use templates, vector images, and easy-to-use image creation software to get started with social media posts.
Tell Your Story
Implementing storytelling in your marketing assets can be a game changer for your marketing strategy. Creating a narrative around your brand can make it easier for potential customers to connect with you emotionally.
Using storytelling in your assets can even make your brand more memorable.
You can use free videos for your content on your social media channel or your product’s videos as part of your product descriptions to give customers a more realistic view of what they’re buying and reduce returns.
Bonus points if you feature a content creator popular in your niche in your video content or feature user-generated content in your marketing assets.
With 53% of shoppers saying they always do research before buying a product, having previous buyers vouch for what you’re selling can massively increase trust in your brand.
Create Easy-to-Read Blogs
Blogs benefit your business in various ways - they can improve your SEO, boost brand awareness, and cement your status as an authority in your industry.
Here’s the catch.
If blogs are thousands of words long with no subheadings, long paragraphs, and a lack of visual content, readers can easily switch off, and you’ll miss out on the desired effects of improved conversion rates and brand trust.
To keep your blogs as readable as possible (and optimized for Google’s algorithm), add subheadings to signal new topics, write in paragraphs no longer than four lines, and add visuals such as images and infographics where applicable.
Consider Video Case Studies
Case studies are widely perceived to be the gold standard of testimonials.
Proving how your product or service has benefited an individual or company by letting them tell their own story combines two of the most effective techniques in the world of marketing - storytelling and user-generated content.
Imagine you could take your case studies to a whole new level. That’s where video case studies come in. By tapping into the popularity of video content and its ability to build trust with consumers, you can increase the effectiveness of some of the most popular marketing assets, case studies.
Focus on Consistency, Authenticity, and Connection
Your marketing assets should allow your target audience to feel more connected to you and better understand what your brand stands for.
Using images and videos can make your content more visually appealing, while settling on color and typography brand guidelines can help you create an instantly-recognizable look.
For the best chance at capturing the minds of your potential customer base, focus on cultivating a consistent brand identity, using storytelling, and creating marketing assets across various platforms.
Filip Nikoloski is a guest contributor to Marin Software's blog and website.
