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.

The post Just How Effective are Promotional Gift Items? appeared first on Upper Case.

Know your objective – even if an active response is not required, be honest and direct about what you are trying to accomplish. If a reply is desired, pinpoint the exact action you want the reader to take, build your response device first then coordinate other media around it. Keep your wording clear, concise and user friendly. Follow the time-tested formula AIDA:

1. Get ATTENTION
2. Arouse INTEREST
3. Stimulate DESIRE
4. Call for ACTION

Whatever your objective, don’t forget to ask for action, whether it’s simply to fill out and mail a reply card or to consider a new product or service.

Once you’ve determined the desired results of your campaign, take advantage of the many features of direct mail that other media can’t match. Direct mail is a purely physical presentation, utilising a myriad of visual and tactile senses to reach the reader. For example, direct mail is the only method for introducing powerful attention getters in the form of novelties like cut-outs, pop-ups, odd shapes and patterns or actual samples of your product. Direct mail also offers total flexibility in production, with no limitations on space or format, use of colour etc.

The next best thing to personal contact, direct mail is the most effective medium for conducting test marketing or research on your potential customers. When co-ordinated with direct email and/or telesales, direct mail can be a powerful influence on your marketing efforts.

Through the use of action devices like business reply cards, postage-paid envelopes, coupons or surveys, direct mail can stimulate sales, increase your customer base, provide valuable information, generate sales leads and a host of other benefits.

Remember that direct mail advertising is still the only way to pinpoint and individually reach your market. Make the most of its ability to deliver a mass audience message in a way that feels absolutely personal and confidential

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We at Upper Case know, that running a flourishing business requires a lot of decision-making and activities. It is as if you have to play with several marketing strategies at appropriate times to stay ahead in this competitive world. Planning the right strategy and deciding the best time to use it are some of the important decisions. Of all the advertising and marketing strategies, you can never doubt on the efficacy of promotional items.

Such small gifts provide many benefits and successfully take your business to towering and new heights. If you are someone dealing with sales and marketing business, you are very well aware about the importance of brand recognition and brand visibility. Following we present you the five biggest benefits of promotional products:

1. Increases Traffic during Trade Shows

These products are generally more helpful in generating or increasing traffic during trade shows and make target customers flock your stall. By distributing, these gift items you can attract the fancy of people and thus encouraging them to visit your stall. For further increasing your sales and informing people about the products and services offered by your company, you can affix a pamphlet or brochure to the gift item. This will make other people curious and in turn, more people will flock to your stall.

2. Making Impression

Another benefit of handing out these products is the retention of interest. Most of these products are durable and useful items. Gifts like pen, designer boxes, umbrellas, caps etc. imprinted with the name and logo of your company serves your purpose of promoting brand name for a longer time. These imprinted logo and name continually reminds the recipients of how they received the gift item in the first place. This results into the retention of your company’s product and services in the mind of your target customers.

3. Promotes your Company through Corporate Gifts

Whenever your company celebrates an important milestone like achievement of a special objective, acceptance of awards or anniversaries, you can efficiently use the occasion as an opportunity to promote the products and services offered by your organisation through these gift items.

4. Free Samples as Promotional Products

Everybody loves to receive gifts. If you have launched a new product in the market than you can catch the fancy of your potential customers by gifting them free samples of the product so that they experience themselves the goodness and effectiveness of your new product. This is an affordable step providing an effective marketing strategy and thus, you do not have to depend on the services of other manufacturing companies to promote your product.

5. Incentives for Sales Team

Contrary to one of the most popular beliefs, promotional products are for not only clients and customers alone. Giving these gifts to sales team not only encourages them to work harder but also motivates them to generate positive results.

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