The phone rings unexpectedly, and you rush to answer it. In need of a pen and paper, you reach for a trusty drawer nearby. It is filled with pens and notepads you’ve received over the years, all inscribed with logos. Have you been in a similar situation?
Then you are familiar with a highly effective marketing trend countless businesses use – promotional products.
An efficient way to grow your business with little effort and long-term impact, promotional products can be distributed in various ways, including via mail or at corporate events with heavy foot traffic.
What is a Promotional Product?
We’ve all seen them. Promotional products are everyday items customised and printed with an organisation’s logo, slogan, or name.
Depending on the specific day-to-day needs of your target audience, your business could implement various promotional products, from bottle openers to custom hats to portable chargers.
According to the British Promotional Merchandise Association, 70% of marketers use promotional merchandise to raise brand awareness.
Think back to a “swag bag” you received on your first day as a new employee or the T-shirt you got when visiting a university campus.
Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of using promotional products, and why many brands opt for this subtle marketing technique.
Cost-Effective Marketing
While not every business can afford a TV commercial, promotional items usually start below $1 per unit made. Promotional products are low-cost per unit items to create and print, with a focus on quantity.
The added benefit of a promotional gift is the positive emotion it can invoke in customers. People feel like they’ve walked away with more than they gave in return.
These items usually last at least months, if not years, and stick around long enough to serve as timely reminders of your brand.
Generate More Leads
If your brand participates in a business conference or an expo, there is a guarantee of potential customers waiting to be impressed.
Don’t be that business owner that thinks that handing out a business card to anyone that walks by will result in quality leads. Think outside the box with promotional products!
With free promotional items, the recipient is introduced to your brand on a high note – as generous and helpful.
After the event, even if recipients of your promotional products had never previously heard of your brand, they will be reminded of it every time they look at the item.
Your logo will remind them of a positive experience. This might persuade them to look further into your brand and generate a new lead.
Increase Brand Recognition
Say a bookstore is looking for a cost-effective way to broaden its reach. At checkout, the cashier inserts a branded bookmark in every one of the customer’s freshly purchased books. The bookstore has anticipated the needs of their loyal customers.
In this case, as the customer reads through their purchased books, they will come across a need for a bookmark. Lo and behold, their book already came with one!
Every time they flick back to continue reading, the bookstore’s name is brought to the customer’s attention.
When recipients frequently come into contact with your logo or brand name, they recognise it as trustworthy simply by sheer exposure.
Promote Brand Loyalty
If clients enjoy the promotional products they got from you, they have every reason to believe that your paid services and products will be just as good, if not better.
Using promotional products is a low-effort technique to ensure that your brand name and logo are widely seen and circulated.
As people begin to recognise your brand at the sight of your logo or name, this boosts brand exposure and trust.
Higher Customer Retention
With long-lasting items that showcase your brand as practical, promotional gifts prove why a customer should choose your services again.
Branded merchandise is not only reserved for new customers, but can also be used to reward existing clients for their customer loyalty.
The positive sentiment they feel for your brand could result in your customers recommending your business to others and broadening your audience.
Given the above reasons why promotional products are a highly effective marketing technique, the decision rests largely on your brand’s target audience.
What items represent your brand best? What items would your customers encounter daily and solve a need that would remind them of your usefulness?
As always, the key is trying several strategies and seeing what works best for your needs.