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Successful Promotional Products Create Engagement!

Posted by Chris Higgins on Mon, Apr 21, 2014 @ 07:00 AM

"Engagement" has been one of the big watchwords in marketing lately, and for good reason. describe the imageToday, it's no longer enough to simply have a brand that's widely-seen and well-known. When people are being bombarded with hundreds of marketing impressions a day, it takes more than that to create sales.

To make sales reliably, buyers need to feel a connection to your company. Engagement, in all its various forms, creates that connection. When a buyer is already accustomed to dealing with your company, even in a non-purchasing capacity, they'll be far more likely to remember you when it's time to buy.

Branded promotional items are a great choice in outreach because of the engagement they encourage. Promotional merchandise puts your brand directly in people's homes and offices, while opening up new paths towards consumer engagement.

Building Engagement With High-Quality Promotional Items

1 - Make your merchandise useful. 

The first and most important rule of promotional merchandise is that it must be relevant and useful to your target market.   You want something a lead will pick up and say, "Hey, that's helpful!"

A promotional item that ends up in the trash or forgotten in a drawer is ultimately a waste of money. The best items, therefore, are those that your target audience will actually want to keep around and use.

Think carefully about your audience, and the range of options available for promotional items. The right pairing of item and market will create engaging tie-in merchandise.

2 - Create interesting novelties and "executive toys."

Rather than looking to be useful, trying to simply be fun can also be an effective way of engaging people with your promotional merchandise.  IBM, for example, is well-known for giving away a variety of little puzzles, meant to simply kill a couple minutes between meetings.

Unusual designs for commonplace items is another good way to introduce some novelty, especially if they introduce multi-functionality in the process.  These can be an effective way to encapsulate your company's philosophy, in visual form.  

A spiral-shaped pen, for example, would indicate a company that looks to work around problems.

3 - Pairing with trade events.

Trade shows and other industry expositions are practically synonymous with "free swag." In post-show surveys, trade show attendees often unapologetically list the free goodies as one of the main reasons for attending.

Any promotional appearance you make should be accompanied by branded promotional items. It allows you to make a greater impression on your visitors, as well as giving them a reason to remember you after the show.

Trade show attendees aren't going to recall 90% of the brands they interacted with at a show. A good piece of targeted merchandise that they'll use in the weeks ahead ensures your brand is one they remember.

4. Offer services.describe the image

Sometimes, you don't even need to give away your branded items to help create engagement.

We enjoyed a recent report of a promotion run by Hotels.com at the 2014 South-by-Southwest music and film festival. To combat the long lines (and warm temperatures) at the festival, they ran a contest on Twitter where randomly-selected Tweeters got a Hotels.com employee to stand in line for them. Of course the Hotels.com employees were decked out in brightly colored Hotels.com T- shirts and other swag to make sure they stood out while engaging with numerous prospects.

This same basic idea could be deployed at conferences, trade shows, or any other occasion where your clients are standing around.

The simple presence of an employee wearing branded merchandise, performing a useful service for people, creates a strong impression of that brand as being helpful.  It also gives branded employees a chance to engage with other people nearby, who see them rendering services.

Promo Items Boost Engagement

A good piece of promotional merchandise creates a bond between you and a lead, as well as giving them a gift that they can use for months to come. Pairing branded merchandise with outreach and engagement strategies creates a powerful engagement-driving combination!

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Topics: Promotional advertising, accordion folder, promotional products