Businesses often distribute promotional products to their customers. Most of the times they work efficiently, but sometimes they bomb. Often, promoters find in precarious situations when they are in a daily rush of trying to increase their sales and make a profit along with satisfying customers that they fail to analyse the reasons why their promotions aren’t always successful.
To get into details of this problem, let’s have a look at top 8 mistakes that businesses make and what should they do when they are using promotional products.
1. Corporate Gifts
The first thing that requires immediate attention is that the distribution plan for the promotional product is not followed properly or completed within the time frame. For instance, if you are giving out fast promotion items such as calendars which should be given in the early part of the year to the best customers, these calendars often get delivered to the customers late which is a big setback for any business.
It may be because that the person responsible for sending out these promotional calendars didn’t pay heed to the fact that they distribution should be done in timely fashion and these calendars end up stocked in a closet. Or, there might be the case that the salespersons forgot to grab these items on their way out to the market and failed to deliver the item.
Either way, the end result is that the so-called corporate gifts such as calendars remain within the company until the end of the February. This is a complete waste of time, money as well as resources. For avoiding such problem, there should be careful planning in advance, and it should be followed thoroughly.
2. Promotional Gifts
Good promotional items businesses can deliver the product within few weeks, sometimes in few days, if they have stocked items. However, you shouldn’t make the mistake of basing all your promotion on it. It is a smarter way as well as a whole lot less risky if you begin research for the right promotional gifts in time and plan at least 3 to 4 months before the event.
First, you are one of the high-quantity buyers of the promotional product then you can save a significant amount of money by having your vendor source the product directly through an overseas factory. However, it means that you need to give them at least 3 to 4 months of lead time.
The second essential thing is that you should be prepared for the chances that the plan doesn’t go accordingly or smoothly as per anticipated by you. For instance, your business’s artwork may require rework to properly fit on few of the items. In case you allow for few weeks of back and forth, then you will be able to give yourself ample time to make sure that everything is executed properly.
3. Engraved Gifts
Another thing that most of the business fail to realize is that they don’t gauge what people really want to receive. One shouldn’t be a creature of a habit. Just because you have been giving out engraved gifts or mugs, or anything else, it doesn’t mean that those items should always be your best promotional products to spend your money.
You should make sure that you should ask yourself what your customers or employees really want as a gift item. Some businesses do fall into the trap quoting that it is what they are always giving out. It should be every business’s goal to attain better customer response as well as grab their attention in order to increase the sales.
4. Embroidered Gifts
The next big thing that businesses often make a mistake is that they don’t have any clear goals for their product or promotional items. Even though promotional items like embroidered gifts can certainly boost the excitement level of the customer, you must need to ensure that they do exactly what they are supposed to do for you. Therefore, it is essential to clearly define the expectations you have so that you will have a better understanding of how much successful your promotion actually is. For instance, if your aim is to drive traffic to your booth, then you need to make a clear outline of the plan to how to achieve that and what volume you can cater and what volume should be sufficient enough for you. In case your aim is to gain new customers, then you need to have a specific target number in your mind.
Promotional products can be quite valuable tools in case they are used correctly. So never make the mistake of trying to achieve the different marketing goal with wrong product and ending up disappointed with the delivered results.
5. Advertising Gifts
Another key thing to remember is that advertising gifts are the brand ambassadors of your business to the world. These gifts that you hand out in events or tradeshows or in person to your customers will leave a remarkable impression about your business. You will not be remembered by the customers if it is of cheap quality and doesn’t work properly. Giving out cheap products can be detrimental to your brand, and it is better to not giving out anything rather than giving a bad product. The extra amount you put in getting the high-quality product means a lot when it comes to the success of your promotion and its failure.
6. Unique Gifts
One of the key aspect that most of the businesses ignore that they don’t quite understand their target customers. Everyone likes to give out interesting as well as useful promotional items. However, it is important to keep in the mind that the purpose of these items is to appeal the current as well as potential customers and also entice these customers to drive your business to the whole next level. You shouldn’t choose any item that appeals to the people who are outside your target market. Unique promotion item which addresses your target customers is the way to move forward when it comes to promotional product marketing strategy.
7. Business gifts
The business gifts you give out to the recipient are important but what is actually more important that it should bear your business’s name, logo as well as information imprinted on it for all to see. Ideally, it is a best practice to imprint the clear information of your business to inform your customers about how they can purchase your products or hire your services.
Many businesses list their logo, business name, address as well as phone number. So also includes a slogan or some type of artwork. In general, the promotional items have a shortage of space which restricts the amount of information that can be displayed. Therefore, it is essential to make the right choices. Also make sure, that the information that you put on your promotional product is right otherwise putting up wrong information can essentially kill your promotion.
8. Cheap Items
There are thousands of cheap promo items on the market today. There are numerous products which are listed by many companies online. However, it is essential to consider the right company which has right credentials when you make a choice. It is good practice to do a little research and find out if the company that you are dealing with has a positive reputation or not.
Many companies are extremely price-competitive, and due to this, they don’t invest much in quality or customer service. A good company often does its own imprinting and has a good quality-check process. You have to ensure that you are in contact with the right person on the other end when you are dealing with a problem with your order.
