5 ways to keep your marketing material current

If you hand out marketing materials at trade shows, networking events or conferences, you know what a pain it is when they’re outdated. And with technology changing at the speed of light, your product or service offerings may be changing pretty quickly too.

How do you keep your marketing materials up to date without going over budget?

Affordable Ways to Keep Your Marketing Materials Current

Print On Demand

Whether you physically print your marketing materials yourself or outsource the design and printing to a company like Vistaprint, don’t print more than you can use for a given event or time period.

Sure, it’s tempting to print thousands to save a bit of money per sheet, but if you end up with 9,000 outdated fliers sitting in your garage, you’re not really saving money.

Marketing materials ideal for smaller print runs include:

Business cards

Brochures

Fliers

Media kits

Ask yourself what the maximum number of any item you will need for an event is. Printing fewer now means you can make changes next time, then print a new batch.

Create Easily Modified Documents

If you hand out the same flier at every event, you can leave it as-is so you can use it for multiple events. For a more custom piece, it’s easy to change out the event name on the document without modifying your marketing copy.

Don’t reinvent the wheel every time you need marketing materials. Reuse what you’ve got and update your files for each event.

Consider storing your files in Dropbox or other cloud-based storage so that anyone who needs to access the files can get to them easily.

Get Access to Your Native Art Files

Even if you’re not a graphic designer, you need easy access to your art files – in every format possible. Even if your designer moves to Tahiti, if you have the files, a new designer can make modifications without redesigning and charging you for it.

Ask for files in these formats:

PDF

PNG

AI

JPG

EPS

TIFF

BMP

RAW (if you have photos)

Making sure you get a copy of your files at the completion of each project means you’ll be able to use them in future projects without having to track down a graphic artist you may have worked with just once.

Whether you work with an independent graphic designer or a site like 99designs, you’re entitled to all versions of your design.