Insightful Ideas, Inc

‘Promoting your business is an ongoing process that keeps your business visible to prospects and clients. While you should use promotional products to market your business throughout the year, there will be times when you should use them for a specific marketing campaign.  Either way, successful promotional product campaigns require a plan that includes goals and a way to measure your results. Promotional products are useful articles of merchandise imprinted with a company name or message and usually distributed free to a target audience. Most promotional items are inexpensive and designed to be seen over and over again. Popular items range from caps, coffee mugs, and computer accessories to shirts, sports items, and stress relievers. Imprinted products are most effective when they are actively distributed as marketing tools to meet specific goals.

There are many ways you can use these promotional items to market your business. Let’s take a look at some ways to use them.

1. Determine the purpose of the promotional campaign. Are you interested in getting additional business from your current customers, or are you trying to reach prospect new clients? Develop a theme with a message that helps to solidify your company’s name, service or products in your target customer’s mind.

2. Set Your Goals. Set some goals for the type of response you expect to get from your promotional products, especially if you are using them for a specific campaign, like the introduction of a new product or service.  Make sure you can measure your results by asking new customers where they found out about your company.

3. Selecting the right promotional items. Many businesses hand out promotional pens or refrigerator magnets, but there’s something to be said for not being one of the crowd. Choose a promotional product that ties into your line of business or the theme of your promotional campaign. While computer related businesses might hand out items like a mouse pad, a unique idea used by a marketing company we know is handing out light bulb shaped stress relievers with the tag line ‘Bright Ideas for Marketing Your Business.’ Another way to generate ideas is to think about situations in which you might encounter prospects. For example, if you golf often, consider imprinting your company web site and phone number on some golf tees.

Examples of using promotional products. Promoting your company’s Web Site. Every item you choose to promote your business should include your web site address. This includes everything from pens, to magnets, to those jackets you give to your best customers. Giving something small away is also a good way to persuade visitors to your web site to register with you.  While you can give away a special report in exchange for an email address, if you give them something you have to send out, they will also have to give you their mailing address. You might even consider a monthly drawing for a company cap or T-shirt to the lucky winner who registers with your web site. And don’t forget to post the monthly winners on your web site.

Building Trade Show Traffic Participating at a trade shows is one thing, getting people to your booth is quite another. This is a situation to choose a unique item that your visitors will not only hang onto, but others will see and say “Where did you get that? I want one of those!” You probably still have some items in your office that you chased down at the last trade show you attended.

Premiums We’ve all seen the ads on TV that magazines use to entice new subscribers with the offer of a free gift. You can do the same thing by offering a promotional item to anyone that places an order over a certain amount.  This is certainly worth the dollar or two you have to pay for the item, and it just goes in the box when you ship your product to your customer, so there’s no additional postage.

Increasing Customer Loyalty. Do you want to thank customers who have been with you for many years, given you referrals, or made a substantial purchase at your business? Giving them a more substantial promotional item, like a golf shirt with your company logo, would be a great way to thank them for helping your business to grow! Don’t forget to use some of your advertising budget for promotional products.  They will remind your customers to give you a call the next time that they need your product or service.