Marketing Collateral: Types, Examples, and Tips (2026)

Marketing collateral is the set of visual and written materials a business uses to communicate its brand, products, or services to customers, prospects, and other audiences. 

Businesses use marketing collateral for purposes that include lead generation, customer loyalty, and sales.

This guide covers common types of marketing collateral and how to create assets for a business.

What is marketing collateral?

Marketing collateral is branded material a business uses to promote its products, services, or brand.

Marketing collateral spans digital and printed materials. It includes assets tied to brand identity, such as a logo or mission statement, and assets created for a specific campaign, such as an infographic on a product's ingredients.

Purpose and benefits of marketing collateral

Marketing collateral includes assets related to brand identity, like a logo, mission statement, brand voice guidelines, and visual style guide. These assets establish a consistent look and message across a store's website, packaging, social media, and advertising.

In a 2025 Shopify Survey of Store Owners,* 43% cited brand reputation as their second most common competitive advantage. To keep brand reputation consistent across collateral, a style guide documents approved logo usage, color palette, typography, and tone of voice. When paired with a shared asset library, store owners and their teams have a unified reference when creating new materials.

Marketing collateral vs. marketing assets and materials

Marketing assets and materials are the underlying components used to build a piece of collateral, such as photography, copy, logos, color palettes, and templates. Marketing collateral is the finished piece those components form, such as a brochure, product page, or social media graphic.

Related terms describe collateral by purpose or audience: 

• Promotional collateral. Refers to materials tied to a specific offer, discount, or campaign. 
• Product collateral. Refers to materials focused on a specific product's features or specifications, such as a spec sheet or product page.
• Sales and marketing collateral. Refers to materials used across both sales and marketing functions, such as pitch decks, case studies, and pricing sheets.

Types of marketing collateral

Digital and print are two common groupings used to organize marketing collateral.

1. Digital marketing collateral examples

Digital collateral suits campaigns that need frequent updates, broad geographic reach, or performance tracking, such as click and open rates. Common types of digital marketing collateral include:

• Blog posts
• Web pages
• Videos
• Emails
• Case studies and white papers
• Sales presentations

Blog posts

Blog posts can capture leads, build brand loyalty, or announce a new product line. A short announcement post might introduce a new product line, while an extended blog post targets ecommerce site traffic through search.

Web pages

Every page on a business's website is a piece of digital marketing collateral. A landing page targets visitors at a specific stage of the buying journey. A product comparison page targets shoppers in the final phase of product selection by laying out features, pricing, or specifications side by side against alternatives.

Videos

Short-form videos, such as commercials and explainer videos, answer specific questions, introduce a new product, or show customers how to use a product.

Emails

Email newsletters, drip campaigns, and customer service email flows keep current customers informed, reach new customers, and direct audiences to landing pages or other digital marketing collateral. Shopify Messaging lets businesses send and manage marketing and transactional emails from the Shopify admin.

The FTC's CAN-SPAM Act sets requirements for commercial email, including accurate header information, a clear ad disclosure, a valid postal address, and a working opt-out mechanism honored within 10 business days.

Case studies and white papers

Case studies and white papers provide in-depth information relevant to a target audience's interests. Businesses publish these on their own products or services, or as part of a broader content marketing strategy not directly tied to their core offerings.

Sales presentations

Digital sales presentations, or pitch decks, are used by sales teams to present products or services to prospective customers.

2. Print marketing collateral examples

Print collateral suits in-person contexts, including trade shows, retail locations, local events, and direct mail, where a physical item reaches the audience directly. 

Print and digital collateral work together through tools such as QR codes, which link a printed piece to a digital destination like a product page, video, or landing page.

A few common types of printed marketing collateral include:

• Brochures and sell sheets
• Business cards
• Direct mailers
• Promotional products
• Displays

Brochures and sell sheets

Brochures and sell sheets are documents that describe a business, product, or service. There are no fixed rules for size or format. A brochure is often a branded trifold covering a business as a whole, while a sell sheet is a one-page document covering a specific product or service.

Business cards

A business card shares contact information about a business owner or representative in a physical format. A business card often includes a name, role, contact information, and a QR code linked to a business's website.

Direct mailers

Direct mail includes postcards, product catalogs, lookbooks, and personalized offers sent to a customer's or prospect's address. Direct mail was once dismissed within the industry. 

“It was seen as very antiquated at the time. … This is a dying field,” says Sara Sugarman, founder of the ecommerce home décor brand Lulu and Georgia. Sara later launched a print catalog for the business, calling it a pivotal moment.

In a 2025 survey of 1,037 consumers by Lob, a direct mail provider, 72% said they made a monetary transaction, such as a purchase or donation, as a result of direct mail. To track a direct mail campaign's results, businesses can pair each piece with a unique promo code or a QR code linked to a specific landing page.

Promotional products

Promotional products include branded pens, T-shirts, calendars, tote bags, and coasters. Revenge Of, a comic shop and pinball arcade, gives customers branded tote bags and event merchandise that they wear and reuse. 

“We have a lot of branded merch that then people tag and share when they’re at conventions or other signings,” says Joe Myers, cofounder of Revenge Of, on Shopify Masters. 

Customers wear Revenge Of gear at events such as San Diego Comic-Con and tag the brand when they post about it.

Displays

Point-of-purchase displays include physical signs, product towers, and product displays placed throughout a brick-and-mortar store. Point-of-sale displays are a type of point-of-purchase display placed near the cash register.

6 tips for creating effective marketing collateral

Marketing collateral is one part of a marketing strategy. The following tips cover how to create marketing collateral:

• Identify your goals
• Research your audience
• Reinforce your brand identity
• Connect marketing and sales efforts
• Design for one clear message and one clear action
• Keep one current version of every asset

1. Identify your goals

List specific goals for a piece of marketing collateral, such as educating an audience about a new product line, promoting an event, or generating leads. Then, match the collateral type to the goal, for instance, use an ebook or white paper to generate leads, and use an email or direct mailer to promote an event.

List problems that a business's marketing materials could address, then build collateral around them. For example, create infographics to address customer confusion about a specific service and distribute them across marketing channels.

2. Research your audience

Identify the target audience’s media consumption habits, then focus on the channels they use. For example, produce marketing videos or downloadable case studies for an audience that’s active on social media. Use the audience’s needs and preferences to shape the messaging and design of each asset.

3. Reinforce your brand identity

Follow brand guidelines to keep visual elements, messaging, tone, and voice consistent across marketing collateral. Use Shopify’s brand tools to centralize logos, colors, a cover image, a slogan, and a business description, and sync them across sales channels, themes, and apps.

Experiment with format and message within a single piece of collateral while staying consistent with brand guidelines. For example, a kombucha business might distribute coasters or koozies featuring its website and contact information.

4. Connect marketing and sales efforts

Marketing collateral supports sales conversations even without a dedicated sales team. A wholesale line sheet lists products, pricing, and minimum order quantities for retail buyers. A pitch deck for stockists covers the brand, product line, and terms for a retailer considering carrying the products. A one-pager summarizes a product or offer for a buyer to reference after a meeting.

Build these materials alongside customer-facing marketing collateral so pricing, product names, and brand messaging stay consistent across both.

5. Design for one clear message and one clear action

Multiple competing messages dilute a piece and make it harder for a reader to know what to do next. Structure each piece of collateral around a single value proposition: 

• Use visual hierarchy to guide a reader through a piece in order: headline first, supporting details second, and a call to action last. Place the most important element, such as a headline or offer, in the largest or most prominent position on the page.
• Write copy that leads with a specific benefit or outcome rather than a general feature. Use direct language and short sentences.
• Include one explicit call to action per piece, such as “Shop the collection” or “Book a consultation.” Avoid listing multiple competing actions on a single piece of collateral.
• Apply brand guidelines, including logo placement, color palette, and typography, consistently across every piece.

Shopify Sidekick can generate content such as blog posts, product descriptions, and images for use in marketing collateral, according to Shopify.

6. Keep one current version of every asset

Keep one current, findable version of each piece of marketing collateral. Duplicate or outdated versions in circulation create a risk of sending a customer, stockist, or buyer the wrong pricing, product name, or design.

For Shopify merchants, Content > Files in the Shopify admin stores and organizes uploaded files, including PDFs and images. Files can be searched and filtered by name, file type, and where they're used, and sorted by name, size, or upload date.

To update a piece of collateral without breaking existing links to it, replace the file on the Files page rather than uploading a new one; a replaced file keeps its original name and URL.

Use consistent, descriptive file names that include the asset type and version or date, such as line-sheet-fall-2026.pdf or stockist-deck-v3.pdf, rather than generic names like final.pdf or final-final.pdf.

*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with two or more years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.