It's official! Proudly rated "Excellent", with more than 5,000 five-star reviews from businesses across the UK.

10 Promotional Merchandise Ideas for Your Small Business: Part 1

Without a huge marketing budget, it can be difficult to get creative when trying to market your small business. Luckily, promotional merchandise handles the creative side for you, with companies such as ours (www.totalmerchandise.co.uk) offering hundreds of products from useful and functional to wacky and wild that you can have branded with your logo. Promotional merchandise acts as a powerful tool to increase brand awareness and generate brand loyalty, which is why we think it’s so great, and wanted to write about 10 ideas for using promotional merchandise to help your small business. The BPMA suggests that in order for promotional merchandise to be effective, it should be unique, usable, and good quality to name a few factors. Rest assured, our high-quality items are budget-friendly, and time-efficient too, with our sales team sending over your quote within 60 minutes. With the practical side out of the way, let's crack on with the first of our 10 ideas for using promotional merchandise for your small business to make big sales.

Promotional Water Bottles

We cannot stress enough right now how big the reusable water bottle hype is! Jump on this trend! In fact, we do hope it’s not just a trend  (we highly doubt it, the reusable water bottle is here to stay) as they’re eco-friendly, trendy, and offer a large space for your logo. With popular reality TV shows hyping up promotional water bottles they’re more popular than ever. Moreover, as we are recommended by the NHS to be drinking roughly 6-8 glasses of water per day, you will be encouraging users to stay hydrated whilst displaying your brand. You can go for a reusable sturdy plastic bottle, or for a stronger, long-lasting aluminium water bottle. We stock them all!

Cotton Tote Bags

Similar to above, cotton tote bags are becoming increasingly popular as individuals become more and more environmentally conscious. Instead of using the plastic bags provided at a charge by supermarkets, individuals are reducing their waste by bringing their own cotton tote bags. They’ve got a large space for branding, and with their increasing popularity now is the chance to get your brand noticed and seen by people on the local high street. Our top tip is to keep the branding simple and go for stand-out, eye-catching colours to draw passer-by’s eyes to your logo.

Next week we’ll crack on with the remaining 8 great ideas to use promotional merchandise for your business.

Written by

Adam Carter | Head of Products

Adam has been leading the Product team for over 18 years, during which time he's built up an enviable reputation as one of the industry's most trusted authorities on promotional merchandise. As well as supplier relations, product sourcing and pricing, Adam is also responsible for ensuring our promotional merchandise is presented on the website in the most effective manner. His expertise makes him the go-to person on the team for spotting merchandise trends and he's highly experienced in identifying the best branded products to meet our customers' needs. When he's not working, Adam enjoys travel, electronic music and all forms of cinema.

Connect with Adam Carter on LinkedIn Connect with Adam Carter on LinkedIn

Colour Guide: Everything You Need To Know About Blue Promotional Items

Colour Guide: Everything You Need To Know About Blue Promotional Items

With Blue Monday in sight, there's no better time to take a moment or two to think about the colour blue in all its glory. Because it's really not all bad, despite the n

Why Promotional Products Work: The Value Of Merch For Your Brand

Why Promotional Products Work: The Value Of Merch For Your Brand

Okay, we might be biased but there really is no denying it: promotional products are an incredibly powerful tool for any UK business. Whether you're a start-up looki

Revealed: The Best-Selling Promotional Products Of 2023

Revealed: The Best-Selling Promotional Products Of 2023

It's safe to say that 2023 has been quite the year for Total Merchandise. Over the last 12 months, we've hit some major milestones, grown our team, hosted our fi

Our 10 Best-Selling Promotional Pens To Inspire Your Next Campaign

Our 10 Best-Selling Promotional Pens To Inspire Your Next Campaign

It may well be mightier than the sword - well, according to some, at least - but one thing's for sure: a promotional pen is a highly-effective tool to help market your

Our Top 10 Best-Selling Promotional Products of 2021

Our Top 10 Best-Selling Promotional Products of 2021

With 2022 just around the corner, there's no better time to shine a light on our very best promotional products of 2021. Will we have a new winner this year, or will

The TM Edit: Our Most Popular Promotional Products Of 2019

The TM Edit: Our Most Popular Promotional Products Of 2019

With the end of the year - and decade! - fast-approaching, we've decided to shine a light on the most popular promotional products of 2019.  These are no o

Revealed: The Best Corporate Food Gifts For Christmas 2024

Revealed: The Best Corporate Food Gifts For Christmas 2024

Corporate food gifts are the perfect way to leave a lasting impression with your clients this Christmas. With options to suit all budgets, we've got everything from

How Total Merchandise Supported the WellChild Awards 2024

How Total Merchandise Supported the WellChild Awards 2024

Total Merchandise was proud to recently support nationwide charity WellChild with the 2024 edition of its WellChild Awards. We always love to support and give back where

TM Edit: Best UK-Made Merch Ideas For Winter 2024

TM Edit: Best UK-Made Merch Ideas For Winter 2024

Winter is fast-approaching - and from cold weather essentials to festive gifting ideas, we've decided to round-up some of our favourite seasonal UK-made merch ideas for your