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

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

Promotional Merchandise Items That Can Help Mental Wellbeing

Promotional Merchandise Items That Can Help Mental Wellbeing

The conversation around mental health and wellbeing is growing ever-louder and - it goes without saying - with due cause. With levels of stress, anxiety and depression at all-ti

The Best Promotional Merchandise for Schools

The Best Promotional Merchandise for Schools

Branded items for schools come in many shapes and sizes, and are never more useful than at school events. From summer fêtes to end-of-term concerts, charity raffles to Chr

WE DID IT – Total Merchandise Wins Distributor of the Year at the BPMA Awards

WE DID IT – Total Merchandise Wins Distributor of the Year at the BPMA Awards

We have some very big news to share… Total Merchandise has been named Distributor of the Year (10m+) at the British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA) Annual Awar

Total Merchandise Achieves ISO 9001 Certification

Total Merchandise Achieves ISO 9001 Certification

Total Merchandise is proud to announce that we have successfully achieved ISO 9001 certification

Seven in a Row - Total Merchandise Continues Its Winning Streak

Seven in a Row - Total Merchandise Continues Its Winning Streak

We are delighted to announce that Total Merchandise has been voted Promotional Merchandise Distributor of the Year in the 2025 Sourcing City Awards, m