Almost anything can be turned into a promotional gift – the only limit is your imagination! From pens, rubber ducks and snow globes to mouse mats, stress toys and car stickers – if you can put your logo on it, it will do the job perfectly! In some instances, the more quirky the promotional gift, the more memorable the brand!

The use of promotional gifts has shown to significantly increase sales and the awareness and perception of a particular brand. The question is – how do promotional gifts help companies to do this? Here are some interesting ways promotional gifts can help your business.

1. Attract Customers

Some reports have shown that if a promotional gift is offered with the purchase of an item, customers will often opt to purchase this item over one that does not come with a gift. Let’s put that into context. The idea of a free gift has attracted the attention of a potential customer and they have changed their buying habits to purchase your product and you now have the opportunity to retain that new customer, therefore increasing your sales level.

2. Exposure

Most recipients of promotional gifts say that they keep the gift for a year or more. This means that the recipients of your promotional gifts have a longer exposure to your company name or logo that they would not have with a billboard or flyer. Also, people that come into contact with the recipient may also see the promotional gift and it may stick in their minds also, widening your target audience even more and therefore increasing sales.

Not only that, but many people say that rather than throw a promotional gift away, they are actually more likely to donate it, increasing your business’ reach even more!

3. Creates a Good Impression

They say first impressions are the most important and this is especially the case with a promotional gift. Receiving a free gift from a company immediately sends a good message to potential customers and creates a real feel-good factor. This sentiment is then brought to mind when the recipient thinks of your business as the favourable impression is remembered. Giving people a promotional gift that is useful such as a mug, pen, magnet or reusable shopping bag, goes that one step further in creating a great impression of your business.

So, as you can see, promotional gifts are a fantastic way to increase your sales and bring your brand to a wider audience. They are a powerful marketing tool and one that has definitely stood the test of time. That’s why companies all around the world continue to turn to this long-standing marketing favourite to improve their sales performance and get their brand out into the public domain.

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Flashing Santa Pens

Promotional flashing Santa pens can be used for all festive campaigns and events through the Christmas period. Branded with your company’s logo or design, these ballpoint pens can make great promotional gifts and will not bust the budget in terms of their cost. These pens are a fun and festive way to help you advertise your brand throughout the season in a fun way.

Desktop Advent Calendar

A desktop Advent calendar is the perfect way to remind your customers of their affiliation to you with a daily chocolate in the days leading up to Christmas. These calendars can be customized to your own design or you can use a template with your logo printed on them, whichever you decide. They are an excellent promotional gift with that little added festive fun factor which is exactly what you need when choosing a promotional gift at Christmas.

Snow globes

The classic snow globe is an extremely festive promotional gift which can be given by a variety of companies. Timeless and fun, promotional snow globes are the perfect marketing tool for your company as each one can be designed to display your company logo or festive message in a way that is certain to grab attention.

Stress Santa

A personalized stress Santa ball is a squeezable foam ball shaped into the head of Santa and is a fun yet seasonal promotional gift that will definitely get your marketing campaign moving. A Christmas stress ball toy is perfect for the festive season and will make your clients think fondly of you every time they give Santa a squeeze!

Boxed Mince Pie

Promotional boxed mince pies would make a unique promotional Christmas gift. With a single mince pie in a box printed all over with your logo, you will make sure you are fondly remembered this Christmas. Following the same idea, you could give boxed cookies, a slice of Christmas cake or some Christmas cookies. Everybody loves something tasty at Christmas!

Giving away some promotional gifts at Christmas is not only a good way of promoting your company and its products, but it is also a great way to promote some festive cheer amongst your customers and any prospective customers. Remember to keep it as unique as possible in order to make you stand out from the crowd!

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However, being so ubiquitous and inexpensive, promotional products are often used less effectively than they could be. Many businesses take an ad-hoc approach to promotional product campaigns, implementing them as an afterthought to supplement a separate campaign rather than integrating it from the beginning.

For many of the businesses that utilise promotional products there are a number of ways in which they could be using this form of advertising more efficiently.

Be Selective

It can be tempting to select a promotional product on the basis of cost or how quickly it can be turned out. However, it is important to think about what item will work best with your company’s ethos, branding, services or products.

Remember that the items you choose are representing your brand. Consider if they fit the tone and style of your branding and the message you want to send to your customers.

Make it Integral

A promotional product approach that does not compliment your overall marketing strategy is not as effective as it could be. Be sure to integrate promotional products in the development phase of a campaign rather than leaving them as an after thought.

Consider what type of promotions you expect to be doing and where you will have a physical presence. If sales personnel are visiting clients should they have promotional items with them? If so this needs to be prepared in advance.

If you will be promoting at trade fairs, consider what type of products will be most effective there. If you are about to release a new mobile application a promotional tablet cover or mobile holder might be more effective than a mug or a pen.

Schedule It

It is a good idea to have a particular time of year when you evaluate your promotional marketing strategy and budget for the forthcoming period. This way you can look at any upcoming events over the year that you will want to have promotional materials prepared for. You may even be able to get a deal from your supplier by ordering in a quieter period rather than just before a trade fair when everyone is putting in last minute orders.

You can then review the success of the campaign and determine how you will adjust your promotional product strategy year on year.

Measure your ROI

Like with any other marketing investment you should take steps to measure your ROI. However, unlike other forms of advertising such as on-line advertising it can be difficult to record conversions from promotional products.

QR codes, unique URLs and unique phone numbers are one way to determine effectiveness but these can be inconsistent. Follow-up questionnaires  or emails can be an useful way of not only finding out the ROI of promotional products but also of sustaining contact with a customer or client.

Think Outside the Box

Some standards will always work such as your brand name on a pen. Everyone can use a pen. But there are more elaborate ways to not only promote your brand but associate your brand with positive ideas.

Reusable shopping bags are a great example of this. You don’t need to be a “Green” industry to support recycling or a cleaner environment. Using a green message rather than a corporate slogan also allows customers to look on you and your brand more favourably.

Consider what items will take your promotional product out of the office and into the customer’s day to day life, thereby increasing exposure and creating a favourable attitude towards the advertiser.

Promotional products are an inexpensive and straightforward advertising method that will be effective regardless of how your business uses them. But with intelligent and strategic application they can become may times more effective than they already are.

photo credit: steveleenow via photopin cc

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The use of promotional gift items is a tried and tested method for creating brand awareness as well as providing recurrent promotion. However, the temptation is often to spend that money on a marketing approach that has a more demonstrable ROI even if that ROI is less.

That can be understandable, particularly when those expenditures have to be explained to an accounts department at the end of the year. Ultimately, this approach only does yourself and your business a disservice. Business benefits from the most effective marketing, not the marketing that is easiest to account for.

Fortunately, the PPAI conducted a study into the effectiveness of promotional gift items. Some of the figures in the study might surprise even the biggest proponents of Promotional Gift Items.

Action and Reaction

Two of the main areas the study looked at were how consumers felt about promotional products and how they acted on promotional products. According to the study 83% of those interviewed liked to receive a promotional product with an advertising message. Almost half said they would like to receive them more often and 38% said they felt that promotional products worked as a continuous reminder of the advertiser.

Those surveyed were also asked how they would respond to promotional products being handed out at an event, trade show or shopping centre. While only 23% said they would take any type of promotional product, 63% said they would take a product that they found to be useful. This illustrates how important utility is in the deployment of promotional products.

This is why items such as pens are so consistently effective. But taking note of the weather forecast could make a promotional umbrella particularly effective on a rainy day.

Interestingly only 5% said they would take an object primarily because they found it to be attractive. Just 3% said they would never pick up a promotional product meaning promotional gift items can potentially be effective on 97% of people.

Continuous Promotion

The final part of the study looked at the persistence of promotional gift items. Respondents to the survey were asked to recall the product, the advertiser and the message of a promotional gift they had received in the previous two years.

Astonishingly, 76.2% of respondents were able to recall all three pieces of information. This figure illustrates one of the key benefits that promotional gifts have over other forms of promotion: staying power.

To show how this works those conducting the study asked about promotional items respondents had in their house. 55% had a promotional item in their bedroom or storage space, 74% had an item in their work space and a huge 91% said they had at least one promotional item in their kitchen.

Promotional items engender affinity with customers by giving them a gift for free. They also serve to continuously reinforce your branding and company messaging, especially if that promotional item is the mug your customer drinks coffee out of every morning.

The diversity of promotional capabilities that branded gifts provide means they really cannot be left out of a comprehensive marketing campaign.

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