Promotional Products & Merchandise Trends | Blog | Red Tomato

Utilising Promotional Products on a Limited Marketing Budget

Written by Justin Reynolds | 23/05/2025 2:04:04 AM

Whether you’re a marketing manager for a fresh start-up company or a mid-sized business, you may always come across one obstacle: money. You want to attract new clients, engage loyal customers, and ultimately grow your brand. However, you have a limited marketing budget. This is one of the most common problems companies face. Nonetheless, by employing a smart, effective marketing strategy, you can still impact consumers in a big way. In this article, we will show you how to use promotional products on a limited marketing budget.

Determining Your Budget

Entrepreneur Magazine has suggested that relatively new companies invest up to 20 percent of their revenue on marketing. Established businesses can afford to invest considerably less. While this may seem disheartening, it is just more incentive to maximise every penny you spend. The first step to a successful campaign is establishing a budget. Look at your previous marketing endeavors and assess what exactly made them successful. Determine how much money you spent, and what your ROI was for a specific number of people. Capitalise on these strategies and measure your current budget accordingly.

Identifying Your Target Audience and Campaign Objectives

Now that you have your budget set, don’t waste your precious dollars on the wrong demographic. If you’re selling drones, skip marketing to older generations and people uninterested in technology. Use Google Analytics or your Facebook company page to see who is visiting your site. Pay attention to details like gender, age, location, and interests to lock in the perfect target audience.

After honing in on your demographic, it’s time to set your goals. One of the easiest ways to squander your budget is being unclear on your marketing campaign’s objective. Figure out whether you want to gain more exposure, bolster your mailing list, or land more immediate sales. If you’re not sure what your objective is or how to identify your key audience, contact us for a free consultation.

How to Use Promotional Products on a Limited Marketing Budget

Once you have determined your budget, target audience, and objectives, you need a solid marketing strategy. A multitude of approaches is available- even on a limited marketing budget. However, one of the most effective ways to expand your audience is to use promotional products.

Increasing your ROI is relatively simple when keeping your demographic in mind and selecting the right product. Consider the following when choosing which promotional merchandise to use:

• Which products are low-cost, high-quality, and will maximise the number of impressions?
• Is the merchandise reusable, and will someone likely regift it?
• Will your promotional product be unique and memorable, or simply tossed into the rubbish bin?

Given our research and experience at Red Tomato, some of the best products to gift are reusable shopping bags, logoed apparel, and water bottles. These items are inexpensive to produce, useful, and reusable. Consumers will use all of these in public areas, making your potential for exposure limitless.

All in all, while you may have to get creative with a limited marketing budget, following these steps will lead you to a successful campaign. A small investment can have a massive impact. Contact us now and we will help you stretch your dollars, making even the big fish of your industry turn their heads.

Have you experienced a successful marketing campaign using promotional products? What are your tips for growing a business without breaking the bank? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!