Promotional Products - Online Guide
Promotion Products - Pros and Cons
When used correctly, promotion products can have a positive impact for almost any company. Here are some of the benefits, as well as a couple of potential pitfalls to avoid.
Benefits of Promotional Product
Because people love freebies, promotional products have a value far beyond their cost. This is particularly true when they become something the recipient uses on an ongoing basis: a $2 coffee mug can provide constant reinforcement of your brand if a customer uses it every morning, and promotional clothing turns your recipients into walking advertisers for your business!
Flexibility is one of the key features of promotion products. They can work within different budgets and as part of many types of programs, and can be given to any audience: customers, prospects, dealers, employees, and vendors. You can also easily tie them to other marketing efforts, either as incentives for desired actions or as branding tools. And the actual product itself can be almost anything.
The benefits of promotion products as marketing tools are well established. Studies have proven time and time again that promotional items increase response rates, boost brand recognition, and create more favorable impressions of your company.
Promotion Products - Drawbacks
To achieve the best results, a promotional products campaign must be carefully planned. No matter how “cool” or compelling the giveaway item is, you have to have a plan in place to publicize the promotion, distribute the product, and measure the results of your campaign.
Tracking can be difficult, especially for marketers used to the precise measurements of online advertising. Starting with a small, focused campaign can help you get a handle on how to be successful with promotional products.
In addition, the product you choose may carry restrictions as to the size and/or colors of the logo and other printing you can apply, which can put a damper on your plans. However, these types of restrictions are usually fairly easy to work around – simply switch to a product that allows more imprinting or scale back the amount of printing you want to do on each item.
Getting your customized items produced also takes some time. Depending on the items you choose and the manufacturer’s workload, you might get your products in a few days, or it might take six weeks. If you’re planning on using your items at a specific event, make sure you leave enough time to get them produced.
Be especially careful in the last two months of the year: many businesses order holiday gifts for customers and employees, making the end-of-year rush a big one for the promotion products industry.
Choosing The Right Promotional Items
Anything a logo can fit on can be a suitable promotional product/item. The challenge can be narrowing down your choices to just a few, when there are so many different types of products that you could use. Here are some of the major categories and their relative advantages and disadvantages.
Clothing – the most popular category for promotional items. Promotional t-shirts are the most common, and other popular items include hats, fleece vests and blankets, rain jackets, scarves, and more.
Pro: free advertising, popularity, great for employee items.
Con: styles change, ordering multiple sizes can be hard, sometimes costly, items are seasonal.
Food – includes fruit baskets, candy, gums, coffee, and more.
Pro: wide range of costs, appreciated by most people.
Con: limited duration, allergen problems
Office Gifts – stress balls, photo holders, sticky notes, even USB flash drives, anything designed to be used at the office.
These are just a few examples - the variety is nearly endless, including golf balls, squirt guns, yo-yos, umbrellas, ice scrapers, breath mints. You can find anything ranging from serious and useful to amusing and silly. With all the options, it's worth spending some time to make the right choice. The best promotional items effectively associate your company's name with an item related to your industry.
For example, a financial services company that wants to build customer loyalty might have success with pocket-sized solar calculators. A car repair shop may want to give away tire pressure gauges with a logo and phone number. And a popular choice for technology-driven businesses is mouse pads with colorful logos.
In many cases, it's possible to obtain custom items that aren't found in any catalog, so if you have a unique idea, don’t hesitate to bring it up with your vendor.
Before you start talking to potential vendors, take a look at some promotional item web sites or catalogs. You don’t have to know exactly what you want –vendors can help you decide. But having some ideas and an understanding of what’s available beforehand will help speed the process.
Artwork & Logos for Promotional Products/Items
Once you choose the promo items you want, you’ll need to supply your logo to the vendor for imprinting. Sending the logo file via email is fairly straightforward, but getting the right type of file in the first place can be a challenge.
First, it’s important to know that the logo used on your web site is not sufficient for the job. It may be the wrong format, the wrong size, not detailed enough, or all three. Sending non-standard graphics can result in delays and additional charges when the vendor has to covert the file for you before printing your promo items.
As you get into the world of digital artwork, you’ll need to know the difference between vector and raster files. Vector artwork is easily scaled up and down without loss of quality, while raster artwork quickly gets “blocky” and jagged as it’s enlarged. Raster file formats like JPEG and GIF are standard on the Web, but usually aren’t acceptable for imprinting. Vector-based EPS files are almost always a better choice, but check with your vendor as to what type of files they prefer.
The files you send need to supply the correct color information for the printing process you’ll be using. Vendors may ask for RGB, CMYK, or spot color, depending on the type of printing your project calls for. And the images will need to have an adequate resolution. Most web images have a resolution of only 72 DPI (dots per inch), but imprinting promo items works best with 300 DPI or higher.
This may seem like a lot of details, but to someone familiar with graphic file formats, it’s all routine. The main point you should come away with is that to get the best results from an imprinted promo item, your images should be prepared by a qualified professional using graphics software like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, CorelDraw, or other publishing tools. You may be able to copy an image file into Microsoft Word and make it look good on screen, but you won’t wind up with satisfactory results.
Working with a Vendor
According to the Promotional Products Association International, there are over 20,000 promotional product distributors in the U.S., representing over 3,500 manufacturers. This means there are plenty of specialty vendors that can set you up with almost any type of promotional item you can imagine. You’ll almost always purchase from a distributor.
Most distributors work with multiple manufacturers to offer a range of products that will appeal to any client. They can also help you plan your campaign, from product ideas to distribution. Manufacturers, in most cases, don’t sell directly to the public.
Although you may be choosing a distributor for one specific project, chances are that if you’re satisfied with the work they do, you’ll go back to them for future projects. Therefore, it’s a good idea to run your evaluation as though you are choosing a long-term partner for your business. Some key considerations:
Turnaround time. The vendor should be responsive throughout the process of creating your items. They should deliver your items when they’re promised. And you may want to ask what capabilities they have for rushing a job if necessary.
Professional service. Customer service reps should be well trained and able to offer assistance and advice as you organize your promotion.
Product quality. While the distributors don’t actually make the products, they should guarantee the quality of the items and the imprinting.
Location generally doesn’t make much difference: email and overnight shipping will let you work with a distributor halfway across the country if they provide the best service and a good price.
Once you choose a Vendor
It can help your decision to get a sample of the product you’re considering before you finalize your order. Often, distributors will send you a sample of smaller items for free; they may charge you for more expensive items or shipping costs, but the small price is usually worth the chance to examine the item before you commit to a large order.
Once you place the order and send your artwork, the distributor will work with the manufacturer to create your items. Depending on the size of your order, you may get a pre-production sample of the item with your logo, allowing you to give the go-ahead before full production starts. If possible – even if you have to pay a little extra – it’s generally a good idea to get a pre-production sample, especially if you’re new to promotional products. It may be jarring to see your logo drastically reduced on something tiny like a pen or key chain.
For smaller orders and for some types of items, you may simply get a picture of the item via fax or email, or a swatch of cloth (a “sewout”) in the mail showing how your logo looks when translated into fabric and thread.
You’ll often have a choice of shipping options, including drop shipping to a trade show or other third-party location. Again, be sure to talk to the distributor in advance if you have specific shipping requirements.
Promotional Merchandise Pricing
Pricing for promotional merchandise varies enormously depending on what items you choose. Prices can range from under a dollar per item for simple key chains and magnets to $5 to $20 for t-shirts, calculators, and leather notepads, to $100 or more for USB drives and lavish gift baskets.
Knowing the price per item that you’re shooting for will help you narrow down your choices to a manageable range.
As with any bulk order, your per-item price for promotional merchandise gets lower as your quantity increases. These discounts are tiered at pre-set levels, so be sure to ask what quantity you’d need to order to get the next price break: you can always distribute a few more of your items. Some distributors also get better discounts from manufacturers based on their overall volume.