The 5 W’s of Promotional Product Strategy

Planning your promotional product strategy has always been the best way to get a return on your investment. As a rule of thumb, following the 5 W's: who, what, when, where and why, will help you find out "How" promotional products help you accomplish your goals. The First W: What At the start of your …

5 Steps To A More Effective Direct Mail Campaign

One of the major struggles of sending a direct mail piece is when your investment blends in with "junk" mail. What happens when it blends in?  Think about what you do when you get junk mail (throw it away, perhaps?).  Not good, right? Especially when you think about your prospects throwing away your advertisement! When …

Promotional Products: A Subtle, Yet Effective Way to Advertise

Imagine this: you're driving home from work in heavy traffic.  You decide to listen to the radio because it's "been a while" since you listened to it.  Problem is, there are commercials on every station!  You flip through all the stations and cannot find a single song. Praying you have enough data this month to …

5 Uses for Promotional Products to Strengthen Your Brand

It's easy to think of promotional products as objects with a logo on them.  Sure, that's what they are.  But, they are capable of so much more! Believe it or not, promotional items can do a lot for you and your company. These items can be used in a variety of different ways from helping …

3 Ways Promotional Products Can Bring Value To Your Company

When strategically placed in front of the right audience, the value of promotional items shines through. Not only are these marketing tools fun and useful, they can be tailored to any goal or objective you have.  If you currently use promotional products in this way, you're aware of the benefits they bring.  If you're not …

Are Promotional Products Effective Marketing Tools, Really?

One of the most frequently asked questions about promotional products is: “are they effective marketing tools?”. The answer is: it depends on how effective you want them to be! Yes, that's a vague answer. However, promotional items are only effective if you strategize the way you use them. Simply handing out low-cost promotional items on …

4 Steps To Exhibiting At A Trade Show To Increase Results

Are you going to be exhibiting at a trade show, soon? What does your strategy look like?  Do you have one? If you're unsure of your strategy or don't have one, it's time to reevaluate your trade show presence! Exhibiting at a trade show is a great way to create awareness of your brand and …

Do You Know How Versatile Promotional Products Are, Really?

Promotional items are versatile products that can be imprinted with a company's logo, information, marketing message, etc. This is the basic definition of these tangible items. Because of their versatility, there are multiple ways to use them. For example, these items can be used to help a company's brand image, increase both customer and employee …

Is It Time To Stop Wasting Marketing Dollars On Promotional Items?

Have you ever wondered if you're wasting marketing dollars buying "stuff" when it comes to your promotional item purchases? It's OK to say "yes", but have you considered why? Most businesses purchase promotional items to pass out "stuff" with their logo. Very few businesses buy promotional items with a plan to back up their purchases …

How to Start Planning Your Promotion to Avoid Costly Mistakes

It's so easy to fall in love with seeing your logo printed on promotional items. Especially if it's something really cool or the "hottest" product out right now. Truth is, if you don't plan, your latest and greatest products will end up in storage cemetery and become costly mistakes. When using promotional items in your …

Why Brand Experiences Matter To Your Company

How do your prospects and clients feel when they interact with your brand? If you don't know, you should find out! This is important to know because clients and prospects are constantly developing feelings after each interaction with you.  From the first touch point and after there's an opportunity to create experiences that lead to …

Why Audience Clarity is Crucial for Marketing Campaign Success

Clearly defined goals, a finite time frame, a clear message, and the perfect vehicle to deliver your message. These are the necessities for a well-crafted strategic marketing campaign.  But, something important is missing. When you're trying to develop any marketing campaign, your intention is to grow your company and achieve results. Right? In order to …

3 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Purchasing Promotional Items

When your promotional items work for you, they engage your audience, incentivize them to take action and give you results. This takes a lot more than just slapping a logo on a product and calling it a day. You need to follow a plan that will connect you with your audience and help you track …

How Knowing Your Audience Can Enhance Your Promo Marketing Results

In marketing, it's important to know your audience - who you're promoting to - in order for your promotion to be effective. Especially when it comes to using promotional items in your campaigns. For obvious reasons, knowing your audience means, it's easier to advertise to them.  For less obvious reasons, it's your audience who is receiving …

Are My Promotional Products Giving Me The ROI I Would Like Them To?

Many companies have the impression promotional products are "stuff" you buy with your logo...and that's it. While this is one feature promotional items offer, there's more to them than that.  Promotional products are very powerful marketing tools, when used purposefully and strategically. Don't see it? You simply need to look at them from a different …

4 Things Your Boss Expects You to Know About Promotional Products

There are many ways organizations use promotional products. A few ways to use them are to enhance brand image, build long lasting relationships with clients and showing appreciation. However, in order to achieve these results, an organization cannot simply buy a random item and expect it to work. If you use promotional products in your …

How To Connect With Consumers To Stay Top of Mind

Recently, I read a few interesting fact in an article in Health magazine.  The article was about detoxing from "screen" usage to create healthy habits around the way we use technology. The first fact was "'11. The number of years a person will look at his or her phone in a lifetime', according to data …

The ‘Right’ Way to Use Promotional Products As Marketing Tools

More often than not, promotional products are misunderstood, highly under-utilized tools when it comes to promoting a company. Really, they are one of the most effective marketing tools in your toolbox! Typically, companies add their logo to products because they want something branded to give away in hopes of receiving new leads, business, recognition, etc. …

The Evolution and History of Promotional Products

Promotional Products have been around for a very long time, we figured it would be interesting to showcase their evolution since their first debut in 1789! In 1789, Former President George Washington created commemorative buttons to mark the event that he was elected president. These commemorative buttons were the first promotional items to be given …

21 Reasons Promotional Items Are Effective Advertisements

Promotional item can be cost effective advertising tools that can produce beneficial results, when used strategically. Over the past 10 years, there have been a number of industry studies conducted to prove this. We looked at studies from the Advertising Specialties Institute (ASI) and the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) and found 21 reasons promotional …

The Proper Way to Use Promotional Products For Results

When most people think about promotional items, the word "advertisement" rarely comes to mind. The reason for this is because most people don't know how to use the items as advertisements. The "how" is the secret to determining the level of advertising that can be accomplished. If you are one of the many that have …

The Importance of Having a Budget for Your Next Promotion

When planning a promotion, there are many factors to take into consideration. Determining your audience, where to promote, how to promote and which promotional products to use are only a few things you need. Then, it all boils down to the big "B" word.  Your Budget. If you don't know your budget, or worse, don't …

Promotional Marketing: The Key to Cutting Through the Noise

Marketing is a crucial aspect every business needs in order to spreading awareness of your brand. Good marketing helps you stand out from your competitors and creates a need for your products and services.  The key to good marketing is creating an impact on your audience that's big enough for them to think of you …

Treat Promotional Products As Marketing Investments To Get Better Results

When you think of "Promotional Products" what comes to mind first? Is it "Products"?, "Tools"?, "SWAG"?, "Giveaways"?, "Tchotchkes"?, "Throwaways"?, "Trinkets and Trash"?..."Stuff"? What about "Marketing Investment"? There are a variety of names for promotional products and yes, some names are less glamorous than others. But, the name a person gives them can tell a lot about …

5 Ways Promotional Items Help You Receive a Return on Your Investment

Using promotional items and other ad specialties to market your company, event or trade show is a great way to increase sales, brand recognition and awareness. What makes these items such powerful marketing tools is they tend to stick around.  The benefit? When they are kept by a recipient, they produce multiple impressions of your advertisement …

3 Things To Avoid When Designing Imprints For Promo Items

When making the decision of which promotional item to use for your campaign, know this is not the only important aspect you need to consider when purchasing promotional products.  Once you decide on the perfect product for your campaign, the next thing you need to consider is how you are going to design the items. …

Customer Incentive Programs Help Increase Sales Dollars & Order Frequency

We can all agree that more sales are great to have. Why wouldn't we? Sales are an important part of business. If you are trying to get creative with growing your sales and increasing your profits, have you considered Customer Incentive Programs before? Customer Incentive Programs are versatile marketing campaigns that are geared towards motivating …

3 Things to Avoid When Choosing Promotional Products

Do you know choosing the perfect promotional product is more complex than deciding to buy a few hundred random products to slap your logo on? That's right! Choosing the perfect promotional product is more complex than deciding to buy a few hundred random products to slap your logo on. Whether you are planning on using …

Top 5 Secrets About Promotional Items You May Not Know

You may think of promotional items as low cost items with information printed on them that companies give away to try and get their name out and create awareness of their brand.  While promotional products can be given away for this reason, this is only skimming the surface of how promotional items can be used …

Three Common Promotional Item Myths We Should All Stop Believing

Do you think you really know all about promotional items?  Perhaps you may want to think again!  Over the years, we've had a lot of opportunities to talk to a wide variety of professionals in many different industries about these valuable marketing tools. What we discovered is most of these professionals all had one thing …

Why “On Brand Signature Gifts” Are the Secret Ingredient For Your Brand Awareness

Are you trying to create more awareness of your brand? Then you need marketing that will help you develop brand awareness! Marketing is about your brand being noticed and your message being heard so you can attract the clients who see value in the ways you can serve them.  Basically, marketing is how you create …

“That’s how we’ve always done it” is NOT Innovation

There are many companies out there today that do things because "that's the way it's always been done" or "that's just the way we do it". These are dangerous statements for any company to make, not only because they have the potential to hinder growth, but because of the other side of that coin - …

How To Create a Trade Show Marketing Plan That Drives Results

If you've ever exhibited at a trade show, expo or conference and walked away less than thrilled with your results, let me ask you this: Did you create an actual marketing plan that mapped out how you would promote your booth presence before, during AND after your show? If not, you may want to reconsider …

Why You Need Marketing, Whether You Like It Or Not!

It's no secret that business owners wear a lot of hats.  Some of the hats we wear are our favorite hats to put on.  We love everything about it: the way it feels. the way it looks, we sometimes can't get enough of it and it may even be hard to take off at times. …

Even Zombies Can Remind Us that Marketing Seeds Lead to Success

Last Sunday night, my husband and I were watching "The Walking Dead" and during a commercial break there was a clip from "Fear the Walking Dead"- a companion/prequel series to "The Walking Dead" - to promote the companion show. That's not just advertising, it's great marketing.  It also teaches us a lesson that even zombies can …

What is Your Customer Actually Buying From You?

As a business owner, you should always be thinking about the value you bring to the table when it comes to daily operations and working with clients.  Most of the time - ok all the time - your customers are thinking about "them" and their needs.  Therefore, you should be thinking about the same thing …

What Value Do You Place on Customer Experiences With Your Brand?

Last week, I was in Orlando, Florida for a business conference.  Interestingly enough, I had a short conversation with a few accountants about the fireworks at Disney World. The conversation was interesting in the fact that a few short sentences clearly identified the different points of view between a marketer and an accountant (or accountants in …

30 Perks of Using Promotional Products As Marketing Tools

Here are 30 tips that will help you use promotional products to market your company. Here we go!  Promotional products can help you: Create brand awareness Become favored by your audience Create an experience for your audience Promote your company Generate leads Increase sales Retain customers Lower company healthcare costs Set you apart from your …

Did You Know Promotional Bags Generate The Most Impressions?

There are many different types of promotional products and they are each great in their own way.  Promotional bags are no different.  One of the most important features of a promotional bag is that they are very useful.  People always need to tote something around whether it be gym clothes and shoes, lunch, homework, or …

Treat Your Clients to Custom Candy This Halloween

Like it or not, fall is here and that means that Halloween is almost here.  This can be a great opportunity to send a surprise treat to your customers.  Custom imprinted candy and other sweets are a great way to remind your customers how much you appreciate their business.  There are several different things that …

When Promotional Items Send Prospects Running For Cover

To a business owner or company, promotional items are products with logos on them that companies use to get their name across to their current clients and to prospects to help companies make a good impression to create awareness of their brand.  This means that it is always good to know what will and will not …

3 BS Facts About Promotional Items Everyone Thinks Are True

Promotional items are effective advertising tools that can help you accomplish many sales and marketing goals.  However, oftentimes promotional products are misunderstood which prevents others from realizing the benefits that can be gained from advertising with promotional products.  So, we are here to debunk 3 BS facts about promotional items everyone thinks are true. 1. The more …

12 Things Your Boss Expects You to Know About Promotional Products

Promotional products are useful items with an advertiser's name, logo, marketing message, offer or other promotional message an advertiser would like to promote.  Many companies use these products to advertise, thank customers, build clientele and maintain their current clientele - to mention a few.  If you work for a company that uses promotional products for …

Promotional Products: A Subtle, Yet Effective Way to Advertise

Imagine this: you are winding down at the end of the night and all you want to do is sit down and watch your favorite television show.  When you sit on the couch, kick your feet up and turn on the TV, your show starts and you feel relaxed.  Then, the first commercial break happens. …

The Marketing Side of Promotional Products You May Not Know About

When you think of promotional products, what do you think of?  Products with logos on them?  Giveaway products? Throwaway products?  Free Stuff? An added expense? What if I told you there is more to promotional products than you might know? In fact, some might not know that promotional products are effective advertising tools, that when …

The Marketing Side of Promotional Products

When you think of marketing with promotional products, what do you think of?  Products with logos on them?  Giveaway products?  Throwaway products?  Free Stuff?  What if I told you there is more to promotional products than you might know?  In fact, some might not know that promotional products are effective advertising tools, that when used …

A Lesson About SWAG Bag Items

About a month ago, I attended a business expo.  A few days before the expo, I was contacted by the organizer who told me there were still spots open for businesses to sponsor the event.  I would be able to get my company name in the program and I could add 150 promotional items into …

5 Steps to a Better Direct Mail Campaign

One of the major struggles of sending a marketing piece through the mail is standing out from all the junk mail we all sort through each day.  Not to mention your investment is at rick of being tossed in the trash if you send a direct mail piece that blends in with the daily "junk" mail. …

Treat Promotional Products As Investments To Get Better Results

When you think of "Promotional Products" what comes to mind first?  "Throwaways?", "Tchotchkes?", "Trinkets and Trash?"...there are many different names for promotional products.  Yes, some names are less glamorous than others, but depending on your experience with promotional products, you might have a different viewpoint. For example, if you have had a poor experience with promotional products …

3 Useful Heavy Duty Promotional Products Your Clients will Appreciate

Not only are promotional products are a great way to increase brand recognition they also allow you to creatively reach out to potential clients.  Promotional products are great because of their versatility in appealing to every type of target market.  You could be targeting stay at home mom's, white collar execs, or even up and …

The Many Uses of Promotional Products

Promotional items are products that can be imprinted with a company's logo, information, marketing message, etc.  These items can be used in many ways to help a company's brand image, increase both customer and employee loyalty and more.  Below is a list of the different ways promotional products can be used. Marketing One of the …

A New Year Brings Exciting Marketing Opportunities

The new year is here and a new year can bring an array of exciting marketing opportunities.  Whether the new year means brushing up on existing programs or creating new marketing programs from scratch, using promotional products to help you achieve your marketing goals is a great way to stay ahead this year. If you …

3 Ways Promotional Products Can Benefit Your Company

Time and time again, promotional products have been proven to give positive results to companies who use them. Promotional items are fun, useful and can be tailored to any objective you might have.  If you currently use promotional products, you already know of the benefits they bring.  If you're not familiar with the benefits of …