Promotional products are a unique tool for grabbing the attention of potential customers by increasing brand awareness, enhancing brand loyalty, promoting a new product, or creating curb appeal at trade show booths. The key is knowing which promotional products will help your business; these products aim to promote your brand’s success. Here are a few helpful tips when shopping for your next promotional product purchase.
Know your Audience
When searching for promotional products as a business, you must purchase promo items in bulk. By knowing your customer base, you can avoid selecting products that will end up in the trash can, pile 13, or have inventory no one wants, leaving you with overstock. That said, you must choose products that appeal to the most significant number of people. Break down your customer base into categories, like veterans, teenagers, retirees, etc.; select the promotional items that best fit these categories. When product selection works in the category types created by you, brand awareness goes further as the gifts given are more appreciated and used most often, which can lead to a conversation piece. This conversation piece can turn this lead into a first-time customer.
Tradeshows
Suppose you will potentially have a wide selection of customer base and are still determining what products to select. Choose a product that is going to represent your company. Some easy promo items for tradeshows are pens, notepads, cups, etc. If you want to get more specific, per the type of business you are, let’s say your company is a gym; you can hand out branded towels or water bottles, a tech company may choose USB sticks or mag cellphone chargers, and a University may hand out lanyards or notepads. The possibilities are endless, so get creative with your selection of promotional items. Sometimes the most crafty of ideas get remembered, talked about, and most often used.
In-Store
Commonly used or seen in brick-and-mortar stores are pens, clothing, calendars, etc. If you test your creativity, you could develop a promotional product that will gain you the most brand awareness. For example, a winery might give away four-bottle branded bags with every four bottles of wine purchased. A computer repair store may give away an RGB mousepad with every computer purchase. It all boils down to knowing your target audience. These crafty ideas will get your clientele talking about your customer service and complimentary promotional items, increasing your profit margin and gaining more business.
Cheap vs. High Quality
When looking for the right promotional product, consider purchasing something other than cheap materials that will break at first use. First impressions make an an-everlasting impression. Suppose your promotional product to promote your brand breaks during the first use. In that case, the last thing you would want is to have that broken product tied back to your business reputation. Word of mouth is the best advertising method. Unfortunately, when negative things can happen, like a broke product, people will talk about their experience with it and your brand. To prevent this headache, do your due diligence and research the products before your tie your brand to them.
You want your clientele to use your products, so durability and useability are essential. You want your time and effort in looking for a product to go to something other than the waste side. If you select products of high standards, you will see people using them and become a brand ambassador for you. We’ve all seen it, colleagues drinking out of branded mugs, wearing company t-shirts, riding a bike sporting a branded backpack. They use these items because they work and become a walking billboard promoting your brand and creating brand awareness.
Let’s Wrap this up
So let’s summarize! You want to know your target audience and select the right product for your target audience. If the audience in question is too large to determine, choose the best product representation of your company to brand. Always select high-quality over expensive materials, so your reputation as a brand isn’t at risk. The goal is to turn your customers into brand ambassadors to help you increase your brand awareness.