Temperatures are starting to drop and leaves are slowly changing their colour, which means only one thing — school is right around the corner! As teachers and students alike prepare for a new semester, so should your marketing team. In fact, this is the perfect time to build a sense of community and foster connections with potential and existing customers with the help of custom badges. These affordable promo items can also bring in additional revenue for your business or university.
But as always, planning is an essential part of a successful campaign involving custom badges. Fortunately, you don’t have to spend hours searching for the perfect recipe; we’re here to help! In this blog post, we’ll explore a couple of creative ways you can use badges to kick-start the new semester and impress students, teachers, and anyone in between.
1. Welcome the Students
Let’s be honest — everybody loves badges, regardless of age. Actually, many people collect and pin badges to their clothing, backpacks and hats, especially students! So why not use custom badges as an affordable and effective way to greet new and returning students?
However, don’t be fooled into believing that badges are boring and dull like they used to be. Nowadays, you can find dozens of gorgeous badges that can feature intricate designs. As a matter of fact, you can even add the school’s emblem and symbol to a custom badge, allowing you to strengthen the relationship between students and the university.
Although they are small, custom badges can be an amazing gift for new students. You can further maximise their potential by creating an interesting welcome pack for new students. It can feature multiple promotional items, all branded with the school’s name and logo. Or, you can ask teachers to hand out the badges to their students on the first day of class. And, to make the whole deal more engaging, they could request students to introduce themselves and then reward them with a badge.
But don’t forget about the returning students, as they’ll also appreciate a gift. Every year or term, you can design a brand-new badge that features a different shape and colour scheme and includes the graduation year. By the time they actually graduate, these students will have a substantial collection of custom badges. And, if you want to go all in, you can even let every class submit their favourite design and vote on what badges they prefer for the current year or semester.
2. Strengthen the Community
More often than not, students live on their university campus. While living with their peers can be an incredible experience, it also takes some adjustment, even for students that are already accustomed to it. But you can smooth the transition and create a feeling of familiarity for these students with the help of custom badges.
One interesting idea is to design custom badges for each floor or building and gift them to students on move-in day. That way, whenever students are out exploring the campus, they’ll be able to recognise their peers and have a common talking point.
Another way badges can help is by encouraging students to connect with lecturers and departments. You can give a special badge to lecturers with five or more years of experience. Or why not design a unique badge for every department? For instance, the literature department can have a book-shaped badge. Similarly, the science lecturers can have their names engraved on a badge resembling the shape of lab equipment. With custom badges, the possibilities are limitless!
3. Fund Raising
As experienced marketers, we can attest that custom badges are a great way to generate some extra income for your organisation. In fact, many universities and institutions sell merchandise at their local gift shops, while others have their own digital store. But no matter how you want to sell them, you can use custom badges to generate a bit of additional revenue at the same time as creating a sense of unity.
You could also encourage the university’s departments to get involved with fundraising by selling custom badges and other merchandise in order to raise money for their programmes. During the next staff meeting, propose the idea and see if the department leaders would be interested. For example, literature departments can sell badges featuring the faces of famous authors. And, to make things even more interesting and fun, you could pit departments against each other and see which one can sell more badges. That will encourage competition and help raise even more money!
However, when planning to sell custom badges, you should also think about packaging. By placing the badges in a presentation box or including a branded backing card, you will add a touch of luxury. Plus, it’s another opportunity to increase your organisation’s brand awareness.
4. Nurture Team Pride
Usually, university sports teams are the ones responsible for raising funds to support their expenses, including clothing, travelling, and equipment. But, as noted earlier, custom badges can also raise some extra money for them too. All you need to do is create a custom badge that features the team’s name or emblem. Then, sell them during games or online.
But don’t forget to also create special badges for your players. You could give these badges to honour a particular match or player. Or, you can just gift special badges to graduating athletes after their last match. That way, you’ll recognise your athlete’s achievements and encourage them to do their best.
Related content:
10 Effective Business Uses for Branded Badges
To Sum Up
As the weather slowly changes and students across the country prepare for a new term, try using custom badges to start the school year on a positive note. These small yet effective items can help foster a positive culture and create fond memories for students and lecturers alike. They can even bring in additional revenue for sports teams and university departments. And best of all, custom badges are incredibly affordable, making them a great choice for organisations of all sizes. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to kick-start the new semester in style!
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Contact us at 0800 0148 970 or simply email us today for more info, and browse through our stunning collection of latest promotional products. Some of them might nudge your imagination in the right direction and help you create promo merch that your clients and customers will love at first glance. We are waiting for your call!
