Learn what differentiates advertising collateral from sales collateral and how you can make each of them perform best.
As a marketing professional or salesperson, your job is to attract leads and keep your existing ones engaged.
To both attract and engage people, you must know how to create great advertising and sales collateral that rely on effective messaging and eye-catching visuals.
Good collateral will help you move your prospects further into the funnel until they start the adoption process and get acquainted with your brand. But these two terms, although used interchangeably, are not the same.
In this article, you’ll find out what differentiates advertising from sales collateral and what to do to achieve peak performance in each.
Let's dive straight into the subject.
Ad collateral is digital or print material that helps send your branded message to a target audience. It’s an effective way to attract customers and increase brand awareness by establishing a connection with your target audience and advancing them further into the funnel, easing the sales process.
Sales collateral is any material used for your sales process and it’s a bit more detailed than ad collateral. It provides the necessary facts, numbers, or statistics while nurturing relationships with potential buyers to help them make an informed decision about purchasing a product or service.
The main difference between advertising and sales collateral is that they are used for different goals.
Advertising collateral informs your customers about your product or service and shows them how it can improve their life or a specific process.
Sales collateral, on the other hand, goes further and helps the customer make a decision which is followed by a purchase.
With sales collateral, you’re completing the information circle, going more in-depth, and giving your customers real data.
Now, let’s see what kind of visuals you can create for each.
There are many digital advertising types of visual collateral. When starting your campaign, you don't have to use all of them, especially if you don't have enough time and resources.
Moreover, you probably don't even need to use all of them in your ad campaign but choose a few that will bring you the desired results.
Display
Display ads are excellent for brand exposure. They're one of the most popular forms of digital advertising. When we say display, we mean banners that consist of an image, branded assets, copy, and animations if you want to make it more engaging.
You can create online banner ads and place them on websites and blogs related to their topic to match the user's intent.
Source: Creatopy
Native
Native advertising is used to create ads that blend into the page they are displayed on. They integrate perfectly with the page's design or content, and the users naturally notice and interact with them.
An example of native advertising is a sponsored social media post.
Mobile
As their name suggests, mobile ads are delivered on mobile devices. They can appear on websites or in different apps.
You can deliver the same ads on mobile as on desktop. Just make sure to design them as responsive visuals.
Source: Creatopy
Video
Video ads play before, during, or after streaming content. Think YouTube, which is the place where you encounter these ads the most. But you can find them as standalone banners or native ads on streaming platforms and website placements.
Source: Dictionary.com
Retargeting
These are follow-up ads delivered to users who previously interacted with your site, made a purchase, or didn't complete one.
You can serve retargeting ads on Google Display Network, Facebook, or Instagram based on zero, first, and third-party data you gathered about your target audience. Additionally, geolocation advertising can be used to deliver ads to users based on their physical location, allowing for an even more precise targeting.
Social media
With social media ads, you can go in-depth with customer targeting and choose specific audiences, their interests, buying intent, and other behavioral characteristics. Social media ads can be any of the previously mentioned display ad types, even Facebook ad comments.
Source: AD WORLD
You can also use this traditional form of advertising collateral and target people from your location.
This includes:
There are many apps out there that can help you create your ad designs.
While you can choose a platform for general design purposes, such as Figma, you can also go for a platform specialized in ad design.
With Creatopy, you can make all the digital or print materials we talked about. For display advertising, you’ll also benefit from automated features that will help you create many visuals at once and deliver them through ad serving.
Plus, you’ll have all the customizable banner templates you need for your advertising collateral. You can even add a QR code (making a QR code is easy) to your advertising collateral. If you want to track the results of a campaign you can use a tracking tool like Voluum.
Source: Creatopy
A product image is a must in every sales collateral you have. After all, you have to give people visual proof of what they’re about to buy.
Product images and the right copy will drive people to try your brand.
Infographics are always a great idea when you wish to compress a lot of information into a single professional visual.
Their format is what helps it to be effective and very easy to follow, helping with information retention.
Because you’re placing a lot of ideas on a single visual, it’s easy for others to share it, which helps you with your sales.
A flowchart can aid you in visually explaining to your customers how a product or service works, easing their understanding of your brand.
It also shows them how a process starts and how it ends, or a use case with a client before adopting your product or service and after using it.
This works as a powerful proof that gives your brand the authority it needs.
You can efficiently deliver a colorful presentation in a slide format with a sales pitch deck template. This sales collateral shows your prospects the big picture in a captivating and concise way.
A good sales pitch deck shows the client benefits more than the product features and keeps everything to the point.
When buying online, customers need as much information and proof as possible. But this raises the challenge of showing them your product’s worth.
Demo videos are a great opportunity to show how your product or service works and how it can solve your prospects’ problems.
In short, it’s a sales pitch in itself.
Email is one of the most effective ways of connecting with your prospects in all the stages of their customer journey. That means the sales stage too.
This is why you need to have a few email templates ready to go in case you need to send an email fast. Templates also save you the time of always having to start an email.
Having a template at hand saves you time. You just need to tweak a few aspects and make it more personalized, and you’re ready to send it.
With a case study, you can show the results a client had after using your product or service, starting with the issue, then moving to the benefits your product brought them.
A case study with hard numbers and clear solutions is the proof every client needs. You can use a template to create a short case study and use it as sales collateral.
If you want to forget about the classic and not-so-editable PowerPoint, you can shift to Storydoc and have all the freedom of creation you need.
Storydoc allows you to design interactive presentations and many other types of sales collateral that click with your target audience.
Keep in mind a few design best practices to make sure your visuals are always appealing. You must have an excellent copy placed on eye-catching visuals to get your message across.
Here are a few simple guidelines to help you design professional marketing and sales collateral:
There you have it.
With the right tools and a few visual guidelines, you can create advertising and sales collateral that not only captivates, but also converts your audience!
Hi! I'm Gery Meleg, VP of UX at Creatopy, the ad design automation platform. My main focus area is generating growth and value at the intersection of business, strategy and creativity. At Creatopy I'm growing a team of 15 designers, with expertise ranging from UX research, Product Design, Content Design and Motion Graphics, delivering delightful end-to-end customer experiences.
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