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Market Smart: How to Gain Customers and Increase Profits with B2B Marketing

users to view and print documents. To create a PDF, all you
need is the original files: Adobe® Acrobat® can make PDFs
from files created in design and layout programs, as well as
any documents created with Microsoft® Word or other word
processing programs.

See the article on creating SEO-friendly PDFs on
www.marketsmartb2b.com/resources.

When designing marketing collateral, adhere to some basic
guidelines to make sure they work well both online and offline:

• The page size should be letter size (8.5"x11"). This will
allow the documents to be easily printed by almost any
office printer.

• Printed sales and technical sheets are often
double-sided, but this doesn’t work on the web—create
an alternative, web-friendly design that naturally breaks
into individual 8.5"x11" pages.

• Most users print PDFs in black and white, so optimize
your documents accordingly. When picking colours,
avoid using shades that will blend together if converted
to greyscale.Avoid white text on dark backgrounds—not
only is this hard to read on screen, but it wastes a lot of
ink when printed.

• If you include photographs or images, have both
low-resolution and high-resolution versions on hand.
High-resolution images are required for commercial
printing, but they can lead to oversized PDF files that
will take customers a long time to download and open.
Lower quality graphics work better on screen and for
individual printing.

While it’s important to have these documents available for
download, PDFs should never take the place of web pages.

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© 2012 Lisa Shepherd