Promotional items are crucial for any business

Promotional products have been in use as a cost-effective marketing tactics for years. Whether new businesses or big enterprises, these giveaways are marketers’ favorite. Why choose promotional items as part of your marketing strategy? Promotional items play an instrumental role in brand development, fostering loyalty, and promoting growth. They aid in both financial and intrinsic growth by associating quality and trustworthiness.

Businesses need promotional products as a cost-effective means of reaching out to more potential customers. This is a low-cost marketing method to drive customers. Even established global players resort to this marketing strategy. For small businesses like startups, promotional products help cut their marketing budget and still draw people’s attention.

• In the U.S, 8 out of 10 consumers have one to 10 promotional products
• Six out of 10 such consumers keep promotional products with them for up to two years.
• 85% of people do business with the advertiser after receiving a promotional item.
• 31% of the U.S consumers own a promotional bag.
• 89% of consumers can recall the advertiser even two years after receiving a promotional product.
• 63% of consumers give away their promotional products when not needed.

The importance of promotional products for business promotion can be gauged from these stats. According to a study by PPAI, 94% of people remember where they received a promotional product gift. The study reveals that 83% of consumers like to get promotional products that has an advertising message. Those who receive the products, 85% of them do business with the advertiser. Furthermore, 58% of the surveyed consumers said they keep the gift items from one year to four years. That’s up to 4 years of your brand in front of your potential customers.

Other important stat revealed by the study is that 89% of the consumers said they could recall the advertiser’s name or company name for 24 months after getting the items. Furthermore, promotional products draw whopping 500% more referrals from customers who are satisfied with the gift items. These crucial stats lay emphasis on the significance of promotional products for marketing and brand recognition. That’s name recognition. Name recognition is important when consumers need a product or service as they will look first for familiar brands.

For better results, marketers use branded promotional products that the recipients can use for many months. Such quality products help keep consumers engaged with a brand. This means that one-time distribution of the gift items are good enough to engage customers with your brand for months. The best part is that they get passed around. Look at your pen collection, how many of them have names of businesses that you have never visited, yet?

A rule of thumb most of the marketers follow for promotional product campaign is to give away items of daily use. These gifts may be pens, calendars, mouse pads, umbrellas, water bottles, lip balms and so on. However, experienced marketers work out a creative strategy. They pick the items that are not only useful but unique and of high quality for a broader impact. They also try to, when possible, choose promotional items that compliment their business. For example, a business that deals with automobiles giving out keychains or tire pressure gauges or an Accounting Firm providing calculators with their business information prominently displayed.

Reasons to use promotional items as part of your marketing strategy include:

Low-Cost and Effective Marketing

Most of the manufacturers of promotional products keep the prices very low for mass distribution. Prices of the gift items are low but the impact is high on the recipients.

According to Sageworld.com, personalized coffee mugs, in particular, are effective advertising as 57% of people were able to recall the advertiser on a mug. The products thus deliver a great value for your investment. You will win your customers with a simple giveaway.

Playing on Human Emotions

Promotional products play on the human psyche and emotions. You see, everyone across the world feels compelled to reciprocate or return the favor when given a gift. This equation also applies to promotional products. For instance, a calendar, cup, or pen will serve as a living reminder of a brand’s generosity. 

The reciprocity rule will encourage consumers. This rule remains consistent across all cultures and traditions in the world. The law of reciprocity gives birth to an impulse to return the favor. It encourages customers to foster relations with a brand, engage with its image, and seek out its products and services.

Instant Brand Recognition

Brand recognition implies that the consumers can identify your company and its products or services immediately when they spot your logo. For example, people can immediately recognize McDonald’s fast food business on seeing its yellow arch logo.

Your gift of promotional items to the customers helps them in remembering and recognizing your business. This is one of the key reasons to distribute promotional items. An article published in technomarketinginc.com states that 89% of consumers can recall the advertiser of a promotional product they’d received in the last two years.

Increased Exposure

Gift items are in use for most of the time and are in front of eyes. For example, the consumers will wear your gift of a trendy t-shirt for many days. Or, they will sip from your tea or coffee mug in their zoom meetings. Such freebies are an excellent way for increasing your business exposure on daily basis. These items can become walking billboards for your brand.

Brand Awareness

All businesses seek to boost brand awareness so their consumers can recognize them and differentiate them from competitors. Brand awareness is a vital prerequisite for enhancing sales and revenues and ushering in exponential growth. Businesses rely on promotional items to ensure positive memories and an improved likelihood of being remembered by their consumers. 

Consumers who receive promotional items are more likely to remember the product, the brand, and the brand message. A fixture, be it a pen or calendar, carrying your brand logo and message will reinforce your presence and brand offerings. It will serve as a reminder of your products and services, encouraging the consumer to interact and engage with your brand. 

Works like a business card

Your promotional products also function more or less in the same way as business cards, but with better results. When distributing your gift items related to your business and industry, you are actually introducing your business to the potential consumers. According to Marketingsherpa.com, 71.6% of attendees who received a promotional product remembered the name of the company that gave them the product.

Promotes Customer Loyalty

Your customers’ should be purchasing your company’s products frequently when needed. Marketers spend more additional resources to build a solid base of loyal customers. They use promotional products to drive customer loyalty in a short period. Include promotional items with every shipment as a thank you. Leave promotional items at every customer visit.

Make sure that your promotional merchandise is of high-quality standards and branded. People will associate premium quality of the gift items with your quality of business. This will help a lot in keeping the first time buyers of your products forever. An article published in Risinghillmarketing.com reveals customers scored a promotional product 52% higher than a letter.