The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a wide range of challenges for all businesses. You might be facing a lot of uncertainties due to decreasing demand levels and adjustments to your marketing timelines, which have resulted in the accumulation of too much product stock.A typical response may be a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction like throwing a big sale – however, this can damage your brand in the long run. Instead, utilising promotional marketing is an effective strategy to remain connected with your audience and help spur demand again.Creative promo marketing provides strong exposure by offering both potential and current customers tangible items – helping them remember your business both during and long after this crisis.Here are some ideas to increase sales and move some of that extra stock by combining your offline promo campaigns with online promotions.
Social media competitions
Customers are relying on social media now more than ever. They spend hours looking for information and entertainment online- this is an opportunity! You can interact with followers online by hosting social media competitions like “Spin the digital wheel”, a “photo caption contest”, “best comment competition” or “monthly draws”. Your branded items and extra stock can then be used as prizes for winners.
Engagement incentives
Rewarding people for engaging with you can help drive them forward along their buying journey.
Promotional products are effective engagement incentives because they allow you to include your personalised branding or logo on items that customers will most likely use. For example, a mug, calendar or diary.Do you need some ideas? Here are some suggested promotional materials you can tailor for your business.
Gifts for customer retention
To foster trust and loyalty, offering quality promotional items such as a cheese board or printed book is a smart way to strengthen long-term relationships. It’s also an indirect way of showing appreciation.More than anything, your audience likes the idea of receiving gifts from you. These items can help them become brand ambassadors by making them feel special.
Gifts with purchase for online orders
How can you encourage customers to purchase more products and services? By providing extra value! Offering them free promotional materials with their online orders can encourage them to increase their spend.
Staff gifts
With isolation and people still working remotely or from home, staff need to be looked after as well. You may consider sending them Working From Home kits, promo product hampers and other branded stock.This nice surprise will help them remain engaged with your brand and increase loyalty to your business while helping you put excess stock to good use.Promotional marketing is an effective way to increase brand awareness and capture more sales using the power of tangibility, especially during this period. Whether it’s a shirt, a planner or a bag – seeing your brand on useful items makes people feel more attached and closer to your business and the solutions you provide.See some more promo marketing ideas here.
But what return does promo marketing really offer?
See for yourself here, by using our Promotional Marketing ROI Calculator.
Want to build your own promotional marketing campaign to increase sales?
No worries. We can guide you step-by-step through our free Plan A Promotion service. Our team can be an extension of your Marketing department. Leave it to us, and we’ll come up with a creative and tailored solution for your business.
At Red Tomato, we take your marketing strategy to the next level by providing you with innovative promotional products that serve a real purpose – elevating your brand and increasing your returns. Contact usdirectly to discuss your promotional marketing strategy and we’ll work on getting you only the right products for the right clients at the right time! Phone: 1300 776 733Email: sales@redtomato.com.au
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has challenged businesses all over the world.
New physical distancing norms have affected events, seminars, product launches, trade shows, conferences, and live interactions.
We know that it can be tough to devise alternative ways to reach and re-engage event attendees, especially with the restrictions and limitations in place.
However, there is a way.
Through promotional marketing (or ‘promo marketing’), you can continue to spark brand awareness and stimulate engagement with your audience, even if you have to shift your events to an online format. In these unprecedented times, finding innovative promo marketing ideas to spark brand awareness and stimulate audience engagement has become crucial.
Here’s how.
Webinar gift bags
Because physical gatherings are limited right now, online conferences and webinars play a big part in organising events for your business.
But just because you’re not in person, doesn’t mean they have to go empty-handed! You can have physical event merchandise delivered straight to your clients. To promote your brand further, you can encourage people to take photos of your event’s promo products and share them for all attendees to see.
Invites are essential if you still want to run events. But, as you know, digital invites can get lost or ignored. So, get extra creative by sending customised invites using promotional materials or printed direct mailers.
Try ignoring an invite printed on a mug or a fancy printed card that arrives in the post. These will capture attention and ensure no one forgets to log in.
Exclusivity for sign-ups
To attract more attendees and increase excitement, you can put together a branded hamper or “swag pack” full of promo marketing goodies for the first 50 or 100 people to register for your online event. They’ll love the exclusivity and probably share the pack on their socials for everyone to see.
Involve interactive games
In between sessions, you can interact with online event attendees by hosting mini-games like “Spin the digital wheel”, “the best comment competition” or an opportunity to enter the draw by submitting their details on your site. Your branded promo items can then be used as prizes for winners.
Tutorial collateral
If you’re running an educational event online, then you can send them a pack in the mail with all their learning materials, some pens, a pad and even a few promo items gifts.
As you can see, promotional marketing is an avenue your business can take to increase participant engagement using the power of tangibility – even for an online event.
Our team can be an extension of your Marketing department. Leave it to us, and we’ll come up with a creative and tailored solution for your business.
At Red Tomato, we take your marketing strategy to the next level by providing you with innovative promotional products that serve a real purpose – elevating your brand and increasing your returns.
Contact usdirectly to discuss your promotional marketing strategy and we’ll work on getting you only the right products for the right clients at the right time!
Marketing today has a big focus on digital. Advancements in technology and people’s obsession with the internet has encouraged brands to shift their tactics to online promotions – whether it’s content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing and more.
However, this space has become crowded and because of the growing competition among businesses, your audience now demands a personalised and interactive experience.
While digital marketing campaigns are effective in gaining attention, they often don’t create enough impact and engagement.
As such, incorporating offline promotional products can give your marketing efforts a little more edge by making your brand more memorable than ever.
Humans are very tactical and appreciate tangibility
People naturally crave physical connection. It’s in our DNA to engage all of our senses, and our experience heightens when we have something we can touch, see and feel.
This means that when you’re building customer relationships, non-digital marketing can play a big part in enhancing your brand image.
So, whether this is in the form of physical mail, corporate promo items or branded gifts, sending promotional materials can help reinforce your marketing message in a more impactful and effective way.
Renowned digital marketing brand, Marketo, also agrees with us – recently publishing an article reminding Marketers not to forget the power of offline marketing too.
It doesn’t mean you have to choose between online and offline campaigns.
However, online campaigns can have a more significant impact when supported by offline elements too. For example, a digital campaign that involves welcoming a new client via email is good; but also sending them a card or a welcome pack too is even better.
Taking advantage of both online and offline campaigns allows you to raise brand awareness more effectively than just one or the other, and there are so many creative ways to do this.
Here are some ways to strengthen your digital marketing with physical promotional products
Having a blend of online and offline campaigns allows you to boost your overall marketing strategy.
Some examples include:
Engaging leads through gifts
Want to drive leads further along their buying journey? One thing you can do is nurture them with an offline experience after an online one.
For instance, providing a gift card that arrives in the mail will mean they interact with your brand multiple times, rather than just via a fleeting email. You may even send coffee vouchers to people who decide to book an online consultation.
Sending direct mail with a promotional package
Contrary to what many think, physical mail is still an effective tool in marketing – especially when targeting other business clients.
To stand out in more ways than by just using an email, you can deliver printed collateral to their office, or you can get creative by sending them branded items such as a mug with your core values printed on it or a desk calendar with an attached note asking them when they are free for a chat.
Drive attendance to your webinar through physical invitations
Online conferences and webinars are the new normal. But how can you excite people enough to attend?
The answer lies in sending physical invitations. The good thing here is you’re not limited to just a printed note – you can tailor your promotional products according to the theme of your online event.
To give you some ideas, here is a list of our suggested products that may match your social media content or your upcoming event.
Event merchandise leaves an impression
What about during your event – do you want to be remembered?
To convert more attendees into considering your products and services, you can provide drink bottles, pens, shirts or journals as souvenirs of their attendance.
These tangible promotional products are items they can see and use every day, reminding them about your business and what you do.
Prepare training packs for clients
If you are providing free trials of your products and services, adding training or explainer packs with useful items can enhance their experience, motivating them to invest more time and interest.
Follow up with a customised note
When you feel like your emails are being delivered into a void, you can try sending a personalised note with branded items from your company.
In this way, clients will realise you’re going the extra mile to earn their trust.
As you can see, it’s not about replacing digital marketing, but augmenting it with a physical element too. Integrating your online and offline campaigns can provide your business with more cohesive and consistent marketing that engages more of your audience’s senses, making more of an impact.
With your online digital content and offline promotional products working hand in hand, your brand can gain more recognition, achieve differentiation and experience greater returns.
Our team can be an extension of your Marketing department. Leave it to us, and we can come up with a creative and tailored solution for your business.
How can Red Tomato help you?
At Red Tomato, we take your marketing strategy to the next level by providing you with innovative promotional products that serve a real purpose – elevating your brand and increasing your returns.
Contact us directly to discuss your promotional marketing strategy and we’ll work on getting you only the right products for the right clients at the right time! Phone: 1300 776 733Email: sales@redtomato.com.au
Events and merchandise have long gone hand in hand. With our comprehensive event merchandise guide, we aim to help you navigate through creating a successful strategy. Think of the last few events you attended and chances are the first thing that comes to your mind is the merchandise you took home like that personalised A5 notebook, that t-shirt printed right in front of you, or your favourite stubby holder that you still proudly use for those coldies.
Creating a successful event merchandise strategy is both a science and an art that requires a careful process that enhances your brand and messaging through interactive designs; visual concepts, creative copy and taglines, product sourcing, development, design and distribution.
1. Custom event merchandise extends your event’s brand value.
Driving brand awareness far beyond the date of the event is number one because your event merchandise gives your brand continued exposure for a long time. Keep in mind that attendees wear and/or use your merchandise, this creates an implicit but powerful endorsement of your brand.
2. Custom merchandise is a valuable way to engage more with your audience.
Event attendees are there because they want to be there. This simply means they have interest and passion that they want to show by attending and by expressing it through the merchandise they receive. This is the perfect opportunity for your brand to engage with a willing audience and provide them with the means to express their support for the event and your brand. It’s a unique chance to commemorate the event long after the date has passed. This solidifies the connection between your brand and your audience. Think ROI of the event way after the event has finished. Brand exposure and brand loyalty. Marketing gold.
3. Merchandise can also be a significant source of extra revenue.
Most of the time event merchandise is given away as a promotional tool to attract customers and to drive brand awareness. However, a well-designed item that is useful and attractive enough to be sold might bring in some cash. The key is to create products that people want, creating an even better experience for attendees. Why not think about personalising your merch at the event for a truly memorable takeaway?
The Process of Creating Merchandise that Rocks
Live events are a fantastic opportunity to boost the emotional connection your brand has and needs with your audience. This in-person kind of engagement is highly valuable and should be addressed through a careful design process.
It doesn’t matter if your brand is B2B or B2C. Recent studies show that both types of customers are looking for the same things when it comes to selecting a brand and making a purchase. The convergence of B2B and B2C sentiments towards brands has created a new B2E (‘E’ for everyone) environment where marketers need to compete and thrive (some also refer to this as H2H- Human to Human).
In 2018, our experts created and launched the Kids Summer of Racing merchandise campaign for that year’s Victoria Summer Racing Event. The items created for the event proved to be an effective branding tool that will continue to be beneficial for a long time. Beyond a 2019 APPA award for the campaign, this case exemplifies that following the process described below will boost your brand reach, awareness and engagement significantly.
Concept
Conceptualisation takes place even before you start developing your event merchandise strategy by strategically selecting what events your brand needs to be a part of. This will help you better structure your budget in order to get the most out of each event, whether it’s just one per year or more throughout the year.
Once the event or events have been chosen, invest the necessary resources into each one, taking into consideration that each different event varies in scope, audience type, theme and maybe even location and other variables. So don’t create a one-size-fits-all plan, instead personalise each event’s plan.
With this in mind, add your brand’s identity, message, values and a generous portion of creativity to design an interactive and engaging event merchandise concept that resonates with your audience and creates a unique experience they will cherish and remember.
Planning
As the conceptualisation part of the process gets its finishing touches, you must start planning the execution of your event merchandising plan. During this phase, your team of experts must consider everything from providers, testing, delivery times, distribution, packaging, presentation, etc.
As much as designing and picking the right items is important, designing how you’re going to hand them to your audience is also crucial. Plan an interactive and engaging experience that goes beyond just handing out goodies to all those that pass by your booth. In other words, make both the merch and the experience attached to it memorable. Plus, make them connected to each other in a synergistic way.
Execution
Once everything is in place, execute your strategy from designing the items and the experience to placing orders, tracking and receiving them, to planning out the day of the event and having a plan B for everything in case anything goes wrong. This is one of the most important reasons for having a team of experts backing you up all the way, so they can ensure everything goes as planned.
Our event merchandise experts are here to help you. We’ll dig deeper to understand your brand in order to create merch that’ll rock your audience’s socks off! Set up a meeting here now.
Sports marketing is a powerful phenomenon. Marketers across all sectors aim to capture this. Every weekend and season, sports fans fill stadiums, bars, and homes. They eagerly await the start of the game. Moreover, they often wear their team’s promotional products. Jerseys, hats, keychains, and even team colours for their pets.
An Alluring Landscape for Sports Marketing
Such engagement and loyalty are what brands dream of. If your buyer personas show an interest in sports, it’s a golden opportunity. Sports marketing can boost your brand’s presence. You need to align your audience’s product needs with their love of sports. That’s how your brand can effectively tap into the sports marketing world.
Any brand’s dream, right?
If your brand’s buyer personas are into sports, there’s a power you can harness. It’s the power of sports to boost brand presence. You need a strategic position. This will connect your audience’s need for your product or service with their love of sports. Golf is a good example. It’s a high-class sport often associated with luxury, status, and power. It attracts a certain type of players and fans. If your research shows that your target audience is in the world of golf, then consider using golf as part of your marketing strategy.
Planning a golf event might involve sponsoring a tournament, hosting a golf weekend for VIP customers, or even organizing a golf weekend for employees to boost loyalty. So, planning ahead and making sure there’s an alignment of principles and preferences between your brand and the sports you’re connecting with is essential to successfully partner your brand with a particular sport.
Event Crowd Engagement
Sports events naturally draw large crowds, so preparation is crucial. To avoid disappointment at the event, strategize how your brand will interact and engage with the crowd at each point of contact. There are plenty of innovative and creative ways to do this; you’re only limited by your creativity and how well you know your buyer personas.
Promotional merchandise, carefully selected and disseminated, can keep your brand in your audience’s mind years after the event. Products that blend into the digital world can enhance your brand presence, and those useful in real life can remain a part of your audience’s daily life years later
Promotional Merchandise
Promotional merchandise can be a brand’s driving force at any event. The right promo merch can link all the emotions experienced during the event, keeping your audience engaged and entertained. But there has to be a connecting link between all these emotions, and that’s accomplished by tying the entire mood of the event with the right promo merch in your attendees’ hands.
A well-planned selection of promotional items can enhance your event’s engagement beyond its physical constraints. Your brand can benefit by creating promo merch that connects to your social media and web presence and remains a part of your audience’s daily life long after the event.
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