When thinking of creative ways to market your business, it can be tough. Your ideas may have already been used, or they aren't quite creative enough, however when it comes to promotional merchandise you can afford to be creative through various different products.
As with any marketing plan, you need to plan effectively to work out the best and more effective plan for your business. There are important questions you need to ask yourself, for example – who will I be targeting? Will this be appreciated? And, what is my budget? Once you have answered these questions, you are able to create a bespoke promotional merchandise campaign just for your business.
So, why are promotional goods so effective as marketing tools? First, and foremost, the provide a great brand exposure. People are so used to being advertised to wherever they go, that it's easy to miss advertisements. However, with promotional merchandise, you will find that your items are hard to miss. A promotional umbrella, for example, is going to provide more brand exposure for you than a newspaper advertisement.
Promotional items are also more valuable than traditional advertising. It's very easy to throw away a flyer, but it's more difficult to throw away a promotional tee shirt, or USB stick. This is because these items are more like gifts than promotional items. If you are given a gift, you are very unlikely to throw it away, in comparison, a newspaper advert or flyer can easily be overlooked.
Promotional merchandise can also provide a great creative spin on your marketing techniques. It's quite easy to create an advert, as advertising is so readily available. However, to consider promotional products which actually work is much more difficult. Whilst you may believe that promotional pens are everywhere, and yours won't stand out, if you choose a vibrant enough design your promotional pen could be used as a favourite pen for many years to come.
Many marketers will know that traditional advertising methods can be very expensive, putting a television advert on can literally cost hundreds of thousands of pounds. Whilst some promotional products can be expensive, there is a wide variety of products which means that the costs can vary. For example, you could choose a promotional pen which is much cheaper, or a USB pen which would be more expensive.
When considering your marketing plan for this year, think about using promotional merchandise to make your company stand out.