There’s no denying that promotional giveaways are among the most effective ways to advertise your business or event. Not only are promotional items tangible, but they are also practical, meaning that your recipients will use them regularly. As a result, your advertising will live on for months or years to come without you having to invest additional money.
However, there are times when promotional items can actually damage your brand. In fact, by giving out promotional items without thinking about how they fit into your business model and your campaign, you could end up doing more harm than good. But you don’t have to worry, as all you need to avoid these simple mistakes is a little planning.
Exposing Promo Faux Pas
The first thing you need to do is understand some common mistakes that companies make. From offering low-quality gifts to failing to recognise the desires of their target audience, there are many blunders that you could make when planning your promotional campaigns.
Cheap and Low-Quality Gifts
You might think that there’s nothing worse than giving away promotional items that don’t function well or are inherently useless. However, there is something much worse than that which has the potential to negate all the hard work you have put in to improve the reputation of your company. That is, giving away cheap promotional items as a reward for your most loyal customers.
Unfortunately, the saying A for effort doesn’t apply when it comes to promotional campaigns. Simply put, giving away low-quality gifts is insulting and shows that you don’t appreciate your recipient’s loyalty. As a matter of fact, this practice makes your company look cheap, which is harmful to both your reputation as an owner and the reputation of your company.
So, if you want to thank your loyal customers, you’ll have to give away high-quality promotional items like custom speakers, printed metal travel mugs, or luxury brand name pens. As a rule of thumb, you should base the value of the gifts on the amount of money your loyal customers spend on your products on an annual basis. For instance, if they spend £10,000 per year, a £30 or £40 thank you gift is pretty reasonable.
Keep in mind that your clients will surely notice the difference between premium and cheap gifts. By choosing the cheap route, you will make your clients feel underappreciated, thus losing their loyalty. What’s even worse is that you could accidentally create more opportunities for your competitors to attract and steal your customers. But, by gifting useful promotional products of higher quality, you can show true appreciation and increase the loyalty of your existing customers.
Gifts That Are Not Suited for Your Target Audience
At first glance, gifting promotional products could seem like an easy task. After all, what could go wrong? But what happens when you don’t understand the needs of your target audience?
Let’s say you market your products to other business owners. And while gifting them a couple of branded T-shirts sounds like a great idea, that might not be the best gift for this kind of audience. In fact, by doing so, you could ruin your chances of attracting potential partners or investors.
You also need to remember that choosing unsuitable gifts is a waste of your advertising budget. Furthermore, if you make a poor choice, you are actually showing your customers that you don’t really know them. That way, you make yourself and your company seem out of touch with their desires and needs.
Therefore, you need to carefully consider what products you want to gift and base that selection on the main demographics of your clientele. Actually, you might need to select two to three different gifts to fulfil the needs of your customers. But make sure that the gifts are age and gender-appropriate. For example, when giving away T-shirts, it’s always great to have a wide range of sizes and styles.
It’s important to note that segmenting your target audience into groups is a great way to decide which gift is appropriate for them. And while that doesn’t mean that every single person will love the item, it does increase the chance of making a bigger and more positive impact.
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Gifts That Aren’t Useful
With more than a million promotional products out there, quite a few have specific purposes. And though it’s a good idea to gift these kinds of products, they need to tie in with your company and marketing theme.
The goal of your promotional campaign is to ensure that the promotional items will continue to be used. Why? Because that will give your company repeated exposure at no additional cost. Therefore, you need to understand the usefulness of your promotional products.
As an example, promotional stress balls or branded hot & cold packs can look like the best gift idea ever. However, while they have value for physical therapists and their patients, other people might not find them very valuable. Sure, your target audience can use or play with them once in a while, but realistically, people will forget about their stress balls and heat packs in a matter of hours. Therefore, arbitrarily giving away random items without an appropriately themed campaign doesn’t really make any sense and should be avoided.
It’s Time to Say No to Promo Faux Pas!
All things considered, the main goal of your campaign is to gain the trust and loyalty of your clients, while also attracting new potential customers. So don’t weaken your customer’s loyalty or waste your budget by buying the wrong promotional products. Start by doing the necessary research and getting a better understanding of your target audience. Additionally, while low-quality products can seem like a good way to save money, try to avoid relying on them.
And always remember that every item you purchase needs to have a purpose and a goal. In other words, random promotional giveaways rarely work and could turn away potential customers. So, define a purpose for your campaign, and you’ll see an increase in the return on investment. And who knows, maybe in a couple of years, you’ll be the owner of one of the biggest companies in your field, helping others figure out what works and what doesn’t in terms of marketing.
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Contact us at 0800 0148 970 or simply email us today for more info, and browse through our vast collection of logo branded products. Some of them might nudge your imagination in the right direction and help you create coasters that your clients and customers will love at first glance. We are waiting for your call!
