Using promotional products for branding and marketing purposes will turn out to be one of the best decisions you will have made for your business. In fact, a survey conducted by the British Promotional Merchandise Association has found that 79% of the recipients of promotional products think of carrying out business with the company.
Even though having promotional products is a step forward, you also need to know how to use promotional products effectively to drive customers. Read all of our tips and tricks, and you will be on your way!
Even though customers love to receive promotional products, you would want to be sure that giving away all this free stuff will lead to a positive impact on your business.
If you want to make use of promotional products with the greatest impact, I am confident that these tips will prove to be invaluable.
To use promotional products effectively, you need to consider the following:
1. Keep your target audience in mind
Before ordering promotional products, give some thought on who you want to attract with them. Make sure the products you choose would be in accordance with your business. For instance, you wouldn`t want a notebook for an IT company, would you? You have to think about the interests of your target audience, and get the products they will like.
The more they appreciate the products, the more they will use them and advocate for your business. That is a very tried and true principal.
Spend a little time researching among your employees and existing customers before you decide exactly what to order, and choose based on their responses. That will keep you from having to do a lot of guesswork and merely hoping you have made the right choices.
2. Ensure that your message gets through to your audience
There are a few things you need to sort out. On the promotional product, do you want to print your logo, a message, or a design that stands out? Should you have your address imprinted too? Once you decide on all that, make sure your message is simple and relatable. A skilled copywriter can make it memorable for you, and then you will find that you have a promotional product that speaks volumes to potential clients and partners.
Good promotional messages will be great at communicating what you are offering, what your company is like, and what your customers and partners can bank on from you. Keep in mind that a bad promotional message can make you seem detached, unaware of what your customers really need or want, or even portray you as unprofessional.
Don`t be hasty, give it serious thought, and once you are completely sure, then you can start printing.
3. Your promotional products have to really be eye-catching
If you take inexpensive promotional pens, or the least complicated printed cotton shoppers, and just put your company`s name and logo on them, you will not be successful in attaining extraordinary results. That is not the way advertising operates. You must choose products your customers will want to use over and over again. That way, your customers will become your personal billboards wherever they may go.
You need to have fascinating promotional products that people will remember. Really make your mark from the uninspired crowd.
A really creative design on a top-quality conference folder always leads to results. Other examples of such products are a mug with an intriguing message, a USB stick that has a really creative design, a different pen, as well as a shopping bag that shows off real originality.
Just the right artwork plays an integral part in this process. Find a talented designer and work with them to create top-quality artwork for your promotional products. When the artwork is outstanding, you can trust that people will love using and wearing the promotional products.
They look unique and intriguing. Not only are you doing it to add to the happiness and enjoyment of people who receive the promotional products. You are also doing it because products with eye-catching logo will strongly attract the interest of everyone who sees them. That is exactly what you want.
4. Work out the math before you place an order
Take your best guess at how many products you require for a successful campaign. It is not advisable to print too many or too few. The reason being is that if you want to use products as promotional trade show giveaways, you cannot allow falling short if people start hurrying to your stand. That would be far from ideal. On the other hand, you don`t need too many and ending up figuring out how to get rid of them just so they don`t sit around and take up valuable work space.
5. Focus on your employees before targeting an outside audience
Start off by giving your employees branded mugs, printed T-shirts, pens, and bags. And also, you can even set up in-house contests where winner receive your branded printed giveaways.
Your employees will truly feel that you appreciate them, and moreover, it will be a good test since you will see upfront which promotional products will get the most use. It is called building healthy relationships. If you follow this tip, you will win either way.
6. Don`t forget about existing customers
Your goal is to attract new people, but you also have to put forth an effort to keep the existing ones. Don`t ever take your customers or partners for granted. If your competitors attempt to sway them with really great offers, you need to have their loyalty. Promotional products will help keep them since they love getting free stuff. By giving them your promotional products, you will succeed in strengthening their loyalty to your brand.
7. Use promotional products to get your foot in the door
Your sales department can reap great benefits through the use of promotional products. In what way you may be wondering about. Let`s take the example of a sales agent who is experiencing difficulty in getting a sales appointment with a potential customer. That same agent could try sending a promotional gift basket such as some branded notebooks, promotional pens, promotional mugs, or even custom metal bookmarks to that potential customer who had been ignoring him. Handing out these promotional products can help spark this potential customer`s interest in your business and even help build rapport. If your promotional items are funky, fascinating, and handy, your sales team can greatly benefit from using them and help leave a lasting and positive impression on potential customers. If you want a promotional item that is totally indestructible, so, therefore, can help advertise your business for the long-term, check out custom metal bookmarks at promocenter international!
8. Promotional products are effective in making your PR’s job super-easy
A public relations expert is amazingly beneficial when a problem pops up. However, when you want to put forth positive news through the media, your PR might run into closed doors. That’s how promotional products might be really useful in oiling the hinges. When you’re announcing a new branch, a new product, an event, or a cause, be sure to send out promotional products to the editors or journalists.
We are not talking about bribing the press. We are talking about surprising them pleasantly with a gift, as all people ever do is ask journalists and editors for stuff – they don’t usually offer anything to them. Another point to consider is that they will feel like they owe you a bit for that small gift of appreciation.
This way, you will get a lot more journalists who will be willing to put forth good news about your business, not just the bad ones.
9. Maximize brand visibility
Promotional products have the capacity of substantially boosting brand awareness when aligned with the correct marketing strategy. When your company sponsors an event, you can use it to draw in new customers. Simply hand out promotional products with your company’s name and message. Long after the event has passed, your name will be kept in front of those potential customers. People tend to hang on to those products for at least a year or more, and that is very inexpensive advertising.
10. Use products in social media campaigns
Your social media followers can do an outstanding job at promoting your brand and drawing in new customers. Setting up contests where people have to share and comment on your posts or answer questions about your business in order to get promotional products will also help. Another option is to give out promotional products to any customer who posts a picture of themselves with your product, or while using your services. That way, you can draw in new customers and award the existing ones who are willing to promote your brand.
11. Analyze impact of the effect
At the end of it all, you want to know exactly what you achieved with this form of promotion. So, when all your promotional items are handed out, spend some time calculating, comparing the investment you made, and looking at the effect it had. Did people appreciate your gifts? Did you see any result within two months since you gave them free stuff? Did your sales representatives secure more prospects since they got promotional items? When you analyze, you’ll see how strong of an impact this strategy has had and whether it is worthwhile to repeat it or not.
If you get this right, you can expect positive results. How positive? The following numbers will speak for themselves:
– 9 out of 10 people will remember your company for two years due to having received your promotional product.
– Whether your target audience is young or old, research has proven that promotional products are the most effective advertising tool.
– 7 out of 10 brands state that they achieved their marketing goals thanks to having used promotional products.
Ending words: As we have pointed out, the success of your promotional products doesn’t hang on one thing only. There’s a number of factors that can have a definite impact on how your products will affect your employees, customers, and partners. If you want to have the strongest effect, then use these tips. By doing so, you’ll understand why some of the biggest companies in the world today are still taking full advantage of using promotional products as both a branding and a marketing tool.
