Any business looking to win with their business strategy needs to continually evaluate their marketing and promotional mix. This mix includes direct marketing, public relations, advertising, sales promotion and personal selling. Sales promotions are an integral part of getting in front of your target market. Promotional products, just like any other strategy, need to be curated to the target audience to ensure effectiveness. Promotional merchandise and corporate apparel won’t break the bank and eye-catching products can be an enticing pull for your audience. So, how do you win your target market over with promotional products Auckland? Here are key strategies to implement into your plan.
1. Hone in on what you’re trying to promote
At the heart of a well thought of plan is the answer to the question of ‘what’ and in this instance, it is, what are you trying to promote? Are you trying to advertise a new product launch or your business as a whole? Understanding the ‘what’ aspect cements the remainder of your strategy. For instance, if you’re promoting a new sportswear line, a sports water bottle with your brand on it can be a complementary promotional product. In the same way, if you’re a new business looking to get your name out there, a product sample is a great idea. Say you’re a makeup brand, a small tube of a skincare product lets the customer trial it before purchase. It goes without saying, the best sort of product is a free one, so make it count!
2. Who is your audience?
This is a no-brainer. Understanding your target market is essential to know how to market to them. Gather everything you know about them: the demographics, interests, likes, dislikes and anything else that can lend to understand what sort of promotional items they would be interested in.
3. Consider environmental factors
The value of your product must also appeal to other causes your audience cares about. A massive concern across audiences today is environmental degradation. Audiences across age categories have shown preferences towards products that are eco-friendly and sustainable. In fact, opting for sustainable products, you’re not only appealing to your audience but also showing that your brand cares about greater environmental missions and factors. Additionally, recyclable and custom logo items can be extremely cost-effective.
4. Just because it’s trendy and cool doesn’t mean it’ll work
If you’re going to invest part of your marketing budget on promotional products, make it count. Just because the industry is seeing some trendy and cool projects (remember the fidget spinner?), adopting it might not be the best strategy for your business. Instead, get ahead of your target market by choosing products that your audience will genuinely use. This goes back to the point of understanding who your audience is. Does your audience predominantly have desk jobs? If yes, there might be more merit in promoting your brand with relevant items such as personalised mugs NZ rather than something that’s just cool.
5. Quality Matters
Even if you nail exactly the type of product your target audience loves, if the quality is dismal, you may as well not use promotional items. Why? Because these promotional items are a representation of your brand. Do you want your product to fall apart after only using it twice? We didn’t think so. Invest in quality promotional items because you’re communicating the values of your brand through them.
6. Add in a CTA
You’ve nailed the exact promotional item you want, but don’t forget to add in a call to action. Whether that’s a phone number, email address, a website or social media handles, make sure you’re opening a channel for your audience to come back to you.
7. Distribution matters, too
Just as we had mentioned in the previous point, how and when you distribute your promotional items matter, too. For instance, handing out promotional merchandise after an event or meeting is more impactful than a business-as-usual day. Similarly, if you’re handing out a product that would gain the most utility during a consumer’s holiday, that would be more useful than a usual business day.
Promotional items shouldn’t be ruled out as an ancient form of marketing. There is still a very powerful way to get in front of your audience with promotional materials for business. If you’re looking for high quality, cost-effective and creative ways to add corporate branded items to your marketing mix, contact the experts at PromoteIt.
