Promoting your brand and boosting visibility is one of the most significant challenges that businesses face. To continually grow and sustain a business by bringing customers through the door is a necessity and customers won’t come to you if they don’t know who you are. To this end, we need some strategies to expand brand awareness and drive sales ever forward.
Today we are going to use our expertise in prize fulfilment to look at the role of branded merchandise and promotional products and why they are so effective at achieving this goal.
Why Promotional Products Work
Simply put, promotional products work because of the positive associations they create with your brand. Branded merchandise comes in all shapes and sizes, be they pens and notepads, drink bottles and bottle openers, or bags and umbrellas. Each one has some sort of utility, they’re not life-changing gifts but they are often common items that have an everyday need or use that when received adds a little value to the customer’s life.
But more than that they are gifts, little unexpected presents that a customer receives without having to give anything in return. And who doesn’t love a gift?
This little momentary act creates the first positive association with your brand and the new potential customers take the item home to be used. The second reason they work is constant exposure. By branding an everyday item you know your customer will use and keep around, you are placing your brand in their awareness on an almost daily basis. This builds an association of trust and reliability over time making them more likely to consider you over your competitors.
Benefits of Using Promotional Products
Promotional products have a myriad of benefits for your business.
Enhanced Brand Awareness: As we mentioned previously a promotional item offers the chance for constant exposure of your brand to your customers. When a customer receives a marketing email, walks past a poster, or even watches an advert on TV, (or more likely YouTube), the amount of time it holds your attention is only fleeting and once out of sight it is out of mind.
Having your brand in someone’s hand or line of sight on a daily basis is an immensely valuable tool that pays back much more than it costs.
Return on Investment (ROI): This brings us to our next point, ROI. For the small investment of branding something as simple as a pen, you can have a lasting and almost ever-present advertisement in your customer’s hands for the foreseeable future.
Whilst months can be spent planning effective advertisement campaigns, the humble promotional item can be a simpler and even more effective way of getting your brand recognised.
The right promotional item must be selected for your particular customers, but 85% of customers say they would rather receive a free promotional product than a marketing e-mail, so get this right and you’ll be well on your way to creating loyal customers for your brand.
Building Relationships and Loyalty
Using branded merchandise isn’t only about increasing brand awareness by sending your logo out into the world, its true power lies in its ability to offer a tangible connection between your customers and your brand.
When the promotional item is tailored to your customers or chosen with your customers in mind it comes across as a thought gift that demonstrates your brand’s values and commitment to customer satisfaction.
The promotional tool then acts as a constant reminder of your brand and its service that keeps you at the forefront of your customer’s mind. The promotional item then becomes an extension of what your brand stands for and serves as a surrogate brand ambassador.
By carefully considering what the promotional item says about your brand you can not only increase brand awareness but foster a good relationship with your potential new customers and be well on the way to developing a platform of loyalty.
Conclusion
The effectiveness then, of branded merchandise is plain to see and is an essential tool in any successful marketing campaign.
As experts in prize fulfilment, we at Prizeshark know just how essential the right kind of branded merchandise is to you and your business. We’re here to help you use promotional tools such as branded merchandise efficiently and effectively to help you grow your brand and customer base.
