Promotional products work. Seriously. Research shows that 85 percent of people who receive promotional products will do business with that advertise at some point. This means that promotional products provide a budget-friendly, highly effective strategy for memorably reaching potential customers, regardless of the size or stage of your business. 

Eight out of ten Americans have up to ten promotional items in their home at this very moment, and 89 percent of them will remember the advertiser’s name for nearly two years after first receiving the item. If consumers are satisfied with their promotional items, the business can see up to a 500 percent increase in referrals. 

For you, handing out promotional products can be the catalyst that drives customers to your business. Opt for products that are useful to your potential customers, such as coffee mugs, water bottles, tote bags, and wearables. These will encourage months of engagement in response to a one-time distribution of promotional products. 

Why Promotional Products

Promotional products help to establish your brand in potential customers’ lives. Every time someone uses your promotional item, they engage with your brand and start to foster the relationship. Studies show that customer loyalty, and even improved customer relations, can result from leveraging promotional gifts. This is because the immediate appreciation and gratitude establishes a positive association with your brand, creating a lasting impression. 

When recipients wear, use, or display your promotional products, they take on an influential role in your marketing campaign. The recipient becomes an ambassador for your brand and allows you to build a reputation with more potential customers, some of whom may have never heard of you before. 

Choosing a Promotional

Think about who your ideal customer is, including their wants, needs, and aspirations. This will give you insight into what promotional products will actually be useful or delight them, and therefore be less likely to be thrown out. They are also promotional items that are more memorable and likely to leave a lasting brand impression. 

For example, let’s consider you are trying to reach an audience consisting of students, business people, or young parents. Here is what promotional products you should choose and why: 

• A student, with a limited budget, will appreciate receiving something they need that they don’t have to spend their own money on. For you, providing products like wearables or bags to students as promotional produce more impressions because students will use them inside and outside their homes. So even if the direct recipient of the promotional products doesn’t end up buying your product due to their limited budget, they will increase your brand awareness. 
• The typical business person works eight hours a day at a desk job in a corporate office. By providing a promotional product that can increase their productivity and live at their desk, the business person helps you create consistent brand impressions in a new space. Products like coffee mugs, hydro flasks, and stress balls are highly effective for this demographic. 
• Young parents spend weekends out local events to entertain their children while connecting with their home community. Sponsoring a community event, such as providing signage or event tee shirts, helps gain your brand awareness with the parents, establishes your business as family-centered, and demonstrates your community involvement, all factors young parents consider when shopping for their families. 

By now you’re probably asking, but how much will this cost me? You should absolutely stay within your budget when choosing promotional products. However, as well as considering what each unit will cost you, consider the perceived value the item provides. Many promotional items cost considerably less than the recipient thinks they do. 

For example, coffee mugs can start as low as $2.98 each when bought in bulk. In stores, this same mug would cost approximately five times more. When providing promotional gifts, the perceived values radically out-values out-values what you spend. This is especially true if you include a sample of your merchandise with the promotional gift. 

7 Best Promotional Practices

Promotional products are about more than just getting your name out there. They are about fostering genuine relationships with your potential customers. Here are seven best practices to help you do it right:

• Choose promotional products your customers will actually use. Simply put, if your customers never use the promotional product, you aren’t building brand awareness or a relationship with your customers. Instead, you are creating clutter. 
• Avoid products with short lives. These include promotional products like notepads or tchotchkes that will be used up quickly or not used at all. The longer your promotional products life, the longer it helps you build brand awareness.
• Don’t put your logo on everything. No one wants to be your walking billboard, so unless you have a strong catchphrase to go with it, try to avoid making your company the center of attention. If your recipients appreciate your promotional products, they will tell others where they got it.
  
• Connect your logo and branded colors. While you don’t want your name on everything, connecting your brand to your promotional products is always a good idea. Using a small stamp of your logo in a nondescript corner and leveraging your branded colors reinforces your marketing message without being aggressive.
• Choose promotional items that naturally relate to what you do. Imagine a construction company handing out baby toys as a promotional item – it would be confusing for many customers. Providing promotional products that relate to your product or services establishes deeper brand awareness while positioning your business as an expert in your industry.
• Consider where you hand your promotional out. When you consider the environment, you can target your ideal audience as well as build an association with where your product or service will be used.
• Provide choices, especially at events. Nothing is worse than going to a show floor or event space and handing out the same promotional product as everyone else. Providing your customers with options suggests to potential customers that you are easy to work with and will do what you can to treat them right. 

If you are still hesitant, consider how the most influential brands, like Nike or BMW, prepare to launch a product. To increase excitement and build awareness, they giveaway promotional products like pens, t-shirts, and bags to potential and existing customers. 

Whether you are a B2C or B2B company, promotional products are an inexpensive strategy to market your business effectively. If you still need help promoting your business, talk to one of our highly-qualified promotional consultants today.