subject: Know Your Market When Using Promotional Materials [print this page] When you have a company, event, or popular product that you need to showcase or brand, you can turn to a professional promotional merchandise company. A promotional merchandise company will provide any company or individual with a wide variety of items, large and small, which can be used to promote a company, draw attention to a brand name, encourage logo recognition or support a major event or product.
Thorough promotional merchandise companies will not only provide you with a wide variety of items from which to choose, but also help you customize each item so that it matches your needs, then ship the item anywhere you need. If you have a business conference which will take place in multiple cities over the course of several weeks you can use a promotional merchandise company to ensure that the same promotional materials are catered to reflect the particular city, host and location, then shipped to that location. The days of travelling to and from multiple events with boxes of promotional materials as your luggage are over.
Promotional materials include things such as bags, pens, stationery, usb flashdrives, key rings, caps, or umbrellas, but are certainly not limited to this list. You can use any item that is big enough to put your logo on as a promotional material. Promotional products work as an effective marketing tool for businesses and organisations large and small.
Though promotional materials are a cost effective solution for branding and marketing your business, you want to make sure that you do not waste money by using them ineffectively. Keep these tips in mind when determining what promotional materials to use to make sure that you are spending your marketing dollars wisely.
Target Audience
Promotional materials have a wide variety of uses. When you keep your target audience in mind while choosing your promotional materials it will ensure that the promotional items are useful and effective. Your target audience for promotional materials that you buy may be slightly different from the customers that you target with your other marketing. Promotional items work especially well for business-to-business marketing, and therefore you may choose to target other businesses who can help you market your services. You may also want to target a smaller segment of your audience or a larger customer base than you normally market to. Either way, you will want to know exactly who you are targeting before you buy promotional materials.
Your target market can affect the kind of promotional items you buy, the number of items, the distribution methods you decide on and the information that you choose to print on the promotional materials. Planning for all of these things in advance will save you headaches and money down the line.
Budget
Another very important part of your plan for buying promotional items is the budget that you have to work with. With the wide variety of promotional materials available to you, virtually any budget can be accommodated when buying these important marketing tools. However, knowing your budget is important so that you are not surprised with unexpected expenses down the road.
Your budget will affect the kind of promotional items that you buy. Some promotional materials can be had for under 50 each while others cost $20 or more per piece. Take the price of the promotional item you are going to purchase into consideration when choosing as well as the shipping costs, additional costs for printing your logo on the item and any costs that may be incurred during the distribution of the promotional materials. The budget you place for branding your company with promotional items has to stretch to encompass all of these possible costs, so you should keep this in mind throughout the process of choosing your promotional materials.
Use and Usefulness
The promotional item that you choose to use for marketing your business says a lot about your company. And if you choose wisely, you can also impact not only branding but you can start a chain of word of mouth marketing with the right promotional materials. A successful promotional item will be something that pertains to the services or products that you offer. It should also prominently display your company logo and contact information.
When selecting a promotional item to brand your business with, you want to make sure that the item is something that people will use. This is why ink pens are such a popular choice. If the promotional item that you choose is simply a cute idea that gets thrown in the trash, you are just wasting money. Your target audience must use the item that you choose regularly or at a time when they will think about needing your services.
Effectiveness
While people definitely use ink pens they do not inspire a reaction with the customer the way something more creative might. Do some brainstorming to think of promotional items that say something about your business. For instance, if you are in the construction industry, put your logo on small screw drivers. The more creative you are the better chance your promotional item has of being effective. But be careful that you are not so creative that your item is no longer useful. Remember that your ultimate goal is to keep the promotional item in front of your target audience for as long as possible as often as possible.
When you follow these steps for choosing promotional marketing materials, you are well on your way to effectively branding your business. You may have to go through some trial and error before you find the right combination of target audience, product and distribution channel to be most successful with promotional marketing materials. However, once you figure out what works for you and your business, this branding technique can be an excellent source of marketing for your business. It is also a cost effective way to get the word out about you and what you do. So plan your marketing materials wisely and choose them with that plan in mind to have the absolute best chance at success.
