We have all attended a trade show, fair or exhibit. We walk around the show collecting all sorts of promotional merchandise such as pens, travel mugs, stickers etc that are designed to promote the respective businesses but are these items as effective as they can be? Are these items getting the message across? Is the promotional item useful or unique? Is the item doing it’s job?

When used properly a promotional item should continue to work for you long after the consumer leaves the trade show. In order to ensure your next promotional giveaway is as effective as it should be ask yourself the following five questions before launching your campaign.

1. What are you trying to achieve by giving away a promotional item? Whenever you giveaway a promotional item it should be designed to promote your brand as well as communicate your message.

2. How will you select your promotional merchandise giveaway? In our days there are so many different items to choose from however, in order to be effective you need to choose an appropriate product. Before selecting a product make sure to have a clear objective or goal.

3. What does the visitor have to do in order to qualify for the giveaway item? Instead of leaving items out on your table where anyone can take them make your visitor qualify for the item. Perhaps the visitor needs to complete a brief survey, participate in a presentation or a contest. Making the visitor perform a specific task in order to qualify for the free gift helps you stand out from your competition and greatly increases the likelihood of your company being remembered.

4. How will you notify your target audience about the giveaway item? You can use your current database of prospects or clientele to inform them that you will be at the exhibit. Some trade shows can also provide a list of attendees if you ask for it, you can then send out an announcement letting people know that you have a booth and will be giving away promotional merchandise to qualified visitors.

5. How will you measure the success of your giveaway? Prior to launching your campaign you should have a measurable way to gauge your success. For instance, you may choose to follow up with your visitors to see if they liked the promotional merchandise they received. Did your visitors find the item useful? Did your item effectively project the image you want for your your company, etc?

We all know that using promotional merchandise is an effective form of advertising, right? In fact, companies use this method of advertising all the time to promote their businesses especially during the holidays.

Think about it, how many calendars or appointment books or pens do you receive at the end of the year as a “thank you” from your vendors. Maybe you even send out promotional items at the end of the year as a “thank you” to your clients. But why stop there? Why only promote your business for the holidays.

When used effectively promotional merchandise can boost employee morale, keep existing clients happy and even bring new clients in. Listed below are a few creative ways to use promotional merchandise to help promote your business.

•    Give away tee shirts, pens, notepads, etc to employees as a way to say thank you for their hard work. Who doesn’t like to be recognized for their hard work? Who doesn’t like to receive a gift? it makes you feel good right? Plus, studies have found that when employees are appreciated for their hard work they tend to work harder and feel better. This in turn helps you grow your business.

•    Give away a gift to a new customer as a way to thank them for their business. If you’re in the financial services business  you may want to give out calculators or rulers printed with your company logo on them. Customers will appreciate that you are respecting their property and feel good about your company. When people feel good about your company they tend to refer others to you thus helping you to grow your business.

•    The next time your local school sponsors a baseball game or picnic donate cups or Frisbees, baseball caps or something else with your company logo on it. Everyone loves to receive free gifts don’t they?.

The above are just a few ideas for promoting your business with promotional merchandise. Obviously there are many, many more but hopefully the ideas above will get you thinking about other creative ways to use promotional products.

Remember, you need to be in the forefront of your customers and prospective customers minds and promotional merchandise is a great way to gently remind them of your company. See what other kinds of creative ideas you can come up with to help promote your business.

Residual marketing can easily be defined as any marketing method in which you receive long lasting effects from your efforts long after your initial efforts. Residual marketing allows you to continually get your marketingmessage  across over and over again.

This method is very similar to royalties that are paid to an actor or song writer.  When an actor plays a role in a film or a song writer writes a song he or she is paid, right, but whenever an actor’s film is played on television or song writer’s song is played on the radio he or she is also paid a royalty. The thing is he or she only puts in the effort one time but that effort has a residual effect.

From this example I think you can easily see the power of residual marketing. So how do you take advantage of residual marketing? Easy. With the use of promotional merchandise, the promotional item stays in the possession of your prospect long after your initial marketing effort.

Say for example, you send a direct mailer to a prospect; the prospect has no need for your product or service at the moment so he or she files your direct mail letter in a draw or at worse trashes it. Normally, this marketing effort would be wasted, right? However, since you included a promotional item with your letter for instance, a pen or magnet, or notepad that product continues to work for you long after your letter is filed away or thrown out. Each day, your prospect uses the pen or notepad and is reminded of your company. Now, when the prospect needs your product or service, they call you instead of your competition.

As you can see using residual marketing to promote your business offers a huge advantage over traditional marketing. One of the easiest ways to put residual marketing to work for you is through the use of promotional merchandise.

When used correctly, advertising using promotional merchandise is generally more effective than other marketing methods. When we use promotional products to promote our business we are more likely to be able to get in front of our prospects and stay there. This is more easily accomplished using promotional merchandise.

When we talk about other marketing methods we are generally speaking about: advertising in magazines, yellow pages, billboards, newspapers, TV, radio, signs, flyers, circular, advertising on buses, automobiles and even writing a message in the sky with an airplane.  The disadvantage of these marketing methods compared to promotional products is that it takes several advertisements to get your message across whereas a promotional product continually acts as a silent salesperson over and over again. In addition they’re more expensive especially on a per impression basis.

These traditional methods thus become very expensive in order to be effective as the average cost of one newspaper ad alone can be between $500 and $5000. Other methods such as radio ads, TV ads require the prospect to be in the right frame of mind to make a decision as well as repetitive ads. Signs, flyers, billboards, advertising on automobiles and buses are all hit or miss as well. Of course, writing your promotional message in the sky would be hit or miss not to mention how expensive it would be for one shot at reaching your prospect.

As you can see, using traditional marketing methods to get in front of your potential client and staying there can quickly become very expensive. For more marketing ideas using promotional products you should contact a promotional merchandise specialist today.