Attracting new business with promotional items

How can promotional items help build a business’s brand? This article gives you hints and tips on how to make the right impression.

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19th August 2011 at 9:36 am

There are a number of ways that people will try to attract individuals to their business in order to promote sales. While advertising is a well-used tool in any company’s armoury, and word of mouth is one thing every firm strives for, a lasting impression is best gained through the use of freebies with your business’s liveries. By investing in Ideas by Net promotional items, you could truly keep in touch with prospective customers for a long time.

Of the many customised promotional items available, there are certain ones that seem to become more popular year after year. These include pens and other writing implements, followed closely by shirts, calendars, bags, headwear, office accessories, mugs and even food. Before taking a decision on what to buy, it is also important to consider the way that promotional products relate to your business. Acting as an indicator of brand abilities, it is important to focus on this aspect.

Firstly, name your target market. For example, you would only give promotional USB flash drives to people that are computer literate. It transcends these simple links, however; demographics to consider include age, income, gender, race, religion and personal interests.

Next, plan your budget. Once you know your audience, decide how much you are going to spend. Bear in mind that the more of a certain item you buy, the cheaper it gets per unit. Customised printing is available on pretty much any object these days, from a simple pen to a full car.

Still, you can’t afford to buy low-quality goods. It’s simply not appropriate to get low-grade promotional items in favour of more of them, because they reflect what you are as a company. If a bag rips apart, or a T-shirt becomes unthreaded after one wash, you can reflect terribly on your company. Pens are the best example to demonstrate the importance of quality; people will simply throw them in the bin if they don’t work. Bear in mind that the longer they are used, the longer they stay on desks or are shared between people. A telephone number and website address will constantly be displayed to any number of people, so lifespan is probably the most important facet of any investment.

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Alex is the founder and editor of SmallBizPod, the UK's first podcast dedicated to small business, start-ups and entrepreneurship. Alex writes about topical small business issues, entrepreneurs and anything else that catches his eye here on the small business blog. http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk

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  1. Rich says:

    It would also be worth mentioning that as a business website expert I have found it is a good idea to use your business website to provide free downloads of either information such as ebooks or anything else you can think of.

    A bit different from the usual corporate gift ideas, but if done in the right way, attract people through your website, get them coming back for more, you are able to attract people who want the sort of thing you are providing, thus hopefully be the first person they contact when they want to pay for the main services you offer.

  2. business expert says:

    great idea and we do get promotional items from time to time.

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