17 Nov What are the Best Promotional Items for Your Business?

I have come in contact with many small businesses who have never bought any type of promotional products because they didn’t know what to get. Many of the small business owners tell me they don’t want to get the same old giveaways as other businesses, and they just don’t put the effort into the process of determining what products to buy. I completely agree that koozies and promotional pens are overused by many businesses. They certainly have their rightful place for certain events, but not as one of your staples. So, what are the best promotional items for your business? Below are 3 simple rules to follow to determine the right items for your business.

1) Budget – You, of course have to stay within budget. By knowing the amount of items you need as well as the most you are able to spend, items can be further narrowed down from here. The first reaction of many business owners is, “I want the cheapest items I can get.” However, I would caution each of you not to go with a cheap item or you will end up wasting your money. It is better to get a lesser amount of better quality items rather than a larger amount of cheap junk. The higher quality items will stick around giving your business repeated marketing exposure, while the cheap trinkets will end up in the trash and give your company no advertising benefit.

2) Target Audience – To whom will you be giving the promotional products? Are the bulk of your customers teenagers or senior citizens? Are they middle aged blue collar adults? Are they white collar business executives? Each genre of clientele have different tastes and will prefer receiving different items. While teenagers and young adults would prefer technology related items, the older population might get better use from pill boxes. However, if you reverse the two items, teenagers would have absolutely no use for the pill boxes and would toss them in the trash. In some cases, two or more age ranges or classes of people making up the bulk of your customers might mean you have to get two different items to give out. And that is okay.

3) Creativity – It always great to be able to give out promotional items that are new or trendy or just different than most other companies. It’s always great to have pens around for use, but giving away other unique items such as kitchen gadgets or Barbeque items stand out much more than the standard old products. This uniqueness of the giveways help your business to be remembered so you will be first in their mind when they need your services or products.

By keeping your budget and your target audience in mind along with adding a little creativity to the mix, your business will get a lot more benefit from your promotional product marketing. Remember that when being creative, it is important to know that you DON’T have to buy on promotional products that are related to your business. Buying items completely unrelated to your business is memorable as long as they are useful or if they go along with your marketing campaign. Buying promotional products is an investment if done properly, NOT an expense. So go ahead and give it a shot and make the most out of your marketing. If you want some help with the creativity part, Perfect Imprints has experts that would be glad to help you. Just give them a call!