Executing a marketing campaign takes a lot of thoughtful strategising and planning to make it perfect. After putting so much work into the campaign, you wouldn’t want to activate it before ensuring it will have maximum impact.
Adding promotional merchandise into your marketing campaign is often a missed element that has great impressions. There are various ways to incorporate branded products into your campaigns to have the greatest impact on your target audience.
Make promotional merchandise the tangible link to connect the dots of your marketing campaign.
Your campaign will have various digital touch points with your target audience: an optimized website, landing pages, social media, email campaigns, content, etc. Promotional products are a strong way to connect all of the digital components.
In fact, 62% of audiences that receive a promotional product from a company will do business with them in the future. A marketing campaign with a strong digital strategy is vital, but incorporating promotional merchandise will increase impact on your audience.
Utilize promotional merchandise as a memorable way to give someone your contact details
84% of people who receive a promotional product will remember the advertiser on a product they receive. Why? If the product is useful, they will see your brand and contact details every time they use the product.
For example, as part of a winter campaign your company is gifting a branded mug filled with hot chocolate to qualified leads. Your potential client who receives the mug will have a memorable experience of enjoying hot chocolate and associate that experience with your brand. Furthermore, every time that client uses the mug for coffee in the morning, they will see your brand.
Incorporate branded products into your marketing campaign to increase recognition
What are the best practices for incorporating promotional products into your marketing campaign in order to increase recognition? Here are some tips for maximizing effectiveness in your marketing campaign:
1. Use promotional merchandise that is useful.81% of people receiving a branded gift keep them because they are useful. Which products are the most useful? Studies have shown that bags are the wearable used most frequently and deliver the most impressions. Need some inspiration? Check out our reusable bags for merchandise ideas in your next marketing campaign.
2. Choose branded products that are timely. You might find a beautiful umbrella that looks great with your logo on it, but if your marketing campaign is running during the summer, your target audience will not find it useful. Maybe try a branded bottle of sunblock instead?
3. Be strategic. Not only with which branded product you choose to incorporate into your marketing campaign, but also when you will deliver it to your potential customer. Remember, a marketing campaign is a story and a branded tangible product needs to be part of the narrative.
Need help strategising how to incorporate a promotional product into your upcoming marketing campaign? Let’s chat.
Imagine yourself in this situation: You come home from a long day at work with a massive headache. Your kids need to eat dinner and do their homework. The best part? One of your smaller family members stuffed a towel into the toilet. Now there is water flowing everywhere, and it’s beginning to seep into the kitchen. What do you do? Do you start researching on Hipages for plumbers in your area, or do you call up your neighbour who had an excellent experience with his last plumber? It’s a no-brainer, and also an example of how powerful referrals are. While you might not own a plumbing business, any company can benefit from recommendations. In the following paragraphs, we’re going to discuss how to use promotional merchandise to increase referrals.
There are so many clever ways to use promotional merchandise to your benefit.
After all, we built our own business around this service! The Promotional Products Association International has determined that 43 percent of people use a promotional product daily. 58 percent of people keep these items for up to four years. By putting your name on merchandise that people often use, you’re always in the back of their minds. We’re assuming that you’re already aware of how fabulous and rewarding promo merch can be. However, If you’re still not convinced, check out our post on how to combine promotional products with marketing automation.
Before proceeding, let’s make one thing clear: If you don’t ask for referrals, they more than likely won’t come pouring in. It’s like asking your Twitter followers to retweet you or requesting that your party guests bring something to drink: Ask and you shall receive. What’s so great about throwing promotional merchandise into the equation is that it’s a mutually beneficial process. Your client gets a free t-shirt, you get a lead to another potential consumer. Everyone is happy.
By now, we’re sure you want to know exactly how to use promotional merchandise to increase referrals.
One way is to literally ingrain that message into your products. For example, at the bottom of your coffee mugs, you could write something like, “Tell your friends know about our xyz company and let us improve your community!” When deciding what to write, consider what sets you apart from your competition. What would motivate clients to spread the word about your service? If your client is pleased with the work you’ve done, they will often be inclined to share their stellar experience with others. The promotional product serves as a kind reminder.
Another effective way to use promotional merchandise to boost your referrals is through a reward system. Say a client has recommended your service to ten people, who thereby hired you. You don’t want to be cheap and send them the same pen you pass out to strangers at events. As we’ve discussed before, people love being acknowledged and appreciated. Show your love by sending this rock star client a unique, elegant gift with your logo on it. This will clearly send the message that you are grateful for their loyalty.
All in all, promotional merchandise is an excellent way to gain referrals from your clients and successfully build your networking base.
Remember, however, that the products are just one part of the process. Think of them as a gateway to open up conversation. Follow up with your clients and be sure to remind them that you appreciate their business. Kindly encourage them to spread the word about you! This is how to use promotional merchandise to increase referrals.
If you need ideas for what kind of products to send to your clients- whether you are sending them an initial product to ask for a referral, or a follow-up reward, please let us know! This is our specialty at Red Tomato, after all!
Have you successfully used promotional merchandise to gain referrals? Share your experiences with us in the comments below!
The Art of Brand Loyalty From a Timed Marketing Plan
Consider this simplified example of increasing brand loyalty with a perfectly timedmarketing plan. Picture yourself in an outdoor market and it starts to rain. You don’t have raincoat or umbrella. Suddenly someone comes up to you and gifts you an umbrella, saving you from a soaking wet passage back to your car.
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