02 Aug Your Competitors Are Doing It, Are You?

In any business, you should know your competitors and study them. There are some things your competitors are doing that you should also do too, and there are some things your competitors are doing that you should never do. One thing your competitors are doing is marketing through the use of promotional products. These giveaways are so much more than just a piece of junk given away for free. They help to create a bond between the business and the client. If a useful item of value is given to someone for free, that person will remember that company over any competitors and have a warmer feeling toward that company. Marketing is mainly top of mind awareness, meaning that you want your business to be at the top of the clients’ minds when they need your service. They will not always need your service or product right away, so keep your name fresh in their minds and you will get the business sooner or later. Approximately $17.4 billion was spent on promotional products in 2010, which was up by $2.5 billion from 2009, which shows that a lot of money are spend on advertising specialty items because they work. Here is a pie graph showing the top buyers of promotional items from 2010. Do you see your industry? If so, that means your competitors are doing this, so you might want to step up your game a bit and outdo them and get a bigger piece of this pie. Promotional products are an investment and not an expense, but you do have to plan a little and get the right products and give them out to the right people.

Graph and statistics courtesy of the Advertising Specialty Institute 2011.