I’m sure you are very familiar with what promotional products are. They are the give-away products that you have been given at parades, store openings, and other business events. They’re usually personalized with a business name, logo, slogan, website address, etc. You probably have some lying around your house from coffee mugs, to calendars, magnets, pens, key chains and more.
The thing about using promotional products in your marketing plan is that it works! People love to receive free items and will generally hold onto your item for a long time. Every time they see your item, they are getting a reminder about your business. The following are a list of places to give away your product, and the reason behind it.
To generate some buzz, hold a monthly giveaway on your website and use one of your promotional products as the prize. To be effective, think about your target market and what they may like. If you have a website with information on cooking, you can give away an apron, a measuring cup, or a recipe holder.
Don’t limit yourself to just your website! In addition to holding a monthly giveaway on your own site, find other non-competing websites and offer one of your products as a giveaway for their site. To be effective, the site should have a similar target market. It doesn’t make much sense to contact a bass fishing website and offer them a bracelet.
Upgrade orders: Use promotional items to entice your customers to upgrade their orders. Going back to the cooking website example, you could offer a free apron to anyone who purchases two recipe ebooks. Send the ebooks as digital delivery, and simply send the apron through snail mail.
Non competing businesses can be a great source of referrals and word of mouth advertising. This is a business with a similar target market as yours’, but is one that doesn’t sell the same products as you do. For example, a virtual assistant and a graphic designer are non-competing businesses, as are hair stylists and make-up artists as well as jewelry designers and handbag designers.
Keep an eye out for any trade shows, craft fairs, and other events that may be coming to your area. For example, a graphic designer or web designer may want to attend a computer show. You don’t have to rent a table; simply get a batch of personalized pens and hand them out instead of your business card when you meet a new person. A business card may get lost or thrown out. A pen will come in handy to the person you give it to – and every time they see it, they’ll remember you.
Don’t forget about your local media, such as radio and television stations. Go the extra mile and add some cookies or donuts. Personally, I have heard many radio stations give shout-outs to people who have brought in pizza or other things. And my local tv station features a different business and their promotional item each morning on the local news.
If you are heading out of town, grab some promotional materials and leave them in your hotel room, rest areas, and any other place you can think of. When you return home, you may have requests from every town you visited.
Now that you have some ideas running around in your head, start making some magnets or ordering some other type of promotional item and start passing them out!