16 Marketing Material Examples (With Tips)

Updated June 24, 2022

Diversifying the marketing materials you use when advertising your company can help you increase your appeal to potential customers. Marketing materials come in a variety of forms, with each having its own benefits and situations where it's better suited as a method. Gaining familiarity with a broad range of marketing materials allows you to respond to opportunities quickly and effectively. In this article, we discuss what marketing materials are, share some common marketing material examples and provide tips for using your marketing materials.

What are marketing materials?

Marketing materials are any products or content designed to market your company or its products and services to potential customers. Marketing materials can range from samples you give to potential customers to keep, permanent installations in high-visibility areas or digital files that customers can access. Modern marketing often benefits from the diversification of marketing materials to meet the diverse needs of a potential customer base.

Marketing material examples

When working in a marketing position, using an array of marketing materials can help you achieve maximum results with your campaigns. Marketing material types to consider for your next campaign include:

Advertising cards

Advertising cards are postcard-sized flyers commonly printed on cardstock. You may use advertising cards as part of a mailing campaign, to hand out while at events or when customers visit your business. Advertisement cards allow you to feature key benefits of your product or service or to advertise special promotions.

Billboards

Billboard marketing is a traditional form of advertising that can still be highly effective in the right situations. You can increase the benefit of your billboard campaign by placing your ad in a high-traffic area where customers in your demographic might see its creative design. Using a series of billboards noting the distance to your location as drivers approach it can build anticipation, which may make them more likely to visit your business .

Brochures

Brochures comprise a single sheet of paper, often folded into three sections. By printing on both sides of the brochure, you create up to six areas to fill with information about your product or services. Brochures can be useful event handouts and information packets for visitors. For example, a zoo may use a brochure that includes a map on one side and advertises some of the premium features available to guests on the other.

Business cards

Printing business cards is an excellent way to provide professional contacts with a physical reminder of your business. Although a business card may also carry an advertisement for a special or a service that you offer, business cards typically contain basic contact information to create a clean and professional look. By keeping business cards with you at all times, you can hand convenient marketing material to potential clients or contacts you encounter, even outside of your usual work environment.

Emails

Sending emails is an excellent way to make professional contacts and market your company. Many online marketing campaigns seek to gather email addresses as opposed to make sales to customers directly. This allows your company to populate a mailing list of potential customers to send email campaigns to large numbers of prospective clients quickly. Many email management systems include the ability to tag new names in your database with different keywords to target the emails to each prospective customer.

Fliers

Creating fliers to hang in areas with frequent pedestrians can be an inexpensive way to market an event or service. Effective fliers often have appealing graphics to encourage passers-by to stop and read and then a quick, easy-to-understand pitch for the product or service you are advertising. Some flyer designs include tab sections at the bottom with contact information so that interested customers can take one and have a physical reminder of your contact information.

Funnel pages

Funnel pages are a form of online marketing management that companies often use with other advertising campaigns, such as social media or search engine advertisements. Funnel pages move users through a series of steps to make a sale or gather their contact information. A funnel also provides a company with customer tracking data, such as how many respondents make it through each step, and potentially increase information through linking from social media. This helps make it a highly effective way of populating a prospective customer list.

Giveaway boxes

Offering people the chance to win something for free can be an effective way to earn their business. Giveaway boxes may advertise a prize drawing or offer a special discount to anyone who fills out a slip . By writing their name and contact information on a paper and slipping it into the box, a customer enters themselves for the prize or special offer. This allows you to build a contact list of potential customers from those who provide their contact information.

Mailing campaigns

Direct mailing campaigns can be a cost-effective way to present your marketing materials to a broad audience. Often companies take advantage of mailing lists to target specific regions with their campaigns. Your mail or marketing materials can take on a variety of forms, including advertisement cards, brochures or samples of your products.

Newspaper advertisement

The decreasing market share of newspapers can be a benefit for your marketing department, since it may lead to lower prices to place an advertisement. By assessing the readership information of the newspaper, you can determine if it presents an attractive demographic for your advertised product or service. If your sales targets align with the readership of a newspaper, it can provide a higher return on investment.

Promotional items

Purchasing large quantities of inexpensive but useful items with your company's name and logo on them, such as pens, notepads and stress balls, can be an excellent way to keep your company in the mind of prospective clients. A company may use promotional items when attending trade events or making direct sales visits to potential customers. By leaving a physical item with the potential customer, you provide them with a reminder of your company the next time they need your product or service. If they enjoy using it, this may also generate goodwill for your company.

Social media channels

Social media marketing is organic marketing you conduct by posting to your organization's social media. You can also market with paid placements where you pay the platform to provide consumers with your company's content. Social media marketing also benefits from the high levels of detail available from online users, as it can provide you with valuable customer data like demographic info and their consumer preferences.

Video productions

Video production is an important form of marketing material, though the delivery methods have changed in recent years. While television advertising remains an effective option, your video materials may also serve as social media content or as the basis for the company's video advertising format. Creating hubs for your video content allows you to build dedicated viewers and increase the number of views that each video you post receives.

Websites

A company website provides you with the opportunity to establish your brand and advertise the products or services that you provide. It's also a convenient way to provide contact information for potential customers.

Besides creating a site for your company, you may build individual sites for specific products or services you offer. This can allow you to provide them with a unique focus or even their own branding and identity separate from other elements of your company. In all cases, working to improve your search engine optimization and the usability of your pages can increase the performance of your website as marketing material.

Window displays

If your professional location includes public-facing windows, you may choose to place advertisements or other marketing materials in them. Marketing displays may take on a variety of forms, from direct applications to window glass or physical displays behind the windowpane. A well-composed window display can catch the attention of passers-by and prompt them to come inside to learn more about your company's products and services.

Yard signs

While some government officials use yard signs for political campaigns, businesses can also take advantage of them as marketing material. It's important to keep the information on the sign simple and clear so people driving by receive the intended message. Commonly, yard signs feature a single statement or offer. Some signs may also include a method for viewers to contact you, such as a website or phone number. To increase the time that viewers are likely to see the signs, consider placing them at an intersection with a stop sign or stoplight.

Tips for making marketing materials

These tips can help you use your marketing materials wisely:

Know your market: Market research allows you to better understand your potential customers and what they are interested in so your marketing materials meet their needs and preferences.
Track your results: Adaptation is an important component of effective marketing management. Monitoring performance data for your different marketing materials can help you identify what works well and where you can make improvements.
Create reasons to care: A primary goal for marketing materials is to create a lasting impression. Offering a deal or advertising exceptional service quality gives the consumer a reason to remember your company as exceptional.
Establish a brand: Maintaining a strong, consistent brand identity for your marketing makes it easier for consumers to know what to expect from your company. This can increase your appeal, as it makes you more reliable.