Remember when U2’s Songs of Innocence album magically appeared in your iTunes library back in 2014? Many people were not pleased about an unwanted record showing up in their music library and had a lot of trouble getting rid of it again.

What in theory should’ve been a good marketing move ended up backfiring on both U2 and Apple.

Before convincing someone to buy into your product or service, you must nurture them through the buyer’s journey with the right collateral for each stage. Pushing for a hard sell right off the bat will not work.

No matter how well-known your brand is, you will always have to approach different audiences with the appropriate marketing collateral. Targeting different audiences with the right collateral will help you generate leads, promote new products and campaigns, entice new customers, re-engage existing ones, and make yourself more publicly known.

The move towards online media has opened up endless opportunities for companies to promote their products and services. You can now send personalized emails, which are gateways to all of your other content, to as many recipients as you want. Thanks to the internet, everything you see online can now be considered collateral: e-magazines, white papers, blog posts, digital annual reports, and more.