Welcome to "Create marketing materials that align with your goals." This quick lesson is designed to help you create customized marketing solutions that align with your small business marketing goals. By taking this quick lesson, you'll:

• Get an overview of the best options for printed marketing materials.
• Discuss the importance of a consistent, branded communication in all materials.
• Explore strategies for implementing cohesive messaging across materials.
• Discover the best types of marketing documents for some of the most common marketing and sales situations.
• Learn about combining elements to create an appropriate and effective marketing presence.

Along the way, you'll encounter plenty of helpful, practical tips to align your marketing materials and small business marketing plan. By the end of the lesson, you'll have a good overview of the benefits of each type of marketing document, as well as some helpful tips and ideas to make them work for your small business over the long run.

What types of marketing materials do you need?

Let's start off by taking about the essential marketing pieces for a small business.

Small businesses often need to develop a variety of marketing materials (sometimes referred to as "collateral"). But deciding which ones to focus on first can be a bit overwhelming. These are the most common, most effective types of printed documents for small business marketing:

• Backgrounder/fact sheet
• Brochures
• Business cards
• Letterhead
• Note cards
• Envelopes
• Marketing letters and direct mailers
• Management biographies
• Presentation slides
• Product sheets

You'll take a closer look at each type in the next section.