The Secret to Promotions

I have a secret for you. In the world of promotional products, if you are putting all your marketing hopes in dreaming up the next latest and greatest item to rev up business, you're missing the big picture. While I can’t dismiss the success of the bobblehead or silicon bracelet crazes, those opportunities are few and far between. So what creative items can we be marketing with in the meantime, (are you sitting down this is about to knock your socks off) I’d suggest a hat, t-shirt, hat pin, glassware, pretty much all the basics. We don’t have to re-create the wheel with the items that we market with, but we do need to be able to see the value we get out of those items.

Everybody loves a free t-shirt, so you decide to invest in a great shirt for a give-away promotion. You get a lot of great advertising every time those shirts are worn. So, how do you keep that shirt out of the drawer that keeps all the old 'wash the car or paint the house' raggedy shirts? Try offering a discount every time a person wears that shirt into your business. Or create a punch card system, if they wear that shirt to shop/eat, they get a hole punched. After they have collected 3, 5, 7 (you get the picture) holes, they get a free item. This is a great way to track some of the return on your shirt investment.

One other thought on the shirts, do you really just have to give it away? The shirts can be used to create or add to a rich data base of potential new customers. Why not create a short survey, please share your thoughts and we’ll give a free item for your trouble.

The secret is seeing that there is value in every promotional item. You just have to understand your own marketing goal and make that item work for you.