Choosing promotional products for your brand can seem like a daunting task. There are so many things to consider when buying promotional products.

It’s easy to spend a lot of money and still miss the mark. You can’t simply buy what you like and expect results. Planning promo products for an entire year can be even more overwhelming. 

In this post, we’ll help you narrow your focus so you can choose the right promotional products for your brand.

Choosing Promotional Products For Your Brand

When choosing promotional items that align with your brand, you want the item to leave a lasting impression. That is just one goal for your promotional marketing strategy. Let’s talk about what you want to accomplish with your branded products.

Know Your Goals

What are your goals for the year?  Maybe you want to focus on internal projects such as company culture, employee retention, or industry certification. Perhaps you want to focus on external projects such as market expansion, a brand refresh, or a product launch. 

More than likely, you have at least one goal in each of these categories, and when used well, promotional products are a great tool in your tool belt.

Browse the sampling of business goals below and jot down the ones that resonate with you.

Expanding into a new market

Increasing safety statistics

Incentivizing a sales team

Rebranding

Increasing brand awareness

Launching a new product

Retaining employees

Recruiting employees

Honing company culture

Rewarding employees

Building client loyalty

Increasing foot traffic

Launching an app or software

Use Your Calendar

It’s time to put those goals on the calendar. Since you probably can’t do everything at once, think about when you want to focus on specific goals in the year. When looking at the calendar, note events that are natural partners for a goal.  We love to pair our team retreats with client or networking events.

Valentine’s Day, for example, is always a fun way to show clients and customers extra love. After rigorous training or meeting specific goals, you may want to plan a fun employee event to mark the occasion.

While looking for natural partner events, you also want to look for times of the year to avoid.  Don’t schedule events aimed at molding company culture in the summer if your staff travels a lot during the summer, and think carefully before you jump to December for gifting. 

Your efforts may work well or get lost in the busyness of the holiday season.  Consider leveraging promotional products for year-round impact. 

Your Audience

This one is pretty easy!  Who do you want to target during each goal?  Be clear exactly who the person is. Knowing your target audience is key with any type of marketing, but especially in promotional marketing. 

Generally, the five categories of a target audience are:

Current Employees

Potential Employees

Current Clients/Customers

Potential Clients/Customers

Former Clients/Customers

Your Budget

We have to be realistic, right?  Amazing products are available for branding, so it’s essential to be clear about a promotional marketing budget to avoid spending too much.  Go through your goals and loosely prioritize them based on how much of the budget they will require.  This will be easy if you have only one or two big goals for the year.

Using the same promotional product for multiple events is a great way to stretch your budget.  By ordering in bulk, you’ll get a lower unit price and save on setup and shipping.  

Also, always order more than you think you will need.  It’s much more expensive to order more of something in a separate order than to order plenty the first time.  Most of our clients love to have a little stash of promotional products to use spontaneously throughout the year for employee rewards, client gifts, or donations to community event goodie bags.

Be Clear On Your Message

This step sets Coastal Connections Marketing apart from other promotional product companies and certainly from buying products from e-commerce sites. Before working with us, most clients had never even considered this.

What message do you want to send with this gifting opportunity?  What story do you want to tell with your product? 

Here are some message examples:

Thank you

We care

Work with us

I’m sorry

Next steps

You are important

Brand story

Brand values

This message is delivered through product selection, branding, packaging, and delivery.  A promotional product with no message translates as “stuff,” and I doubt that’s the message you want to deliver.

Let Us Guide You When Choosing Promotional Products for Your Brand

Promotional products are powerful and there are many things to consider when buying them.  Let us help you maximize your budget and reach your audience with the exact message you want to deliver.