What is the best way to increase awareness for your business? That depends on your industry, your target audience, and several other factors. Email marketing might work perfectly for some companies. Others may want to focus on running social media campaigns.
Whatever strategy a business adopts to attract new and previous customers, a successful brand awareness campaign can elevate the number of quality impressions that a company makes. The more people that know about a brand, the greater chance it has to increase revenue.
What Are Promotional Products?
One brand awareness strategy that you may not have considered in the past is the use of promotional products to increase recognition of your business. This method involves ordering everyday items that people can use that are printed with your logo, company name, or other information specific to your establishment.
When you give these promotional items away, more people can see your brand’s presence whenever the recipient wears or uses the item. This is a great way to expose the brand to new audiences and can be particularly effective at increasing recognition in your local area. This one-time purchase gives you easy access to more audiences. Unsure what promotional products to consider?
Common Types of Promotional Items
There are so many options for custom products that can promote your venture in the public sphere. They range from incredibly cheap office supplies to far more expensive yet high-quality items. Here are a few ideas you may want to consider to increase brand awareness for your business.
1. Stress Balls
Starting out small, stress balls can be a great giveaway to your employees or for free at events. They are the perfect desk accessory, allowing people to relieve a little bit of tension during the day, all while promoting your business.
2. USB Drives
Another popular promotional item that is very useful, especially for workers, is a custom USB drive. Print your logo on the side of it and you have a mini promotional item every time some files need to be transferred. Plus, they can be purchased for a relatively low cost.
3. Water Bottles
One of the most popular promotional items is eco-friendly water bottles. They encourage hydration, can contain a custom design, and help people implement an environmentally friendly practice into their routines by avoiding plastic water bottles.
4. Tote Bags
An extremely useful promotional product is the tote bag. Drawstring bags are another environmentally friendly option that can help people carry their items. Tote bags and drawstring bags are both on the larger side and are therefore very noticeable to others. Slap a good-sized logo on the material and you have ongoing brand awareness from one initial purchase.
5. Common Office Supplies
When in doubt, and looking to save some money, common office supplies are a great option for your product promotional marketing plan. You can give promotional product prizes to coworkers or loyal customers such as pens, staplers, notebooks, mousepads, or other similar items.
6. Clothing
One of the most popular promotional products to invest in is clothing. Of all the various options, articles of clothing are a stellar way to promote businesses. T-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, and even pants can be printed with a customized message that lets consumers know about your business. What is more immediately noticeable on a person than their clothing?
7. Face Masks
It seems that there will always be a need for face masks going forward. Whether there are mandates that return, visits to hospitals, or just personal safety concerns, brands have the option to order masks with a custom logo as a budget-friendly promotional product.
A Giveaway Strategy
Promotional products are not automatic winners. You could invest in hundreds of items that immediately catch the eye of potential consumers, but if you don’t know how to use them to target your ideal audience, your marketing plan will miss the mark. You need to strategize how these popular promotional items will grow awareness in the right sectors, leading to growth.
What Channels Reach Your Target Audience?
Channels usually refer to a marketing medium, such as emails, social media, or direct mail. In this case, it refers to their physical interactions. As they go about their day, where might they see your business promotional products and start to learn about you? Do they work in an office? Would they be at a trade show? Do they have children? Are they frequent visitors to sporting events? What is their involvement in local charitable or community events?
Knowing the habits of your target audience can inform what promo items you should invest in and where to give them away.
What Events Can You Bring Promo Products to?
As mentioned previously, what types of events would bring a lot of visibility to your brand if you had popular promotional items to give away? Other business owners that you want to attract can be found at trade shows. Families with young children may be attending festivals and parades in your service area. A charity half marathon will bring in athletes that might love prizes like t-shirts, water bottles, or tote bags.
Consider what events would make for great giveaways that will spread your message to more consumers.
How Can You Leverage Loyal Customers?
Your fans can be your greatest asset when it comes to building brand awareness. When a loyal customer has the chance to be a part of your story, they can become a fantastic brand ambassador that will serve as a promotion for your business. What custom items that contain your logo would loyal customers be excited to display or use in public?
Craft your plan for purchasing promotional items with your previous customers in mind.
Let Your Employees Know They Are Valued
Your most important resource as a business owner will always be people. Your team members want to feel valued and that they are a part of the company’s success. By giving away these best-selling promotional items as gifts to your team members, you can show them that you value their presence while also giving them a chance to help grow the business.
Maybe they will use those coffee mugs, tote bags, or t-shirts among their friends or family, and who knows where the next customer will come from?
Quality Over Quantity
One quality promotional product is better than ten unpopular ideas. Beautifully-designed t-shirts could beat out a thousand uninteresting pens. That one item will be used over and over again, whereas boring promotional items may never see the light of day.
As you craft your promotional item strategy, keep all of these things in mind. Know where consumers are most likely to see these popular promotional items, consider events to host a giveaway, leverage your loyal customers and team members, and focus your budget on quality promotional products.
In addition to his work as CEO of rushIMPRINT, Dan contributes content to our blog. He’s been with us for more than two decades and has a real passion for helping customers grow their business by enhancing their branding and marketing. The power of branded merchandise is his area of expertise and he’s happy to bring you industry news so you can discover the best way to make an impression.