You have decided to include promotional gifts in your marketing strategy, but the choice is massive! How do you go about deciding what will make the perfect promotional item to compliment and fulfill your brief, whilst ensuring the best return on your marketing investment?
Budget
You know your available budget and your target audience. Does your budget allow you to choose something of high value for a smaller group, or do you need to spread your marketing messages far and wide to as many people as possible? This is obviously fundamental in influencing your choice of promotional gift for your project. If you are looking for high quality custom baubles gifts for valued clients, you may consider such items as a Camera, Hip Flask, Jewelery Box, MP4 Player or a Gift Box of Champagne and Flutes. Value mass marketing items could be Pens, Mugs, Mouse Mats, Key rings, Chocolates and Sweets, Flip-Flops, Glow-sticks or Balloons.
Relevance/Compatibility
The promotional merchandise you choose should be relevant to your campaign. Choose a gift which is compatible with the qualities and characteristics of either your company and/or the product or service you are promoting. The more closely relevant your choice of gift, the more potent it will be in supporting your marketing messages. For example a travel-related company could choose from a whole range of travel-related gifts such as Passport Holders, Luggage Tags, Bags, Toiletries, Ear Buds, Travel Cushions or Travel Plugs.
Suitability
Consider the demographic of the target audience for your promotional items. This knowledge is crucial in choosing the most appropriate promotional items for your project. Factors such as the age, gender, profession, aspiration, location, achievements etc of your targeted audience, together with the needs and characteristics of your marketing campaign, all need to be taken into consideration when deciding what merchandise would be the perfect promotional gift. If you need to reach a wide demographic, your choice of promotional products needs to be appealing to a whole cross-section of the public. In this case you may consider promotional items such as Mugs, Pens, Mobile Phone Holders, Umbrellas, Teddy Bears and Desktop gifts among many others.
Timescale
Over what period of time will you want to use your promotional gifts? Will they be a one-off mass marketing approach, a more individually focused distribution, or a long term branding awareness campaign? A tightly focused campaign could be related to a particular one-off event or festival such as Christmas or New Year. This situation would enable you to choose a promotional gift with a festive theme or something specifically designed for a special event. Promotional gifts to consider are printed Christmas Baubles, Cards, Chocolates and Sweets, Desktop Gifts, Diaries, and Gift Sets for example. You may have a campaign aimed at clients' birthdays or on-going and repeated events. In this case promotional items would need to have a slightly more general appeal, but could still be themed and be suitable all year round. Alternatively, you may want to choose promotional gifts to have on hand for any suitable event that may present itself with an opportunity to promote your company. Again, these need to be suitable in a range of situations and without time issues.
Delivery
Your method of distribution of your promotional merchandise also needs to be considered. The size and weight of your chosen gifts can be important when it comes to cost and method of delivery. If you intend to include your promotional gifts in a mail-out campaign, you obviously need to choose items which are lightweight and will easily fit into envelopes. Such items could be mouse mats, letter openers, pens, rulers, key rings, magnets, diaries and paper products, to name but a few.
If you consider all these points when selecting your perfect promotional items, they will have the impact you expect by promoting your company products appropriately and ultimately bring in the business for you.