Promotional products are effective in marketing because the users value them, use them and help in spreading the word about your products. Data from marketing studies shows that four out of five people use a promotional item and value it. However, the entrepreneur has to choose a perfect item to use. Today, people go for branded stationery, bags, badges and even clothes. Irrespective of the item that you choose, there are some considerations to make if you want the strategy to yield positive results. Read on to learn more.
Have a Goal
The first thing is to have a motive for using promotional items. It is easy to list the goals that you need to achieve at the end of the promotion and set strategies to achieve them. According to marketing experts, the main goal is to reach out to the right audience. Therefore, you must know who you are targeting. After this, you will match the right promotional items to the target audience so that they will find these items useful. For instance, the corporate conference audience will appreciate a document folder more than a T-shirt. Likewise, the audience at a sports event will prefer to have a drawstring swag bag for their accessories rather than pens and document folders.
Selecting Trending Items
Everything has a trend, and the same is true with promotional items. Entrepreneurs should be on the lookout for trending items that they can brand and use for their businesses as well. Today, laptop backpacks and tote bags are very popular.
These items together with corporate badges and pins can drive your business forward especially when the right users are targeted. Once you know all the trending promotional items, you can choose those that suit your business, have them made and give them to users.
Choose a Striking Design
After selecting the trending items of your choice, it is now time to do the design work with an expert. First, note that this is the perfect person to give you the best design ideas. Therefore, involve an experienced promotional merchandise branding designer from the beginning to increase the chances of coming up with a product that will stand out.
A striking promotional bag or badge is judged by how the colours look, how it is finished and even its usefulness. Whether you will buy bespoke products and add a brand symbol or message or make custom-made products, the final product should be striking.
Add Value to the Items
It is easy for a promotional item to find its way to a dustbin immediately if it is not useful. To be certain that this does not happen, the marketing team or the owner of a business should add value to the items to make them useful.
For instance, recycled tote bags made of strong reusable materials entice your clients to use them on a daily basis. This is also the case with a laptop bag that is big enough to accommodate all the user’s work accessories.
Make Them Durable
The idea is to expose your brand name as much as possible. Now that you have added value to give people a reason to use the promo items, they should last a long time. Badges and pins made of metal are the best because someone can wear them for years without any fading. If the designer and the printer have kept durability in mind, then the promo items will be effective for a long time.
Cost Vs. Value
The common adage that cheap is expensive applies here. If you go for cheap promo products, it might not work well for you. However, it does not necessarily mean that the expensive ones are the best. Therefore, it is prudent to weigh value against money.
First, the promotional products should not be expensive especially if you are a beginner, but they should have the qualities that we already discussed. Ultimately, it is better to have a few valuable items that will be distributed to selected users and create an impact than many low-quality promo items with no impact at all.
Keep Other Potential Customers in Mind Too
Promotional products are consumed or used by the user while they advertise the brand to many others. As you focus on making these products useful and attractive to the users, consider all the potential customers who will see them as well. With this in mind, their needs should be incorporated into the design too. Most importantly, make the logo and any writing on the product as visible as possible. Remember that this will often be seen when users are moving rather than standing.
Final Word
When looking for the best promotional items to use for your business, it is clear that the intentions should be to have items that will compel people to use them so that as many potential clients can see them as possible. Quality, usability and durability are key considerations. But this should not be so costly that it takes a toll on the business. When there is a balance, this strategy will work perfectly.