Established and new companies often turn to promotional items as a means of giving their brand the exposure it needs to get new customers and flourish. The trick is finding the right promotional items for your company, which is easier said than done. It is important to pick the right product, because it has the important task of carrying the name of your business. If this is done right, you can effectively reach your marketing objectives that have been set out by the campaign that requires promotional items in the first place.
To help guide you through the process of selecting the right promotional items for your business, we’ve set out these five handy tips that you can follow to make the right choice.
1. Think about the target audience
At the heart of any marketing effort is understanding your customer. Knowing whether your marketing target is mostly male or female, their age, their income, their interests, their industry or business, their occupation, or even their capacity to make a buying decision of a product or service like yours — all of these can influence which promotional product would work best for you.
By building up a profile of your target market for a specific campaign, you are in a position to decide what colour items to buy, what type of products would appeal most to the audience in question and if it will be of any interest to your potential customers. By completing this essential planning phase, you are one step closer to effectively achieving your marketing objectives through promotional items.
2. Prioritise longevity
How persistent do you want your message to be? Some products, like clothing, can remain with your customer or prospect for years, even if they are only worn every week or two. On the other hand, something that can claim a spot on a desk can serve as a fitting reminder of your product or service.
Either way, the goal is for the person to keep your company or product top-of-mind so that you are more likely to get the call or sale when the time is right.
3. Make sure they are useful
When you decide to give out free products, it is good practice to make sure that they can be used in scenarios. This tip ties in with the idea of promoting longevity.
If the majority of your customers are, for instance, working in a school, you can give them something they utilise every day so that they will less likely misconstrue your company's real business. When you do not truly know your clients, you might give something useless.
This ought to be avoided because these products will not convey the desired effect. Potential clients won’t use them and are likely to either throw them away or leave it in a drawer and forget about it within a day or two.
On the other hand, if you gave your audience an item that they are bound to find useful, they might use it every day, thereby drawing their attention to your brand frequently. Other than that, it also shows them that you know what their needs are, which installs a sense of trust and reliability in the perception they have of your business.
4. Ensure effective branding of the products
This tip is crucial as it is what makes the promotional products unique and also what enables clients to remember your brand when they use these items. When branding your selected promotional products, you should try to keep your company’s corporate identity (CI) in mind. If your logo’s primary colour is red, you need to make sure that the promotional products you order effectively carry this brand image. This can be done by ordering red products or finding a creative way of incorporating this colour into your promotional items.
Adding your logo to your promotional products is also advisable. Make sure you think about its placement, size and visibility. Keep in mind that clients need to easily see your logo so that they remember your business. It is also helpful to add a URL to your website or an email address on the item so that clients have an easy way of contacting you, should they want to do business with you.
5. Keep the season in mind
Every season is a promotional product season, but from summer fun to holiday cheer, a perfectly-timed item is sure to make your brand appear festive and useful. Since statistics show that retailers make between 20% and 40% of their total yearly income during the holidays, keeping your brand top-of-mind with holiday-themed merchandise is more essential than you may think.
As Christmas is fast-approaching, you might want to consider ordering holiday-themed items so that you can tap into the above statistic which clearly shows that there is money to be made during this period. It’s not called “the most wonderful time of the year” for nothing! Especially after all the ups and downs of 2020, your potential customers might perceive the thoughtfulness of Christmas-goodies as thoughtful, which again communicates something positive about your brand.
Where can you find the right promotional items?
Even though these steps are a nifty guide to follow when you need to decide on which promotional products to buy, we understand that the process can be tedious and overwhelming nonetheless.
At Brandability, we offer a host of quality promotional items which we can also brand according to your company’s brand identity. We deliver products to your door and pride ourselves on a high customer service rating.
To make the process of finding the right items for your business easier, we also have virtual shop assistants on our website who you can chat with if you need advice before placing your order. These assistants are not bots. They are real, living human beings who are very knowledgeable when it comes to promotional items.
To give us a try,
visit our shop and start chatting with our shop assistants today!