Every business can benefit from incorporating promotional items into their ad campaigns. Promo materials are great for helping new companies get on their feet and helping established companies find new leads and sales. When customers use a promotional item, they see the company logo and think positively about the brand. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
With so many advantages to using branded products, it’s puzzling that higher institutions don’t teach this style of marketing. Ask any student who has majored in marketing and you’ll likely find that they never learned about promo items and their role in advertising. In our humble opinion, we feel that there should be a course dedicated to promotional products.
In a perfect world, here are the topics that would be covered in a promotional item marketing course. Imagine how much more informed marketers would be!
- How to Choose the Right Products. Selecting the right item involves more than picking something fun from the catalog. Brands must take into account their audience and what they would find valuable. Cost, quantity and where the products will be handed out should also be factored in.
- How to Evaluate Effectiveness. Handing out promo items feels good and people are generally happy to receive them. However, how do brands know if the products are really working? If a brand hands out lanyards at a trade show, they should understand how to measure the ROI of their products.
- How to Stay on Budget. Materials are important because they impact the price, quality and availability of products. Ordering in large quantities and by certain deadlines can also help save money. Additionally, branded items have a lower cost per impression of an ad than TV, magazines and newspapers.
- How to Hand Out Promo Items. Any business can be at a trade show and hand out products, but, there needs to be a way of doing this. Will the names and emails of people be collected first? If so, how will this information be captured? Brand exposure is important, but getting the right products into the right hands is the true objective.
Promotional products are an effective and cost-efficient way to bring more attention to a brand. Marketing majors should be taught more about using these types of items and how to measure their effectiveness. This background will give marketers more confidence in knowing when and how to use branded merchandise.
