Successful Promotional Products to Use for Your Business

If you’re stuck for ideas on how to increase your customer base, improving your marketing strategy could be a good idea. And if you want to leave a lasting impression on your clients, you may want to consider creating and designing promotional products. Everyone likes something that is “free”, and by offering a small gift or product for choosing you over a competitor, you could help your business to stand out from the crowd. And by getting clients to choose your product once, they will discover how great your business is and hopefully keep coming back for more.

A lot of business owners think these gifts are very costly, aren’t worth the effort and are pricier than traditional marketing methods, however they don’t need to be. Here are some steps to get you started on creating and designing promotional products that won’t break the bank.

What are your aims?

There are plenty of reasons why business owners decide to create and use promotional products. You will need to determine what you wish to achieve by using these products, and from there choose a promotional product best suited to your purpose. Whether it’s to gain more customers, attract more business connections or to advertise at a tradeshow, you will need to determine why you need them. For example, if you’re looking to increase brand awareness, items such as calendars, mugs or t-shirts are a great idea.

Do your research

When deciding on your product, it helps to take a look at your competitors, what promotional products they use, and how effective they are. But remember, you still need to do what works for your business, and ensure you don’t copy them directly. You want to ensure your promotional product works as a reminder for YOUR business, not someone else’s. Taking a look at a competitor’s promotional products can help inspire you and give you a good idea of what appears to be working (and what isn’t). Remember to stay original and don’t use “cheap” items as gifts. This will only serve to give the wrong impression of your business.

Establish who your target market is

When you’re looking at creating promotional products to hand out, you need to completely understand and know who your target market is. This will make your life a lot easier when deciding on what to use, when, and how you will implement your plans. By really determining who you’re aiming for, their age, location, and even specifics such as gender and work status, you can ensure your time and money isn’t wasted on your products, and choose something both suitable and effective.

Get feedback

If you’d like to please your customers just that little bit more, seek their feedback. Asking them to complete surveys or opinions on your website or social media can help to guide you in the right direction, by knowing what your customers really want. After all, if you give them what they want, you’re more likely to see a bigger increase in marketing and sales than if you don’t. If your customers ask for something that may be too expensive or risky, consider giving them a part of their request with an added item such as a gift certificate, or suggest those changes are in your future plans. When customers see that you listen to them, they’ll feel valued and want to support your business further.

Choose wisely

When choosing gifts, choose wisely. You need to choose items that are going to work well with your brand, target audience and products. The item should be relevant to your business and the type of service you provide. For example, if you run a gym, chocolate bars are probably not the best idea. However, protein shakers or water bottles may be a better option, as they can be used before hitting the gym or during a workout.

Providing gifts that are relevant to your business, as well as being what your customers actually want, will certainly make the recipients feel more special. Depending on who your target market is, you need to choose appropriate promotional products for them. If your target market are teenage boys, makeup bags and glitter nail polish might not be the best choice in gift. This is the reason why determining your target market is a very important step in the process.

Share your gifts with your employees

You can use gifts to gain some feedback by providing them first to your employees. They’ll be able to use them, and test them out, and keep them for their own use. They’ll be able to inform you if there happen to be any issues with the items, but also let you know if they’re working well.

They can also be used as rewards or incentives for your employees when they do great work, which only furthers to improve your relationships with workers, and making them feel more validated and loyal.

Follow up on your gifts

If you have a system in place where you can track current and new customers who have purchased from you and have received one of your promotional products, you can use information to ask how their promotional product has worked for them and how has their purchase been. This is also a key time to talk to them about any upcoming events and promotions, and encourage them to visit you once again. There is nothing wrong with a follow up call or email. In fact, this shows that you care about the state of your business, and are looking to improve in any way possible. It also shows you care about your customers and clients, and what they think of your business.

Whether you want to increase your client base or just want to raise awareness of your brand, there is a great opportunity to be had with providing promotional products. It’s a chance to be a little more creative with your marketing strategy, as well as get to know your clients a little better.