A lot of marketers argue that traditional methods of marketing are obsolete or even dead for that matter. Nevertheless, many businesses still use traditional methods, as they’ve proven to be quite effective when they need to be. After all, why abandon something useful altogether, just because it’s no longer trendy or simply because digital marketing is more relevant these days. As a matter of fact, businesses in the U.S. alone spend over $20 billion on promotional merchandise each year, even though this method is considered one of the oldest forms of advertising.
Clearly, this method still works, regardless of what modern marketers believe. Nowadays, businesses tend to focus on the online world and lose sight of strategies that can really both save them money and boost their awareness. That being said, people still prefer to receive promo material as gifts and 79% of people admitted they’d more likely to do business with a brand that gives them promotional material. Let’s have a closer look at the power of branded merchandise.
Improving your brand awareness
Even with the social media marketing campaigns, email promotions and personalized offers, promotional merchandise is still one of the most effective ways to boost your brand’s awareness. In fact, 84% of consumers state that promotional products improve their awareness about a brand. Furthermore, with so many businesses actively focusing on digital marketing and online promotions, it’s difficult to ensure your messages are being heard by your target audience and even if they do, it’s hardly longer than a few seconds at the time.
The main reason is that online market is flooded with similar messages and online businesses constantly compete with each other to win over new customers. On the other hand, consumers who receive promotional merchandise often hold on to those items for a whole year or more. That way, they can often be reminded of the brand they received a gift from.
Low cost with a high impact
It’s no secret that online marketing campaigns tend to be expensive. There are so many methods and strategies a business can utilize to create an effective marketing campaign and have good chances of outrunning their competitors. Simply put, the more funds you allocate to your digital marketing endeavor, the more effective your efforts will be. However, for startups and small businesses, spending too much of their budget on marketing can be difficult.
Still, they need a way to make themselves well-known and have enough funds leftover to develop further. Designing and creating branded merchandise is cheap and more importantly cost-effective. Handing out gifts to audience members is a good way to gain recognition fast on a limited budget. The main reason is that 94% of people remember the brand whose gift they received. Moreover, it’s important to create promo material that’s practical. That way people will hold on to it, instead of throwing it away.
A gift to remember
As mentioned before, practicality is the surest way to win people over with branded merchandise. If the gifts you hand out have a practical use in everyday life, people will most likely hold on to for a long time. As a matter of fact, 89% of people will keep the promo gift if it’s useful and if they find it practical to use. A good example is handing out merchandise people can use in an office – like a pen, a coffee mug, a flash drive and so on.
Moreover, a good gift is also something people can wear, such as custom printed shirts. The fact of the matter is that any product that can be valuable to your potential customers, is a good gift to hand out. In addition, for spending a small portion of your budget on promotional merchandise, you’ll be able to enjoy long-term effects of improving your brand awareness.
Tokens of appreciation
Branded merchandise isn’t only a powerful tool to attract customers and improve awareness. It’s also a great way to show appreciation toward your customers. Handing out promotional merchandise to customers is a great way to say thank you and will also inspire loyalty. Furthermore, handing out gifts motivates customers to recommend your business to their friends and family.
In addition, they are more likely to promote your business further by leaving positive reviews or word-of-mouth recommendations via social media networks. Also, consumers are drawn toward businesses that show appreciation to loyal customers. Needless to say, around 30% of consumers will change brands on purpose in order to receive promotional merchandise. That means that consumers will favor brands with creative ways of showing appreciation over brands that don’t.
Even though digital marketing is stealing the show nowadays, traditional marketing methods still work their unique charm. That’s why, branded merchandise still has a lot of power in the marketing world. Not only can it help you improve brand awareness, but it can also inspire consumers to take the desired action. Most importantly, for a low cost of implementation, you can enjoy the long-term benefits of using branded merchandise.