With the industry and market becoming more competitive, it is crucial for brands to create something unique to offer their customers.
Promotional products are a great way to gain the attention of your target audience.
You can offer promotional products in various ways, such as in Gift with Purchase Promotions, Purchase with Purchase Promotions, Corporate Gifts, etc. Well-managed promotions will be able to successfully increase brand visibility and brand awareness.
Why do we recommend offering promotional products to your customers?
Promotional products can have low manufacturing costs, but still extremely effective in increasing brand awareness.
For example, a branded pen is easy to manufacture and very affordable, especially if mass-produced. This will allow you to successfully maximize profit, while effectively market your brand.
Offering a custom promotional pen as a gift with purchase will be able to boost sales, as well as increase your brand exposure.
Gift with purchase will allow your products to have higher perceived value. Free gifts or bundles never fail to get customers excited. They are then willing to spend more money and effort to purchase from you.
You could make this promotion more exciting by offering an exclusive and limited promotional item.
If you would like to push sales, you can also create a competition for customers to participate. This will create a sense of urgency to purchase your products. Promotional products are also highly customizable. They can be a great representation of your brand.
For example, you can match the color of your promo product to the same color as your brand logo. There are no restrictions as to the materials, shape, size that you can choose.
A well-managed promotional product will be able to successfully represent corporate swag and express your brand well.
To make your promotional item more effective, be sure to create something practical. This is to ensure that your customers will use it often, thus increasing brand recall.
Furthermore, these branded promotional items can be the perfect free walking advertisement if your customers frequently carry it around. Promotions also allow your products to stand out among competitors, giving you a competitive edge in the market.
Customers are more likely to notice your products before others, giving you the upper hand. People are more inclined to purchase from the items that gained their attention first.
Not any promotional products will be successful.
With many companies creating their very own promotional product to increase brand visibility, it is crucial to have unique and interesting ideas to differentiate yourself.
Customers are likely to have seen common promotional products all the time – such as promotional notebooks, promotional pens, etc. It is always good to spice up typical products – a few examples are glow-in-the-dark t-shirts, LED lighted water bottles, custom USB bracelet.
These are sure to generate buzz and increase brand recognition because people have never seen these before. These one-of-a-kind products will definitely intrigue your audience and allow you to potentially gain loyal customers.
How to create the perfect promotional product?
There are several factors that you should consider when creating the perfect promotional product for your audience.
A lot of thought, effort, and money are put into the design and manufacturing process – so you want to make sure that it is successful and efficient in marketing. Below are the main factors you should take note of so that you can ensure success and efficiency.
1. Identifying the target audience
Being able to identify your target audience will help you decide which genre of products you want to produce. You can classify them by age, interest, income, geographical location, etc.
For example, if your marketing to children, Custom Promotional Plush Toys are ideal to successfully grab their attention. If your market is generally teenagers, Custom Promotional Mobile Phone Holders or Covers would be great to get them interested in your brand.
However, if you are targeting the middle-aged and above, you can giveaway useful daily necessities such as lunch boxes or thermal flasks.
2. Brainstorming
After deciding what kind of Promotional Products you are going to use, it is time to brainstorm some amazing branded promotional product designs. Make your promotional products as eye-catching as possible.
Spice up these Promotional Gifts with meaningful and relevant designs. One way to do so is to incorporate your brand mascots in the promotional products.
3. Budget
The design and manufacturing process can be quite costly, especially extravagant ones. What’s the maximum amount you can afford to spend on giveaways?
It is important to come up with a budget, in the beginning, so you can decide the number of people you want to work on the project, as well as identify your restrictions in design, materials, and quantity.
Identifying your budget can also allow you to effectively outsource and work with appropriate third parties.
4. Sketching and Production
Designing may take quite a lot of time depending on the complexity of the design. It involves a lot of revisions until we achieve the best and most suitable promotional product design.
As such, it is necessary to partner with professional designers who can help you from designing your promotional products to manufacturing them.
This is crucial as designers who understand the manufacturing process and work closely with manufacturers are more capable to have a practical design that will be cost-effective.
It is important for companies not to overlook these factors while planning for their promotional campaign. An unsuccessful promotional product will lead to your brand losing loyal customers, and them purchasing from your competitors instead.
Not only so, but you are wasting capital and time. It is crucial for brands to engage the right designers and manufacturers to create and produce these high-quality products at a low cost.
Conor O Donovan is the CEO of The ODM Group, a Promotional Products Agency based in China & design agency in Vietnam. Conor has led multiple branding projects, designing and manufacturing marketing materials. These range from small on-pack cover mounts to large POS displays, to complex electronics. With more than 15 years of experience and 8,000 published articles on the promotional products industry, ODM is an industry leader on marketing, design and product development.