The 16 Reasons Promotional Products that are Crucial for any Business

Quick! Think of the top three biggest brand names. What did you think of? McDonald’s? Nike? Apple? Your own company? Maybe not the latter, but every company has to start somewhere. One of the best ways to build brand awareness is to employ the use of promotional products.

Some of the most popular types of promotional products include shirts, hats and jackets, coffee mugs or thermoses, pens, tote bags, and so much more. Whatever you want to put your company logo on can quickly become a promotional product.

One of the best ways to gain the customer’s attention is through the use of promotional products. Here are several ways in which your company can employ the use of promotional products to improve business and build awareness:

Now the 16 Reasons Promotional Products that are Crucial for any Business:

1. Launch New Products or Services

The launch of any new product or service should be both memorable and exciting. Promotional products can be used to both build anticipation and educate the consumer on the release of the new product or service. Rollout new products or services with the use of promotional products to help highlight their new features or benefits.

2. Create Value with Customers

An important aspect of promotional products is that it creates value between the customer and the company. While some may provide more value than others – for instance, a t-shirt would most likely be perceived to provide more value than a pen – it’s important to consider how much you’re willing to invest in promotional products in order to create the value you want or need.

Add a little something extra to a basic product to create more value. Instead of a standard pen, give away pens with built-in LED lights or, instead of a plain tote bag, offer insulated bags.

3. Promote a Charitable Cause

Are you sponsoring a local charity or fundraising event? Use promotional products at the event to create brand awareness. Your options could include anything from providing shirts printed with your company’s logo to all of the participants, or you could even provide engraved coasters if the event entails a sit-down dinner.

Organizations are always in need of sponsorship materials, so look for opportunities to donate items branded with your company name and logo to volunteers. A few causes that you can help to promote could include:

• Discouragement of drug use
• Encouragement of fire safety
• Educating the public on important subjects and causes

Providing promotional items for these charitable events shows potential customers that your company is active within and cares about the community, therefore leaving a great impression.

4. Incentivize Employees

Does your sales team seem to be selling more of your low-margin products or services than your high-margin ones? If your company has found that your sales balance is skewed, use promotional products as a form of an employee incentive program or corporate award program to help put the focus on high-margin sales or on “under-represented” products.

These can also be used as incentives to encourage employee safety, especially for those businesses that operate heavy equipment or deal with harmful chemicals.

5. Promote Company Name or Product Change

Change can be confusing and even slightly daunting for customers, especially loyal ones. Promotional products can help to reassure them that while your company or product name may change, your commitment to their satisfaction remains the same. A promotional products campaign can also help you in educating your customers about the benefits of any new and improved products.

6. Improve Customer Loyalty

Building customer loyalty is key for two reasons: 1) satisfied customers are the best source of quality referrals, and 2) your competitors are constantly targeting your best customers.

What’s the main reason companies lose customers? Believe it or not, it’s not price. It’s not even the quality of the product or service. Nearly 70% of defecting customers mostly admit “perceived indifference” is the reason they take their business elsewhere. With the right promotional marketing products, you can eliminate the perceived indifference and create goodwill amongst your clients and customers.

7. Energize Sales Meetings

The goal of any sales meetings is to educate and motivate your sales force. But how can you reinforce those themes both during — and perhaps more importantly — after the meeting? A promotional product-based employee incentive program can offer a variety of creative and often inexpensive ways to encourage your salespeople. Solutions can range from specially imprinted notebooks and pens to compressed, shrink-wrapped t-shirts.

8. Thank New Accounts

Everyone likes to feel appreciated. One way to show you appreciate new business is to gift your customers a branded promotional item after doing business with one another. Promotional products can pave the way for productive follow-ups and a better sales conversion rate.

9. Provide Trade Show Incentives

If your company travels from trade show to trade show as a vendor, make sure to bring along promotional products. By giving out these products, you’re leaving an imprint of your brand in locations all over the country; further widening your customer base.

10. Re-Instate Inactive Accounts

Promotional marketing products are an excellent way to re-establish contact and rekindle relationships with former customers. Try sending out promotional products to past customers with the incentive to “bring in this product” for a free item or a discount. Getting customers back in your business’ doors gives you the opportunity to show and sell them new products or services.

11. Make Amends for Service Errors

Promotional products are also invaluable in repairing the service shortcomings that sometimes occur, in spite of our best efforts. Gifting an item to a valued customer is a terrific way to build bridges, make amends, and reassure the customer that they are always right — and always wanted.

12. Stay Relevant

“Out of sight, out of mind” is an old saying, but it’s especially true regarding customer relations. Even if your customers average only one transaction with you per quarter, it’s important that you keep your name in front of them on a regular basis.

With countless items on which you can imprint your logo, you can easily find new and innovative ways to remind your customers why they brought their business to you in the first place.

13. Improve Employee Relations

Whether you have a few or several thousand, your employees are one of your most important assets. Promotional products can help build team identity and company morale by allowing you to recognize important employee achievements: years of service, an employee of the week/month/year, even personal days like birthdays and anniversaries.

14. Employ Casual Dress Days

Initiate casual dress days by providing your employees with branded t-shirts, polo’s, jackets, and more. Consider making Fridays casual dress days and allow your employees to wear your company apparel – we promise they’ll love it!

15. Celebrate Milestones

Don’t let opportunities for publicity and exposure pass you by. Celebrate, commemorate and promote events like:

• Company anniversaries
• Your 1,000,000th product shipped
• 1,000,000 safe man hours worked
• Being named to the INC. 500 list
• … and more!
  Look out for any special landmark event and promote it.

16. Appeal to Kids

Parents are bound to take note of any business that treats their children well. Luckily for businesses, it doesn’t typically require much expense to afford promotional products geared towards children.

Something as simple as a balloon, a bouncy ball, or a plastic baseball bat can put a smile on a child’s face. Put your logo on items like these, and every time the kids bring it out to play, the parents will be reminded of how well your company treated their family.

Interested in trade show tents, booths, and displays?

Call 316.264.1321 and US Logo will guide you through the whole process.

Find a Promotional Marketing Company Today!

Promotional products are bound to make an impression because it is marketing that is held in your hand, as opposed to something hurriedly glanced over on a website.

The importance of promotional products stretches far and wide, but finding the value, cleverness, cause, connection, and medium of a promotional product can take your company to new heights, and if done correctly, can lead you to the top of a customer’s mind.

Be clever and be creative! Make sure your promotional product sends the right message and ties into the product or service you are trying to promote.

For all of your promotional marketing needs, check out US Logo, Inc. – a longtime promotional company based out of Wichita, Kansas.
Visit our promotional product page here, give us a call at (316) 264-1321, or visit our showroom at 520 N. West Street!