Align Strategy and Promotional Products for a Better Brand Experience

With a bit of strategy, you can use promotional products to create a powerful brand experience your customers and prospects won’t forget. Here are the four key strategic focus areas where promotional products can enhance your overall brand experience.

3 min read

Align Strategy and Promotional Products for a Better Brand Experience

Your company’s brand goes beyond logos, fonts, and color scheme. In fact, customers’ perception of your brand is built through every interaction they have with your business, from your website to your customer service to your building.

Promotional products are a way of handing people a tangible representation of your brand. When put that way, promotional products have a lot of responsibility! Luckily, their potential goes way beyond simple giveaways. With a bit of strategy, you can use promotional products to create a powerful brand experience your customers and prospects won’t forget.

Here are the four key strategic focus areas where promotional products can enhance your overall brand experience.

1. Marketing and Sales Prospecting

Incorporate promotional items into your marketing campaigns and sales prospecting strategies to make your brand memorable. Promotional items specifically for marketing and sales require more thought and effort to select. They should be valuable, unique, high quality items that represent the way you want your brand to be perceived.

Trade Shows Giveaways

This is often the area people neglect when it comes to their promotional product strategy—but that’s a mistake! Trade shows are the place where many people encounter your brand for the very first time. Think strategically about the demographics and industries of the trade show attendees, then take care in selecting unique items that fit their needs and interests. If they love your giveaway, they’ll be more likely to remember your company.

Sales Leave-Behinds

In a sales situation, a high-quality promotional gift can be the extra delight factor you need to make sure your company is remembered. A promotional item may not be the deciding factor when it comes to closing the sale but, when paired with a strong sales technique, it can demonstrate your company’s thoughtfulness and creativity. Leave a lasting impression and give prospects a positive experience of your brand.

Mailers

Plan a direct mail prospecting campaign that targets your key verticals. Research a list of qualified prospects, select an attention-grabbing promotional item, and mail the item with an invitation to connect. Packages in the mail are hard to ignore, and you’ll be exposing prospects directly to your brand. Be sure it’s fun for them to open the box.

2. The In-Person Experience

If you frequently have customers or prospects visit your business in person, it’s another opportunity to create a positive impression of your brand.

Meetings

For in-person meetings, the smallest details can demonstrate that your organization “has it together.” When you provide pens and notebooks, make sure they’re branded. When you serve coffee, be sure it’s served in an attractive branded mug. And when your guests leave, send them off with a small token of thanks for attending the meeting, such as a branded mobile accessory. Remember, it’s not just about self-promotion; it’s about creating an experience. The details truly make a difference.

Events

The goal of event giveaways should be to get your brand into the hands of as many people as possible. Whether it’s your company’s own event or you’re participating with other businesses, choose a unique item that stands out from the pack and creates demand. Most importantly, be sure to order enough items for everyone in attendance or it will reflect poorly on your company.

3. Customer Delight

Delighting your current customers is just as important as acquiring new customers. Delight ensures that customers will stick with you and makes it likely that they’ll keep coming back. Make promotional items part of your customer delight strategy by incorporating them into special milestones.

Welcome New Customers

Let your customers know you’re happy they’ve joined you with a thoughtful branded welcome gift. For inspiration, read our post on creating your company’s own logo gift set.

Celebrate Anniversaries

Acknowledge the day or month a customer signed up with a small token of appreciation. They’ll continue to have the positive impression of your brand that made them work with you in the first place.

Wish Customers Well

Countless companies offer freebies on customers’ birthdays. Send a small gift to wish them well, and they’ll be delighted that your company takes the time to make its customers feel special.

4. Employee Advocates

Every interaction customers have with your employees shapes their perception of your overall brand. Use promotional items to make sure that perception is a good one!

Custom Apparel

Any clothing items that your employees wear with your company’s branding should be high quality, well-fitting, and in style. We form impressions of people within seconds of seeing them, and any impression of your employee is an impression of your brand by extension.

Giveaways

Empower employees with a stock of giveaways they can use to promote your brand in their daily interactions, whether it’s impromptu client delight or an added extra to hand out with a business card.

Every moment a customers spends interacting with your employees, meeting your company at a trade show, or even sitting in your conference room, shapes their perception of your brand. Create a better brand experience by aligning your overall strategy with promotional items that will enhance every client interaction and leave a positive impression.

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