Planning Events that Include Promotional Products

Whether you are featuring a celebrity or just planning a big discount bonanza there is always a way to plan to give away your promotional products. The event can be something as simple as the early bird give away where everyone who walks through the door during certain morning hours gets a free item, to hosting the local radio station and giving away promotional products to every visitor who chants a particular slogan. Events are not only a great way to draw in traffic, but with the right promotional products, these events are a great way to build a broader customer base. While these events are sure to bring a benefit in a number of ways, it is important to remember some basic rules when engaging in event and promotional planning.

Making Sense with Your Product
The main thing to remember when planning an event where you intend to give away promotional products is to make sure both the event and the product make sense for the type of business or service you are in. While it is true that everyone would appreciate a new washing machine, if the event or your business has nothing to do with home appliances, you are going to be missing a great opportunity to spread the word of what you have to offer. So as a rule of thumb, give away something related to the event, and try to keep the event related to your business or service in some way.

Choosing the Right Timing
Another key to events planning is to make sure your timing is right. If you plan an event when another even bigger event is going to take place, either be an natural extension of that other event (such as your store is at or near the location) or plan to pick a different day. It makes no sense to compete with another event when you don’t have to. While it is true that avoiding competition is often a good policy, there is something to be said about hosting an event the same day as another competitor, if your community is big enough this cross competition can actually benefit both of you. Beware, though, for this does have the potential of a pretty big backfire, and this could cause some problems for a while.

Picking an Unusual Day
Something else to consider is holding the event on an unusual day. Most promotions are designed to occur on the weekend. This makes sense given this is when people tend to have the most free time. However, if you choose and unusual day there is the chance that this can work for you because people will possibly remember that you are doing something in an unusual way. This is very effective when the event is something that is sure to draw people in such as a celebrity or and item that many customers have been waiting for to arrive. However it also carries the big risk of being a complete disaster.

A good idea is to plan two events around the same time. The first event should be planned at the unusual time and the second the second event at a more normal time. While this does mean more work, it also means a greater amount of people will be part of the event and receive the promotional product. However you approach the event planning make sure you are comfortable with the timing because once started it is very hard to turn back.

Hosting any event is tricky stuff. It is even trickier when the purpose of the event is to help you promote your business or service. Yet rest assured that with proper planning, some consideration and the willingness to change things as they happen, any event can be successful. While they are difficult at times, and take a lot out of you, they are also very much worth the effort given the fact that a successful promotional event can help increase sales for a long time after the event has happened. A final thing to consider is making one or two events a yearly production. This is a great way to build up memories of your business in the community and if you stick with it long enough, it is likely to become somewhat of a tradition in the minds of the local community.