It’s Only Schwag to You and Me

Simply by referring to one of the first great uses of promotional products, you can see how smart businessmen and women can utilize the promotional product to their benefit. It was in 1880 that William Wrigley Jr. handed out gum to promote his Wrigley’s Scouring Soap. Even though the story ends with people becoming more enthused with the gum than the soap, Mr. Wrigley developed his business around the benefit his use of promotional material offered him.

In 2008, smart businesses developed a defined plan and objective for their promotional product marketing. Distribution of your promotional items is as important as the message you will create for yourself during the promotional period. Though some companies utilize promotional material and products on an on-going basis, the returns from such marketing has shown a lower percentage of first-time and returning customers are negotiable. Proven promotional product campaigns have a beginning and an end.

As a business owner, you are looking for ways to increase your store traffic, increase traffic to your trade show booth, and increase traffic to your online store. Whether you need all three, or just one, a quality promotional marketing campaign that included specialty promotional items can deliver the results you can grow on. If done right, you’ll find your promotional items in the hand of customers years and years down the road. Promotional campaigns using specialty items work well when you develop a plan and objectives for the demographic, the distribution, and the message.

If you’ve never done a marketing campaign using promotional items, you should have a good idea of what you’ll need to be doing with the items once you have them. Your goal may be to simply increase traffic at a trade show. You may be looking for ways to increase return customers sales with the use of your new promotional products. Distribution of the promotional products is as important as the product or the message itself. Marketing companies know that you get a better return on investment with promotional items when they are distributed at the proper time and to interested recipients who can find a use for them in a short time frame, or on a regular basis over a long period of time.

How do you know that the promotional products will attract new and existing clients? When you create a quality message, associate the item to the message, and then associate your company with the message. An example of an effective promotional item campaign involves a bank looking to attract small business to their service. They developed a message “Are you tired of being treated like a small fish?” They used fish-related promotional items to brand their name and message. They mailed them to their prospects, and it is an easy example of how a company can execute a successful protional product campaign using specialty promotional items.

Now that you can see how companies build their brand and message using specialty promotional items, you begin to think about how to deliver a message about your company to your prospects. It should be stated that you should never select a promotional item based on uniqueness, or because the price is right. Be selective. Couple the right message to the right promotional product for the right reason. You want to get the most return from your promotional investment. You can develop and manage a successful marketing campaign using promotional products if you utilize the information those who are successful at it have given to us to learn from.

In the end, you and your company will benefit from the use of promotional specialty items when you look at the big picture. Involve your whole company message during the campaign. Associate the item with what makes your company special, or unique. Get that expression into your clients’ pockets by utilizing a smart, efficient marketing campaign that included promotional specialty items as giveaways to existing and potential clients.

Here are some reasons why you should improve your current marketing campaign, or start a new campaign with Promotional specialty items as the tool to connecting with your clients. Most businesses begin a marketing campaign to accomplish specific goals. When you decide to include promotional items into your business marketing plan, you should consider them as good reason to start today.

  • Generate New Accounts
  • Develop trade show traffic
  • Motivation for employees
  • Name Change, Address Change
  • Introduce new products/services
  • Activate inactive accounts
  • Motivate consumers with premium products
  • Improve client relations
  • Promote new facilities
  • Introducing new sales staff
  • Safety Programs
  • Building a strong image within your industry
  • Enhance company picnics
  • Maintain appointment schedule with client

Remember that it’s only Schwag between you and me. To the client, promotional items are the trigger that gets them into your location to see what you can do for them today.