Up The Company Swag: Why Promotional Merchandise Works

Is your company swag suffering? With over 30 million other small businesses operating in the US, we’re not surprised. Clearly, there’s a lot of competition in the world these days. Business success is no easy feat. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the crowd. It’s far from impossible, though. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools, tactics, and strategies to increase brand awareness and drive revenue.

Of them all, promotional merchandise often gets overlooked and neglected. Yet the age-old practice of handing out branded freebies can provide a major (and much-needed) boost to business.

Want to get your company’s swag back?

Keep reading to discover exactly how promotional products can do exactly that.

1. It’s Inexpensive

Think about your current marketing budget. For businesses of a reasonable size, we’re guessing it runs to a sizeable sum.

Companies around the country are spending increasing amounts of money on their marketing.

Digital and traditional advertising campaigns can set you back a small fortune. Failing to see an adequate return means a lot of wasted time and money.

Promo items provide a cost-effective alternative. You don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on branded merchandise. Buying in bulk brings the overall cost down. You can purchase a large quantity of quality branded products and see dramatic savings in the process.

2. Long-Term Marketing

Mugs are a classic piece of promo merchandise. Now, they aren’t particularly inventive. However, think about how long they can last. It isn’t like a business card that gets binned immediately after distribution. Mugs can be used for years.

That’s powerful!

It doesn’t get much better in terms of extending brand awareness.

Other promo items can last just as long as well. T-shirts can be worn, wristbands can be sported, keychains can be utilized…you name it, and most merchandise can be utilized for significant lengths of time. No other marketing strategy offers the same longevity.

3. Better Brand Exposure

Promo merchandise can be genuinely useful. A member of your target audience finds value in the freebie. It enhances their life somehow. Nicely, your company logo and name is printed upon it, meaning that person knows they have you to thank. Your brand gets some brownie points as a result.

Those brownies points may translate to newfound leads and sales down the line. Even better, you’ve distributed hundreds of those useful trinkets. As each individual enjoys using them, word of mouth spreads even further. The reach of your business and brand expands organically as a result. The natural exposure gained from promo merchandise is a primary reason it can be so powerful.

4. Organic Redistribution

Happy customers naturally share what’s made them happy. They’ll tell other people about the freebie and your company. That’s the first bit of good news.

The second is that they may redistribute the promo item as well. It isn’t uncommon for branded items to exchange hands. Think how many times you’ve been handed a branded pen by someone! It happens all the time. Your reach extends even further in the process.

5. Customer Retention and Loyalty

Everybody loves a freebie. There’s nothing better than getting something for nothing. It inevitably leads to improved customer relations.

People see your brand in a better light. How could they not?! You’ve improved their life and asked nothing in return. You’ll reap the rewards of heightened customer loyalty in due course.

Promo items are both an incentive for prospective customers and a reward for previous customers. They say ‘welcome to our service’ and ‘thank you for your custom’, depending on the situation. Both prove useful for inspiring customer loyalty.

6. Match Your Needs

Branded products have no limits. They can just as easily be general and specific in nature. Mugs are a classic example of a generic item. They make a great give-away regardless of the context. However, imagine holding a specific event, or marketing a new service. You could design and manufacture promo items specific to your needs. You match them to your event or service.

You can get creative with the design, color, and the item itself. You could make buttons (find more about custom buttons via the link), lanyards, keyrings, baseball caps…Anything. This flexibility is another intrinsic benefit of promo items. This can be used to great effect when promoting exciting new developments for your company.

7. Instantly Stand Out

Remember the need to stand out in a competitive world? Promo merchandise can help you do it.

This is where the flexibility we just mentioned comes into play. You can create a tangible, on-brand product that fits your unique style and niche.

You’ve cultivated a brand that’s unique in your industry; the promo item can represent it. Even better, unlike other forms of advertising, you aren’t disrupting someone’s life. Online banner ads are intrusive. TV ads are annoying. Radio commercials interrupt the music. In contrast, you’re actively making someone’s life better with your product. There’s no interruption involved. They’re almost always received gratefully.

8. Other Companies Neglect It

Some companies now wrongly assume that traditional marketing is no longer viable. They’re ignoring the advertising methods of old and adopting digital campaigns instead. It makes sense.

Digital marketing is playing a growing role in business success.

However, it shouldn’t be a case of ‘out with the old and in with the new’. Forgoing traditional marketing entirely is foolish.

However, their loss is your gain. As we’ve seen, promo products can still work well. By incorporating them into your marketing, you automatically do something your competitors may not be. That contributes to their novelty value, which can enhance their utility and return on investment.

Time to Enhance Company Swag

There you have it: 8 essential reasons why promotional merchandise works. The business world is full of competition. Regardless of your particular industry, you’re guaranteed to be up against an abundance of other companies. In order to succeed, it’s essential to stand out from the crowd. To move, as they say, from a wandering generality to a meaningful specific, your business must take steps to set itself apart.

Enhancing your company swag through fun and useful promotional merchandise is one way to do it. Hopefully, we’ve highlighted exactly why companies stand to gain from incorporating this age-old marketing technique. Want more information on this subject? Be sure to contact us today!

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