No matter the size of your business, if you participate in marketing then you need to have various forms of marketing documentation in place.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, even for small businesses and entrepreneurs. There are several classifications of marketing documentation that you will need to be aware of when executing marketing campaigns.

The different types include marketing administrative materials, published works and guides for your business and what it produces. There is also technical communications that are needed for each type of document as well.

Administrative Material

Administrative materials are needed to cover a number of different subjects in how your business operates. For companies with more than a handful of employees, this form of marketing documentation will help everyone understand what is to be learned, expected and understood in the company.

Furthermore, this administrative material will also cover:

• Marketing policy
• Marketing roles
• Marketing plans
• Social media documentation
• Usage/monitoring/engagement policies
• Privacy and permissions
• And more

As might be the case with other forms of marketing documentation, these may also be available online so that it can be quickly referenced, updated and reviewed by all people concerned. Naturally, the material would be kept in your internal internet system that only your employees may access.

Policy documents should include your business cultures and values, while ensuring your online presence reflects your offline identity.

Here is a great library of social media marketing documentation that you can use to discover examples of other important administrative documentation.

Manuals And Guides

Most products need user guides and manuals, especially if they have to be assembled or operated in some fashion. A well written user manual or guide is helpful to the consumer and avoids a negative experience of not being able to use the product.

How clear, effective and readable your user manuals are guides are will reflect your business image upon the customer. If you created a user guide for your product that was tough to read and hard to figure out, it would not only create a negative impression of your product, but also of your company as well.

• Training/organisational manuals
• Reference guides
• Software and hardware guides
• Quick reference and combination guides
• How-to guides
• And more

There are a number of different guides and manuals that you will need both for customers and your own employees. Your guides should be written by professionals who understand how to convey instructions clearly and succinctly. Plus, they should be proofread a few times to catch any mistakes or misinformation.

Training manuals should be clear, concise and developed for use in a classroom or educational setting so that those who need to learn how your business operates can better understand what you do. Such materials may include tutorials and workbooks as well.

In addition, your organisational manuals should provide a guide to your business for employees or customers depending on their intentions. This will include procedure manuals, identity and benefit guides and so forth.

Marketing Copy

Basically, marketing copy is written material that is delivered to those who need information about your business and the products and services you offer. This is to make the general public aware of what you do, but it can also be used in marketing campaigns to promote your products and services as well.

The key is in how you craft this type of content for your marketing documentation, which includes the following;

• Flyers, business cards and general advertisements
• Promotional and informational brochures
• Catalogs and pre-sale literature
• Articles and blog posts
• And more

For decades, this type of material was printed and distributed through the mail or more directly to customers. Today, businesses use their websites and social media to promote all of this material which means that customers can instantly access what you have to offer.

While the delivery system for marketing copy has changed, the basic purpose has remained the same.

You will need to use professional standards and often include marketing specialists as well as advertising copywriters to create effective material. This is because the presentation is as important as the products themselves.

You are trying to sell your “brand” as well as your products and services by using this type of marketing documentation.

Additional Marketing Documentation

There are other types of documentation as well that do not exactly fit in with the above categories, but they do have their place.

• Newsletters
• Magazine, trade journal and related articles
• Technical articles or reports
• Speeches
• And more

This type of marketing documentation will help you reach new customers, while keeping in tune with those in your immediate networks as well. A great way to help build your business is publishing good articles about what you do, the products or services you provide and reporting on new innovations or ideas that are in your industry.

Trade journal or magazine articles will include news, information and reports about the industry in which your company operates. It may be for customers in general, or for other business in your industry. Whatever the case, the articles will need to be written accordingly.

Newsletters help keep people informed about what you do and detail the happenings in the company. They can be for your own employees or the general public. Technical reports are more for industry insiders, but speeches that are written for special occasions should be written by those who are skilled in this field.
 

Accounting for all types of marketing documentation will help you run your business and marketing practices more efficiently. This means that you will be able to access information quickly, use it again if needed, and as a reference point to understand how you can improve.

In any case, effective marketing documentation will help bolster your company and help lead you to better inform your employees, clients and customers to what your company does now and in the future.

Have you produced all the necessary marketing documentation for your business yet?