Individuals do a significant portion of their shopping online today. Before the global pandemic, more people were choosing to shop online. During lockdowns, many people found they had no option but to make purchases online. Face-to-face interactions were limited, and any interactions that took place in person were kept to the shortest time possible. While many people are returning to their previous habits, e-commerce sales are expected to continue to rise. For this reason, businesses might assume they no longer need to invest in promotional products. Nothing is further from the truth.
Why Promotional Products Are Needed
Promotional products provide businesses with a way to boost brand awareness while creating new opportunities for the business. The majority of adults use a minimum of one promotional product on a regular basis. Of those men and women that do, 85 percent say they will buy from the company that provided the product in the future. When printing for your business, include one or more promotional products to see a good return on investment and more recognition for the wholesale printing company.
What Qualifies as a Promotional Product?
Any product that features a company’s brand is considered a promotional product. Pens continue to be a popular item passed out by companies, and many organizations distribute shirts or sports balls with their name and logo. They present these items at various events, including concerts, sporting events, festivals, conferences, and more. The company may also share these items with employees to ensure their brand is seen by more people. What are some benefits associated with these products?
Cost-Effective Brand Marketing
Digital ads capture a consumer’s attention for a few seconds. The attention span of a human today is approximately eight seconds. The viewer reads an e-mail and deletes it or views a digital ad on a webpage before moving on to the next page. Branded products, in contrast, capture their attention because they can physically hold them and actually use them. The product adds value to their lives so they use it. When they do, they share the company details with anyone around them. This exposure allows others to learn about the business, which means the return a business sees from one promotional product may continue for weeks, months, or years.
Build Relationships
Promotional products help build relationships. For example, a business may present clients with a luxury gift branded with the company information. When it does, the customer feels appreciated and will likely return to the business in the future. The gift establishes a personal connection between the two parties. Don’t reserve these gifts for important clients, however. Every person feels valued when they are presented with a free gift, and a company may find they gain a new customer when they present an individual with a gift they weren’t expecting.
Increase Brand Loyalty
Micro-influencers on social platforms impact consumer behavior. Companies might choose to send one or more of these social influencers branded items to share with their followers. The blogger or social influencer uses the product and shares their experience with the followers. Social media serves as the modern form of word-of-mouth advertising and this advertising remains the best method when it comes to business lead generation. Companies that provide free products to social influencers find brand loyalty grows, as consumers want to be like those they admire.
Establish a Physical Connection
Digital advertising can be seen, but it can’t be touched. Promotional products provide consumers with a tangible representation of the business, which helps to establish a connection between the business and the consumer. Being able to see and touch the item makes the company more memorable. Marketers have yet to recreate this connection with digital advertising, so businesses offering promotional products gain an edge over competitors who do not offer these items to customers.
The Modern Business Card
Business cards are becoming a thing of the past. Some people continue to pass them out, but many people enter contact information directly into their mobile devices rather than taking a business card. Promotional products serve as a type of business card that can be used regularly rather than sitting in a drawer until the contact information is needed. The consumer automatically brings to mind the company that provided the product when they need something that the business offers. They may not recall the person that presented them with a business card in the same situation.
Brand Identity
Employees enjoy receiving promotional products as much as customers do. The use of promotional products in the workplace helps to build staff loyalty. Staff members enjoy social brand identity and love to let others know they work for a great company, one in which they work as a team and remain motivated.
The company benefits from the distribution of promotional products to employees because it receives free advertising every time one of the employees uses the product around others. The employees serve as brand ambassadors in situations such as these.
Commitment to Quality
Quality promotional products show consumers the business is committed to providing high-quality items. If the company doesn’t skimp on free products, they won’t on the products customers pay for either. The customer knows their money will be well spent when they purchase from the business.
Designing Effective Promotional Products
When creating promotional products, don’t overwhelm the consumer. Provide them with the information they need and nothing more. Excessive information on a promotional product can lead to the message getting lost in the noise. The company name, logo, and website address are often enough to obtain an excellent return on investment.
Use the brand colors when creating these products. Style consistency remains of great importance in branding a business, so don’t change colors here. If the product you wish to use for promotions isn’t available in your brand colors, choose a neutral color and leave the branding to the text and logo.
Choose products recipients use on a daily basis. Pens served as the ideal option for decades, but people rely more on their mobile devices today. Consider travel mugs, flash drives, and other items they can take with them wherever they go.
Include promotional products in your marketing strategy. Companies that do so find they see a good return on investment even as many of their competitors discontinue the use of these items. Don’t follow in their footsteps, as they will miss out on excellent branding opportunities. You don’t want to make this mistake.