I’m seeking insights from our community regarding our approach to updating our promotional materials. Periodically, we refresh our whitepapers, brochures, and catalogs to align with emerging trends and introduce new products. As a result, the previous versions of these materials become obsolete.
For these updated materials, we’re considering two options:
Creating entirely new assets:
Generating a new form for distribution.
Crafting a fresh confirmation email.
Establishing a new workflow to automate the confirmation flow
Replacing files in existing assets.
While both options are feasible, we’re eager to adhere to best practices in this regard.
My opinion…
Pro replacing:
+ less work, more efficiency
+ more consistency
+ more simplicity: no piling of forms, emails, flows
+ still possible to compare based on date ranges
+ still possibility to adjust copy in the email/form
Cons replacing:
- if you are changing much of the copy, you can no longer see what the previous version was
- comparing becomes a bit more difficult (you need to know exactly when you changed to the newer version)
I’d appreciate any insights or recommendations from our community on which approach might be more effective or if there are alternative strategies worth considering.
I usually don’t recommend a form for every asset. There are plenty of options with hidden fields and capturing data points that should allow you to make forms for certain types of assets (stage of funnel, type of asset, etc.).
Depending on the type of asset, I would say replacing or creating new may be viable. It all goes into what is changing to make an informed decision whether you can get away with updating or whether the content as a whole is no longer relevant and you need a new landing page, new emails, etc. In the case of emails in particular, utilzing personalization tokens from hidden fields could allow you to simplify your workflows and not require tons of emails or workflows for your asset downloads.
If we’re making small updates (i.e. a pricing change, refreshing some stats, or the name of a service changed), we’ll replace the existing file as opposed to creating all new assets. If we’ve made a major change/update (added or replaced entire sections, updated all content for a new year, etc.) we will create all new assets and use those to promote the (mostly) new content.
I’m not sure there’s a hard line in terms of what is/isn’t best practice, I think it all comes down to if you think the juice is worth the squeeze in terms of updating everything/creating new assets. What data will you get if you create new instead of replace? How will that help you make more informed decisions/will it help you make more informed decisions? If you’ve got a small team and don’t think you’ll do anything with that data/information, I’d say skip it. But if y’all have the time and think the data would be helpful to have, go for it!
