Using promotional products as a way to create brand awareness and visibility at key events is a powerful tactic, and has been for years. While many people thought that the effectiveness of promotional products was going to wane as digital marketing gained traction, the opposite is in fact, true. With brands having less human interaction these days, promotional products are still very much in vogue – so it’s important to leverage this powerful tool to your advantage and it’s important to track the success of your promotional goods on your sales and your brand as a whole.

Here’s how to use these items to boost your business:

Pick Products That People Will Want

Promotional products are only truly powerful when you are offering products that people would want (after all, we all have enough lanyards clogging up our desk drawers!). This doesn’t necessarily mean purchasing the most expensive or fancy items – it means opting for products that have a high perceived value for those they are meant for. For example, if you are at an athletic event, handing out branded gym towels would go down a treat. Think about your audience, your purpose and your products and see how they could all work together for greater brand visibility.

Implement A Solid Strategy

It’s all fun and games to hand out items that are interesting and quirky, but be sure that they are in line with your brand. The items that you choose need to be of an exceptionally high quality and treated with care – after all, it’s the item that represents your company. Don’t opt for cheap, low quality products that will break easily and be tossed aside – which is totally counterproductive. This means both your products and your suppliers need to be carefully selected. Try thinking creatively about what you can use in order to impress your prospective clients (this means knowing them inside out and finding items that would really appeal to them).

Keep Your Eye On The Prize

While it’s easy to get swept up in looking for phenomenal promotional items, it’s important to keep your sight set on the goals at hand. What is the intention of having sales execs at events handing out promotional items? You want to ensure they are engaging in valuable conversations and giving prospects a product of value that will help to keep your brand at the top of their minds. Understand that this forms just part of a greater strategy to achieve your goals, and then consider what will help you to do so.

Remember: Quality Is King

We’ve already mentioned this, but we need to drive the point home. Don’t let quality slip with your products. Don’t have promotional products just for the sake of it, because there is nothing more heartbreaking from a marketing perspective than when you spend hundreds of dollars on items that aren’t used, and worse, tossed in the trash. By buying high-quality products your target market will love, you are assured they will be used, and your brand remembered (and hopefully, it will draw potential customers to you).

Focus On Consistency

While quality is important, consistency is key. Your products can be manufactured superbly, but if your brand is not represented consistently (in logo size, product colors, etc.), you will lose a lot of credibility with your prospects. Make sure you use trustworthy suppliers who can deliver not only high-quality products with high usability but exceptional consistency, time and time again.

Strategically and carefully chosen company promotional items are definitely affordable and powerful marketing tools that will help your prospective clients become familiar with your brand and return to it when the need for your products or services arise. But managing promotional items can be very difficult and can turn costly very quickly if it’s not managed properly. One of the best ways to ensure that this doesn’t happen, is to opt for an online company store. If you would like more information on how to make sure promotional items work in your favor, then download our incredible online company store Ebook. Alternatively, you can contact us directly to ask questions or to find out what might work best for your marketing needs.