Argon Promotional Products and Promotional Gifts. » 2009 » July

The role of promotional products as a marketing tool is a gateway towards a company’s success. The products you can use range from memo holders, pens, note pads, lanyards, coasters, bookmarks, clipboards, sticky notes, and virtually anything that companies deem effective and useful to their clients. Careful planning and decision-making regarding the appropriate promotional products are necessary, if you want your advertising campaign to be a success.

However, when it comes to the thriving business industry, it is always a challenge to stay at the forefront of your competitors. During events like trade shows or conferences, you strive to give nothing but the best promotional products. Sure, this is a right thing to do, but how do you ensure that you will give your clients a good impression of your company along with your chosen giveaway?

A key towards this type of campaign success is to maximize its potential as an advertising tool. The best way to do this is to ensure that your items match the interests and needs of clients. For instance, clipboards and binders would be very much appreciated by potential business clients in attendance at a conference. On the other hand, people attending a trade show will not really be using clipboards and binders because such events don’t involve much reading, classes, or seminars. This is why it’s essential to hand out the products that cater to a specific event and match the customer’s interests and needs.

During conferences or trade shows, you may also consider giving promotional bags, which already have a variety of goodies in them. This way, you’re appealing to a wider audience and you can never go wrong.

Since your clients have different lifestyles, your chosen giveaways should be ones that clients can still find useful even after the event. For business executives, consider giving golf balls, sports bottles, or nice authentic metal pens. Thus, every time they are playing golf during Sundays, going for a run or using their pens when signing papers, your company name and logo are still recognized.

On the other hand, if there are kids at your trade shows, it would be smart to give games or puzzles. As a result, your advertising goes beyond the event and reaches as far as their homes every time the youngsters use your promotional products.

Matching your promotional products to the needs of your customers is quite practical. All that you have to do is to be one with your audience and before you know it, they will be one with your company too.

A new effective marketing strategy used by companies and business organizations to promote their products and services and to enhance their brand awareness is distributing promotional gifts to their employees and potential customers.

These products are imprinted with the company name, logo, or advertising message and are then, used for fundraising, launching a new product or service, as a ‘thank you’ to loyal customers, as part of a community awareness program or as part of an employee incentive program. Used thus, there are innumerable ways of utilising this popular marketing strategy as part of a successful and highly innovative campaign. Business firms employ these products lucratively by using them independently as well as in association with media and advertising strategies.

These gifts have proved to be especially effective and beneficial, since they help achieving the manifold purpose of market approval and admiration and gratitude building. Some of the well-known advantages of offering promotional gifts include the following:

1.    Enhancing the company image which, in turn, gives improved sales.

2.    Generation and preservation of the most sought-after customer interest and trust in the products and services offered by the company.

3.    Increasing the response rate by integrating it with a direct-mail campaign.

4.    Generating traffic and improving the business stand, especially through effective trade shows.

5.    Inspiring the company team and staff members by gifting them promotional gifts in different incentive programs and thus, improving their work quality and productivity.

6.    Achieving desirable target marketing by getting the company message successfully across to a well-defined, potential audience.

7.    Attainment of a constant, non-stop advertising of the company through just a single investment, since these products are tangible and durable and can be used a number of times, repeatedly. The imprinted company message or slogan is thus, seen time and again, every time the promotional gift is used.

Apart from these, companies also utilize these giveaways by combining them into packages. This is a great strategy for convincing your customers that you appreciate them and care for them and take extra efforts to go an extra mile for achieving maximum customer satisfaction. Thus, such promotional product packages boost the company’s advertising policies and provide it with enviable exposure.

Investment in the winning strategy cannot be considered as a waste of resources. You only need to be a bit creative and use your chosen promotional gifts to your fullest advantage to realize their immense potential in fetching you maximum results.

One of the best ways to motivate employees and/or strengthen customer loyalty is to offer promotional items. These are products offered by companies, absolutely free of charge with an intention to promote a brand, product or a service.
Some of the most popular products available in the market are promotional mugs, magnets, calendars and printed pens. There is actually no limit to the items that a company can choose to give out. A company should always use its creativity and imagination as much as possible when selecting giveaways.
You should not underestimate the power of promotional items. The most recent research has revealed that these are more effective in building a recall of brand names or even corporate names. This results in people being able to recall names of companies which gave them promotional gifts even after months from the time when they received the gift. Not only does this help improve brand exposure but this also helps build a good reputation for the company.
Promotional items can be used to commemorate important occasions in your valuable customers’ lives such as their anniversary or birthday. They could also be used to recognize employees’ contributions or when the company is introducing a new brand or just trying to refresh a dying brand.
Another reason to choose this type of giveaway is that you can give products which will not only serve the needs of the business but also fit into the budgets of the company. Effective gifts would be those which the customer can use on a daily basis. The more often that other people see your promotional items being used, the larger the chances that they will transact with your company. Not only should the item be useful but also attractive.  They can be extremely effective too as people love to show off attractive gifts to their family and friends who will thereby be exposed to your brand name. The relevance of the promotional items to your business is also an important factor in deciding what should be used for your business.
In general your company needs to focus its attention on promotional items that compliment your brand name and will help add to customer loyalty and also prove attractive to prospective customers. For your promotional campaign to be effective, make sure that the items you give away are not only attractive but useful too. Be creative and imaginative when choosing what products you wish to use for your campaign!

As a viable alternative to conventional advertising, the distribution of promotional products has stood the test of time and many companies have adopted this practice to their benefit.  They have always been well received and have enabled companies to boost their image and reinforce their company logo into the minds of their customers and the general public.  Besides top of mind brand recall, they serve to fortify the goodwill with existing customers and build a rapport with the new customers.  Customer loyalty and their retention is of absolute importance and through the distribution of such products, you are able to ensure that these essentials are met to a great extent.

Promotional productss are no longer restricted to just exhibitions, tradeshows and your customers.  They are also being handed over to employees within the company as well as other business associates and even vendors.  Successful business practices do not only mean maintaining high standards of ethics and quality.  The personal touch and human element is equally important to ensure that the business transactions do not remain mere statistics and also extend to cover the human angle.  All of us like praise and recognition and your customers, business associates, employees and vendors are no different.  Even third party outsourced contractors need to be included in this list.  Distributing useful and handy promotional products to all of them will stand you in good stead and you must look at the expense incurred as an investment to build human relations.  The items themselves need not be too expensive.  They just need to be of utility value and should be of decent quality to last for a long time.  The recipient will get bowled over by the gratitude and concern shown by you in distributing these and will not hold the value of the goods against you.  In this case truly, it is the spirit that matters and in sharing these gifts with them, you are laying the foundation for a long and mutually beneficial relationship.

While customers and your business associates would feel happy that you have acknowledged the support extended by them to you in your business, vendors and third party people will perceive you as a good company to do business with and will extend all cooperation to you when most needed.  As for the employees, they would feel that they are part of a company which believes in human values and will motivate them to always give their best and stay with the company.

It is thus a win- win situation for everybody.

Smart companies want to give their valued clients and customers an item that is both useful and trendy.  The whole idea of spending money on promotional items is to give your company more exposure at the same time giving the customer something they will enjoy using.

The promotional items market is bigger than ever.  A few years ago there were just calendars, pens, magnets, and mugs.  Now there is an enormous selection of products to meet any budget or occasion.  With so many choices available it is easier to purchase gifts that will relate to your company’s services and add extra impact to your promotion.

One of the big trends that is catching on is supporting the environment in the workplace.  Many companies are looking for ways to integrate items that are eco-friendly to use for promotional items.  These companies do not have to look far; as you will see when browsing the website we are providing more and more eco-friendly promotional items.

These products are in part or wholly recycled or made from a natural fiber.  The two most popular natural fiber materials are hemp and bamboo.  Many products are also recycled from plastic cups and sustainable trees. There are some products that are manually powered (hand cranked) or solar powered.  These products have a non eco-friendly look but if you’re concerned about responsible gift giving, they make a terrific alternative without compromising the quality of the item.

These eco-friendly promotional items are perfect for individuals that are passionate about the environment and favour companies who provide these items.  Some great items that can be recycled are bags, hats, keyrings, and organic shirts.  This is a perfect way to show your potential customers that you are environmentally conscious.

Environmentally conscious gifts are always a good idea.  Distributing environmentally conscious promotional items can get you some much needed publicity.  Using these not only gives you needed exposure, running an eco-friendly promotional campaign might get you some valuable coverage from the press.  In many cases, companies have gotten business awards in the environmental category for their efforts.

Using promotional items that are environmentally friendly can definitely have its advantages.  They give you a surefire method to promote your company whilst helping the environment at the same time.  Check out the ever growing line of environmentally friendly promotional items.  Pick out the Items that best suit your market and campaign strategy, personalize these items with your company logo and start marketing the eco-friendly way.