subject: Is Your Promotional Campaign A Two-Way Avenue To Marketing Triumph Or Just A Dead End Giveaway? [print this page] Is Your Promotional Campaign A Two-Way Avenue To Marketing Triumph Or Just A Dead End Giveaway?
The phone rings Wednesday morning and it's Angela, a great client of mine. She's anxiousely calling to request an order of imprinted pens for an up-coming corporate rebranding event in which they were going to introduce their refreshed and redesigned corporate logo to all of their employees. I personally promoted their tasty coffee products in the past and was privy to a bit of their history and vision for the future. So after asking a few specific questions, I recommended lenticular thermal Travel Mugs that would show their old logo morphing into the new logo in three dimensions would do the trick! This went over fantastic as it was a big hit amongst all who attended because not only did the mugs convey the goal of the event, its practicality was the ideal fit and had higher perceived value than pens as viewed by the company employees.Developing superior promotional ideas that are relevant to your audience isn't that hard. It just takes a simple shift in how we think and an understanding of what you really want to accomplish. The change in mindset comes when you understand the distinction between a giveaway and a promotion. All too often, corporations give away some cheap "stuff" thinking it will create goodwill and effectively promote their business. They are mindless of the fact that the item is irrelevant to their business or the prospect's immediate need such as a Coffee giant giving away logo'd pens. The recipient takes the item home and: A) puts it in a drawer, B) gives it to the pets, C) toss it in the trash. D) perhaps uses the item with no real intention of doing business with the advertiser.A Giveaway is a one-way street generally speaking. With giveaways, you cannot easily measure your return on investment. You gain very little certainly nothing you can actively follow up on. And, as far as building business? Few will say, "Wow! They gave me a cheap piece of plastic with their name on it! I've really got to do business with them." Now don't get me entirely wrong, pens can be very effective marketing tools if they write in a superior fashion or uniquely tie-in to the campaign theme.A Promotion on the other hand is a two-way street. You determine what you want your target to do, then you imagine a way to get them to do it. Trade shows are a good example of this. As I said, most companies give away something inexpensive to everyone who stops by. But as a business owner/marketer, you don't care about everyone - nor should you. You should care only about those who are specifically interested in your product or service and can afford to pay for it.Being a smart promotional marketer, you should offer something of value to those who first fill out a short need-assessment or survey providing you with their name, email address, other contact information and an idea of their level of interest or purchasing time frame. This is how you should qualify your prospects and get meaningful, actionable information. And because you're not giving something to everybody, you can afford to offer promotional product of higher quality and will prompt your prospect to remember you. For instance, a mortgage company that's giving pens to everyone, would do better to offer an imprinted booklet about Managing Your Finances and given only to those who fill out a short questionnaire. Sure, the promo book costs more than the pens. But, the company obtains information on which they can effectively follow up and further their marketing to. The added bonus is the fact that the return on investment is measurable, and the prospect has a practical item that is targeted to their interest.Giveaways have their place when donating to goody bags, as prizes for contests or token thank-you gifts. However, when your goal is to promote your business, secure qualified leads or increase traffic to your trade show booth - an effective promotion beats a cheap giveaway any day.
