The use of promotional items is a very effective form of marketing, but it can be rendered much less effective if you make any of these common mistakes when choosing your items.
Choosing Quantity over Quality
No matter what types of promotional items you choose, it’s always best to make the quality of the items ahead of the quantity you buy. Promotional items are used to attract people to your business—if you start handing out cheap shoddy goods, it’ll reflect badly on your company. In general, it always makes sense to choose the best quality items you can afford, and perhaps opt for buying fewer items if necessary. There are a select few occasions where quality isn’t as important, but for the most part, choosing well-made promotional items should be one of your main priorities.
Choosing the Wrong Items for the Occasion
The promotional items you buy to distribute at a trade show will be different from those you buy for giving to clients. They’ll be different again from the promotional items you buy to use as purchase incentives in a retail store, and again from the items you buy for your employees. Even within these specific categories there are differences. For example, you’ll probably need to buy at least two different types of items for trade shows—bait items to attract people to your booth, and more expensive thank you gifts for people who schedule sales meetings with you. If your promotional items are for your employees, you would not choose the same types of items to reward them for a promotion as you would to commemorate their retirement. Choosing the wrong items for the occasion may defeat the purpose of having bought them in the first place, as they will not achieve the effect you were hoping for.
Forgetting your Target Audience
When you buy promotional items, you must be clear on who you’re buying them for. Who are you going to give these items to—clients, employees, retail customers, conference attendees? If you’re buying items for retail customers, what types of people normally frequent your store? Are they young mothers, teenagers, or retirees? What types of promotional items are your customers most likely to be interested in? Answering these questions before you buy will ensure that you choose the right items, but neglecting to consider these questions may mean you end up with promotional items that your customers just aren’t interested in.
Choosing the Wrong Colors or Designs
Color and design are important concepts, and these are usually choices that you must make for yourself. If you have any particular company color scheme, it’s important to include that in your design—if you choose different colors, you lose a great opportunity to raise public awareness of your company image. The same principle applies if you neglect to include your company logo in the design. Depending on the items you’re choosing, you’ll also need to remember to include some company contact information. Attracting new clients with promotional items loses some of its power if you forget to provide them with a way to contact you!
Young And Hip Promotional Items
One of the big tricks to getting promotional items right is figuring out who they should go to and what they should be.
Why are Promotional Mugs so Popular?
Along with items such as pens, key rings and mouse mats, mugs are one of the most popular promotional items in use.
Why Choose Promotional Products?
There are many ways that you can go about dealing with the advertising that you might want to have in order to promote yourself, your company, or the things that you sell.
