PROMOTIONAL IDEAS

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Promotional Ideas

Promotional Ideas that Drive Performance and Attract Customers

A large part of running a successful business is coming up with fun and interesting promotional ideas that effectively generate awareness for any company and brand. Studies show that the best promotional idea is to offer a promotional giveaway for customers and employees as a promotional gift and business partners as a corporate gift. Promotional giveaways are free promotional products that feature a company’s logo and offer people associated with that company a little extra something for their patronage, loyalty, and business.
This has been the case for centuries as offering promotional materials is an effectively proven promotional idea. The first time anyone used a promotional item was back in 1789 when George Washington’s campaign used commemorative buttons in the 1789 election. This lent to the success of his campaign, resulting in a growing interest in the use of promotional materials for marketing purposes.
Eventually, this concept grew into an industry. The first official use of a promotional product occurred when Jasper Meek printed burlap bags in the late 1800’s to keep his news press business running during the slow business period. The burlap bags featured his company logo and advertising messages and offered him some great marketing products.
It wasn’t until 1904, however, when 12 representatives, who manufactured promotional products, came together and founded the Advertising Manufacturers Association (now called the Promotional Products Association International or PPAI). Their first order of business was to discuss issues like pricing, new ideas, and operating rules when it came to these promotional materials.
Then, in 1950 the Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), was founded and became one of the largest media and marketing organizations serving the advertising world.
Since then, the advertising world and the use of promotional products for advertising purposes have grown. But, what are the best promotional ideas and products to use? How does a business go about effectively offering these promotional materials? There are some very important things to keep in mind if your promotional idea to be successful.

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What’s Important to Remember When Offering Marketing Products

The purpose of these promotional giveaways is the same today as it was centuries ago; to advertise a business off to potential customers by using promotional items that appeal to them. It’s important to plan this type of promotion out thoroughly ahead of time, generate a promotional idea that your customers will enjoy and that will also help your business stand out from your competitors.
If you plan all your promotional ideas out thoroughly, then you’ll see the difference that offering them makes in a marketing campaign. Have a goal in mind, make a plan to offer memorable promotional ideas with great promotional gifts, and design an ad that is difficult to miss and features your company logo and a memorable slogan. This will help your campaign to attract some serious attention.
Make these promotional products and ideas fun and interesting and give your customers a reason to share these promotional items with their friends and family. With that being said, when planning this promotional giveaway, it’s important to understand who your customers are. It’s also important to figure out how to reach them and understand that different kinds of customers respond differently to various types of promotional giveaways. The right promotional products will offer new customers a reason to try your product and will also help to generate loyalty with existing customers. So, know your audience and plan to offer a promotional product that you know your customers will enjoy or get use out of.
Finally, if you’ve created a great promotional plan and are offering a promotional product that your customers will enjoy, then this should easily help you to stand out from your competitors. In addition to this, it’s also important to make sure that your promotional materials are eye-catching, memorable, and clearly present your company name or logo. When this is done correctly, these promotional products will increase positive brand awareness about your company and what you’re offering your customers. In fact, an experiment conducted by Georgia Southern University shows that when customers receive promotional items from a company, they have a much more positive image of that company, than one who didn’t offer a promotional item.

The Benefits of Using Promotional Products that Work

Advertising is marketing, and promotional products are marketing products because of the repeat attention they bring to any business. It’s proven that these marketing products bring positive attention to your company, offer up various lines of communication to discuss the great things about your company, and the designed logo can be used on various products for promotional purposes.
Studies show that if ads are posted in a newspaper, magazine, etc., they’re quickly forgotten about. However, if your company’s logo is printed on a promotional product, it’s guaranteed to get repeat exposure as these are great marketing products. In fact, studies show that over 55% of marketing products are kept for over a year, sometimes products are kept for up to four years.
Additionally, a study conducted by LJ Market Research showed that customers are more likely to remember the name of a company that gave them a marketing product, as opposed to a company that they saw advertised in a print publication. This increases brand awareness as your customers are wearing your company logo, showing it off at work, etc., which will, in turn, attract new clients. This will help your business to grow as it will draw positive attention to your company.

promotional materials for marketing

Furthermore, because of this repeated exposure, these promotional materials can open a line of communication between your customers and their friends and/or family members. In the world of promotion, it’s no secret that word of mouth is important for any company. Your customer’s family and friends are a lot more likely to trust their positive reviews than they would your ad telling them your company is great. If there’s a promotional item your customer is wearing/using a conversation is a lot more likely to start between the two parties. Your customers have great things to say about
your company, so give them an opportunity to do so when they’re with their loved ones.

Odenza Promotional Ideas for Contests

Promotional products not only offer a way to potentially open up a line of communication between your customers and their loved ones but also with a potential customer and you. These promotional items feature your company logo on them, so it’s a great way to segway into a conversation and discuss your company and what it has to offer. Some great promotional giveaways to offer your customers include:
1) Travel Incentives: Travel is the one gift that creates memories! Rewarding your customers or employees with a vacation getaway lets them enjoy their reward with loved ones, and helps you spread positive feedback about your company to all their friends and family! Think of all the referrals you will get!
2) Clothing/Apparel: According to the PPAI, clothes such as shoes, jackets, t-shirts, etc., are the most popular of promotional items. This is due to the fact that your customers are very noticeably wearing your company logo; this is likely to strike up a conversation more-so than other products.
3) Pens/Pencils: Yes, people still write by hand and an inexpensive way to include your company logo on a promotional product is by slapping it on a pen.
4) Coffee mugs: everyone drinks coffee and the mug that your customers will drink out of will include your company logo on it, showing it off to all their coworkers…possibly generating a conversation, giving you word-of-mouth advertising.

promotional products and giveaways

When to Offer These Marketing Products

There are also different/various times or places that you can offer these marketing products such as sending them directly to existing customers through the mail or email, as a reward for referring your company, or through social media.As mentioned earlier, giving your customers a promotional gift will create a positive image of your company in their mind. So, send them something in the mail, or email them a coupon for a promotional gift in your store. This will certainly grab their attention and will bring them in so they can see all the other amazing products you have to offer.
Adding onto this, if you offer your customers promotional materials for referring you, can you imagine how happy they’ll be? This is another great way to build a positive image of your company in their mind. A little promotional giveaway goes a long way and is a great way to help your customers to feel appreciated as it will offer them something extra for their time and money.
Furthermore, one of the best ways to advertise a promotional giveaway off is through social media. People are always posting comments about their day, so give them an incentive to post about your promotion. Offer the promotional gift as a special prize to your customers who get the most likes, retweets, etc., on a post that refers back to your company in some way. Their friends and family will see this post, which will increase awareness and likeability for your company. Posts on social media can really help or destroy any company, therefore, it’s important to make your customers happy. What better way to do this than offer them a promotional gift on a social media website that allows them to post about it and discuss it with their friends and family? This is a great way to advertise your promotion and company off, while simultaneously generating positive brand awareness at no cost to you!

social media promotion ideas

Corporate Gifts are Promotional Gifts

corporate gifts for employees

It’s important to offer promotional giveaways to customers, but it can also be beneficial to offer your business partners and colleagues a corporate gift. This reminds your business partners that the work they’ve done with and for you is appreciated and helps to build a sense of appreciation for your employees as well.
A corporate gift should be treated like any other promotional gift. This is another reason coffee mugs and pens are great promotional items; they’ll definitely be used around the office. These promotions are a great promotional idea for any company, as they’re a fun and simple way to express appreciation for hard work, increases loyalty, and can help to maximize your profits as it’s another great way to stand out from your competitors.

The End of the Promotional Giveaway

Once your promotional giveaway has reached its last entry deadline, you might think that your work’s done. However, it’s not. It’s important to check the effectiveness of the promotion. Did it increase sales? What was the promotional product that worked the best? Does your company have more loyal customers? Did you profit from the promotion; i.e. was the money you put into the investment worth the profit that came out of it? If a promotional product isn’t generating any results, then you need to go back to the drawing board and offer a different promotional item that will generate profit.
Offering promotional materials works, you just have to go about planning the promotional giveaway correctly.

Travel Incentives as Promotional Giveaways

We’ve come a long way since the mid-1700’s and George Washington’s campaign. One thing that has changed in the promotional world is companies can now offer travel incentives as a promotional giveaway. This is a great choice for any promotion because who doesn’t love a complimentary vacation? It’s a safe and amazing promotional idea that anyone can enjoy!
Travel incentives are great because they offer any business a great and unique promotional idea. Sure, you can offer something a bit simpler, but studies have found that people prefer a promotional gift like a travel incentive over other options. In fact, businesses who use this promotional idea in their promotional giveaway saw at least a 30% increase in their sales. This is because the chance to go on a complimentary vacation doesn’t come around very often. After all, who doesn’t love to go on a vacation? Who doesn’t love to get something for free? Your customers, corporate partners, and employees will receive an amazing offer that’s worth more than money.
As with any special promotion, however, there is a lot of planning involved with offering a travel incentive. It will no doubt set you apart from your competitors and your customers, employees, and business partners will love it, but it might be a good idea to outsource with a company like the Odenza Marketing Group. Staying on the safe side and hiring a company to do most of the hard work for you is a great alternative to planning the trip yourself.

travel prizes for promotions

Why Choose Odenza?

 
Outsourcing eliminates the likelihood that mistakes will be made during the planning process. After all, you don’t want to offer your customers, corporate business partners, or employees something amazing, only to have it be a disaster in the end. Outsourcing alleviates some of the stress that tends to go with an offer like this one. A travel incentive company, like the Odenza Marketing Group, deals with airlines and hotels on a regular basis, so they may have some buying power with these companies to get you the best deal possible. Also, if an in-house employee's tasked with planning this special offer, they may feel overwhelmed with this added responsibility and be more likely to make a mistake. Finally, third-party companies have the know-how and skills to handle a situation where a mistake might be made; if a hotel cancels, they know how to handle the situation in an effective, efficient, and quick way.

Contact us today at 1-866-883-2968, and we will work closely with you to develop the travel incentives and contest ideas that best fit your marketing campaign.