Promotional product campaigns have many advantages: notoriety, customer loyalty, working on the motivation of internal teams… so it’s interesting to integrate them into your communication strategy. To help you see things more clearly, here are some tips to get you started…
1: Clarify your objectives before the campaign
Like any marketing campaign, it is essential to articulate its objectives upwards. Here are some examples of goals that can be accomplished:
- Mark prospects’ minds and improve your starting rate of communication;
- Support your communication during the trade fair or exhibition;
- Thank your customers at important times of year (Christmas, New Years, birthdays, etc.).
- Motivate and retain internal teams…
Explain your goals in black and white before proceeding with your campaign.
2: Study your goal outline and make a strategy based on
Based on your initial objective, study the outline of your goal (think of individuals). It is essential to know your target at your fingertips in order to implement your strategy accordingly. Age, gender, work location, priorities, expectations, habits… The more information you have about your goal, the better directed your strategy will be.
3: Establish specifications or a short description for your campaign
Once your objectives and goals are well defined, establish a specification or brief to indicate the selection of the most appropriate advertising items (technical specifications, quality range, integration of your brand across items, etc.).
4: Choose a Really Useful Product
There is nothing worse than a promotional item that ends up in the trash minutes after it is received. Remember to choose items that are actually useful for your goal. Think everyday items, timeless mugs or even personalized water bottles (you have examples of models on the gift campaign site). At the moment, you can also bet on items that help with teleworking or that are related to COVID (masks, prisons, etc.).
5: Take into account the ecological impact
We have just seen the importance of usability of products, always in this sense, take into account their ecological impact. Investigate their origins, their impact… why not specifically choose the items with the lowest carbon impact if your target is particularly sensitive to it (which it is not today…). Avoid plastic items, favor local produce and quality. If you are interested in the eco-responsibility of your promotional items, read this article which is dedicated to this topic.
6: Don’t just rely on the price but focus on the quality
When choosing between multiple products, don’t base your decision solely on price. Instead, bet on quality, not necessarily that the difference in price will be huge and you will gain in brand image.
7: Integrate Your Company Identity Well
Also be careful to properly integrate your company identity into the items. Choose items on which it will be easy to integrate your logo and your charter. Make sure the brand is well recognizable by choosing colors that highlight your logo and this is of course before you start producing your items.
8: Track the impact of your promotional item campaign
A campaign of advertising items is not like a digital communication campaign, its impact is less easy to follow but it is still necessary to establish a real following. You can ask for feedback from your customers or employees, who have received them by filling out items, for example, a satisfaction questionnaire. This will allow you to see strengths and weaknesses and thus keep them in mind during your next campaign.
It’s your turn ! If you have any other tips or best practices, feel free to share them with us via comments