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5 Proven Promotional Product Ideas You Should Be Using

Posted on by Danielle

Ideas for Promotional Products

What is the key to building brand awareness? Visibility. Consumers have to see that you exist to establish that first building block of trust. Nowadays, with the Internet allowing anyone to look up a company to see if it is legit before ever making a purchase, establishing brand awareness and recognition is more important than ever. The more visible your business becomes, the more likely you are to see new customers coming through the doors or interacting with your brand online.

Brand awareness cannot be achieved with a simple formula. Sometimes, you have to get creative about how you are communicating your message to the public. Whether you own a small business or run a huge corporation, your marketing strategy depends largely on the target audience and industry niche.

Leave a Lasting Impression

Reaching more customers in the brand awareness stage requires a well-researched strategy. On what channels will your target audience have a higher chance of noticing your company’s presence? Should you go for a few bigger ideas or many smaller ones? The goal is to leave a strong impression in customers’ minds so that they start to recognize your business name, logo, and product or service.

Now you just need to figure out how to spend your marketing budget wisely to lead an effective campaign. Maybe money is a little tight and you want to find ways to market the business to a wider audience and save money at the same time.

Promotional products are items that contain your company logo, name, or unique design that is specific to your business. They could be physically or digitally imprinted with the business logo, depending on the promotional item, and then you distribute the item to a potential customer, existing customer, employee, or the general public.

Unique promotional items can be used over and over again, potentially exposing your brand image to large audiences every time. Promotional products are a budget-friendly strategy to increase brand awareness because a one-time purchase can lead to repeat impressions and consistent exposure. While this may not be a “front cover” marketing strategy, forward-thinking companies can use it to establish a presence very effectively.

Ideas for Promotional Giveaways

As mentioned earlier, the best promotional giveaways will only work if you understand your niche and your audience. It is crucial to understand how promotional products might be seen and used by your target customers. Here are a few ideas for the best promotional giveaways to invest in.

Company Apparel

Clothing is one of the most visible forms of promotional items. Stylish custom t-shirts, branded hats, custom polo shirts, pants, sweatshirts, gloves, coats, and even shoes could be notable features for passersby to take a second glance and catch your company logo or name. This type of company swag can be worn over and over, presenting your business to a public audience each time.

Drinkware

Water bottles, plastic cups, koozies, and other drinkware items make for a perfect giveaway. A water bottle and a plastic cup are both eco-friendly choices that discourage the use of paper cups or plastic bottles. Koozies can help keep cold drinks cold, a function that many people love in the spring and summer.

You can order these promo products in bold colors to catch the attention of others and help them notice the logo or design that represents your business.

Items for Well-Being

Health and wellness are popular industries that provide plenty of opportunities for unique promotional products. You could give away lip balm, stress balls, hand sanitizer, or even facemasks to encourage a healthier lifestyle for your team members, loyal customers, and the general public. Many of these options are cheap promotional items that will save your marketing budget as well.

Fun Gadgets

People rely heavily on their devices throughout the day, so fun gadgets and accessories could be the best promotional items to distribute. Consider a bluetooth speaker or a wireless charger as a prize for an excellent employee or a very enthusiastic customer. Flash drives can also be a useful idea for businesses and their employees. Customized phone stands make a great gift as well.

Whatever gadget makes sense for your ideal customer to notice a logo or company name on will work effectively to build brand awareness.

Office Items

Though these unique promo items may not jump off the page as super exciting, they still serve a purpose and most of them are used everyday, exposing your brand even more. Workers always need items like custom notebooks, pens, sticky notes, staplers, mousepads, and BlueTooth keyboards to do their jobs, and if you can create these items with a customized logo that represents your brand, that means extra exposure for the business.

The Strategy Matters

Implementing a promotional product strategy is crucial. Even the best promotional giveaways will accomplish nothing if they are items that your ideal customer will never care about or interact with. Take note of these tips before you execute a promotional product plan.

Where is the Audience?

Are customers of yours more likely to be at trade shows or local charity events? Are you an online brand that uses social media to build an audience or a brick-and-mortar store that requires foot traffic? You need to understand how your audience moves through the world to key in on the most effective promotional products to order and where to distribute them.

Be Creative

Creative promo items can be that much more effective at drawing attention. Few people are going to notice the pen that someone is using, but a lot of people will see their stylish t-shirt that contains a cool design. If you can let the creative employees at your company take a whack at making unique promotional products, then you may see more impressions, and eventually, more sales.

Direct Their Thoughts to You

If you can invest in promotional items that are related to your industry, then this could make your promotional giveaways even more effective.

A food brand could focus on better nutrition with its campaign by giving away water bottles. Companies that offer eco-friendly products can garner interest for their brands with creative promo items like reusable bags or pens made from recycled materials. Unique promotional items can display a brand’s logo while also causing the consumer to start thinking about the industry that the business is in.

Execute the Plan

With a purposeful marketing plan in place for your promotional product campaign, you can start to build brand awareness in key markets. Use the power of social media and your employees to spread the word about giveaways and unique items for people to use. As the number of impressions grows, your sales could follow suit.