Think Bigger With Your Promotional Items

Think Bigger With Your Promotional Items

Promotional products can be an incredibly powerful advertising medium. They can also be highly ineffective if used haphazardly.

If you had your choice, would you rather your promos be potent or impotent?

Of course, that’s a rhetorical question, so there’s no need to justify it with the obvious answer.

The truth is, it is completely and utterly up to you whether or not your promotional products are effective or ineffective. The amount of thought you put into your promotional product campaign is directly proportional to its outcome.

In past articles, I’ve frequently referenced the 7 Steps to Creating a Successful Promotional Products Campaign, but what I’m suggesting now is above and beyond those necessary steps. It’s time to shine. I’m now asking you to show your stuff. It’s time to be memorable and start making your promotional items work to meet your goals. The time has come to think BIGGER with your promotional items.

The primary purpose of most promotional products is to promote awareness – whether that be your company, organization, event, or cause. To effectively do that, you have to ensure you are giving away the right products to the right people with the right message. With promotional products, the real estate for your message if often limited by small print areas. However, when you combine multiple products along with custom packaging, your ad copy real estate dramatically increases.

By kitting together multiple promotional products, you will make a much more significant impact on the recipients. The custom packaging allows you to create a more cohesive campaign. For additional effectiveness, you can include well-designed, to-the-point, printed collateral inside the kit to bring home your message.

Think about some of the higher valued items you have purchased over the past few years. The manufacturer spent a lot of time and money on the packaging. But why “waste” money on fancy packaging?

When you open a product enclosed in premium packaging, it’s exciting. It makes the product seem more valuable than it is. You feel as if it was worth the price you overpaid. It creates delight and excitement. You can’t wait to get inside the box to lay eyes on your new “toy.”

In the same way which retail brands present their products so elegantly, so should you when giving away your premium promotional products.

For example, if giving away stemless stainless steel wine tumblers, don’t give them away in a cheap white box or wrapped in a polybag. Instead, spend a few extra bucks to include sleek packaging to create an experience. People retain memories of experiences much longer than they do for products. This emotional response helps solidify a stronger bond between your recipients and your company.

Custom Sedona Stemless Stainless Steel Wine Tumblers Gift Set

High quality, creative packaging alone can elicit several different emotions, which builds excitement for the products inside. Evoking these emotions help create an experience of delight, which makes your marketing memorable with that recipient. See 10 Types of Emotions Promotional Products Can Evoke.

Don’t Forget a Call-to-Action (CTA)

When creating your kit, be sure to include a call-to-action or instructions for the recipient, letting them know the next step. The CTA will depend on your overall campaign goal. If your goal is to generate an online order, it may be a discount code that expires soon, creating a sense of urgency for them to order. If your goal is to get that person to your trade show booth, you can hold out part of the gift set (such as one of the tumblers above), allowing them to retrieve it in person at your booth, of course, only after a brief conversation.

If you plan to follow up with a phone call, give that person a heads up that you will be calling the following week, so when you do call, they are already expecting it. Simple actions such as this serve to warm up your phone call before you make it, so your phone call is less likely to get screened by the gatekeeper.

Focus on Design

The design on the outside (and inside) of your custom packaging matters a lot. This affects the perception of the gift(s). It’s imperative you convey the right message. Sometimes that means a minimalist approach by understating your logo. Other times this may mean a detailed exterior design to better fit the theme of your campaign. Whatever you do, don’t forgo graphic design services in order to save a few dollars.

A poorly designed exterior can be detrimental to your entire campaign, even if all the other steps are right.

The effectiveness of your promotional products is in your hands. You have the power to create compelling campaigns. It’s time to think BIGGER with your promotional products and start connecting on an emotional level with your clients by creating experiences. When you do, you truly stand apart from your competitors and create lifelong clients.

Related Articles
The Science Behind Promotional Products
Pavlov’s Promos
7 Types of Promotional Products Buyers
10 Reasons Why Promos Are More Effective Than Traditional Advertising
How Cheap Promos Can Damage Your Brand

Related content