"Promotional products may be perceived as cheap giveaways that aren’t well received and are a drain on your marketing budget. If they aren’t used with an objective in mind then the previous statement holds some truth. In this post we will look at how you can utilise the potential that promotional products can offer your business. To use promotional products properly you need a measurable objective. Think of an area you’d like to improve and go from there. I’ll use the example of meeting prospective customers and turning them into paying customers as this is a common objective that marketers want to improve.

• Firstly, find out your current sales conversion rate over a 3 month period, we can use this figure as a benchmark and to set a goal of what return we want from our promotional products.
• Secondly, we need to set a budget and think of the number of sales meetings we’ll be arranging over a 3 month period so that we know the quantity we need to order. Every business is different and therefore there is no one size fits all approach that should be applied. The best way to approach your objective is to think about who your target market is and what type of promotional product they are likely to be pleased to receive and use frequently. Usefulness is key to your objective because it gives your brand a frequent impression on the receiver. See this blog post for some statistics on the power of promotional merchandise.
• So now you have thought of a product that is useful to your prospects you’ll need design expertise to ensure your brand delivers maximum impact when giving the item to your prospects. The minimum requirement would be your logo and a way for them to contact you. A web address is a good option if you want your prospect to find out more information about your offering and adding your telephone number gives them a direct way of contacting you or your sales team directly.
• Give your prospect the promotional product at the end of your sales meeting, they will appreciate the gesture and this should enhance your chances at winning their business.

Measure The Results

If when starting this process you don’t have access or knowledge of your current sales conversion rate then a good way to measure the impact of your promotional product is to only give to half of your prospects over a defined period. After this period you can measure the impact of your promotional products and determine how much additional business was gained during this period. If successful then you can repeat this process for future meetings and even experiment with different promotional products to try and improve your results.

Finally...

Have you used promotional products this way and measured their success, we’d love to hear about it. Read more inspiring promotional product blogs. Put us to work on your brand. Call Fylde Promotional Merchandise on 0330 043 18 08 or visit our website which as thousands of fantastic promotional products readily available for you to choose from at www.fyldepm.co.uk"