MARKETING MATTERS: THE POWER OF PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS IN MARKETING

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Tips and tricks for business marketing success
 
By Rama Beerfas
 
March 3, 2012 (San Diego’s East County) –  Marketing is any activity that furthers the cause of your business. Pretty much everything you do in business is either impacted by your marketing actions and/or has an impact on them.
Whether you take advantage of paid advertisements, publicity, trade shows, event marketing, social media, or any of the other myriad of marketing outlets, there is one strategy that can help boost the performance of all the rest - promotional products.
No matter the method of distribution: if you mail them out, hand them out at a trade show or event, or leave them behind on a sales call, promotional products are the one form of advertising that people will keep, use and, maybe even, pass onto someone else. It is also the only form of advertising that people will actually thank you for getting! (When's the last time you know of someone that thanked an advertiser for their clever TV ad or billboard?)
In a 2005 survey of travelers at Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport commissioned by PPAI, the following conclusions regarding promotional products' impact on brand awareness were reached:
  1. 71.2% of respondents could remember receiving at least one promotional product with the past twelve months.
  2. Over 33% of the respondents said they used the first promotional product that came to mind at least once a day.
  3. About half the respondents who had never done business with the company prior to receiving the promotional product from them stated a willingness to try them out.
  4. 40% of the respondents had been in possession of the first promotional item they named for at least six to twelve months.
Promotional products can be used in conjunction with any other form of marketing to entice people to complete your desired call-to-action. Whether it's the promise of a gift when they've done what you want, something that you give to trade show attendees to reinforce the message behind your display, or an item that makes your mailing bumpy which causes someone to open it who might otherwise have just tossed it, promotional products can amp up your marketing.
If you'd like to learn more about promotional product marketing, I recommend reading The Power of Promotional Products by David Blaise and Maria Carlton 

Rama Beerfas is Chief Solutions Specialist for San Diego-based Lev Promotions, offering complete marketing services from consulting, promotional products, mobile marketing, social media marketing, editorial work and more. Rama also offers seminars and training in marketing and customer service related topics. She can be reached at (619) 697-2045 or at rama@levpromotions.com or visit www.levpromotions.com. Column requests and comments are welcome. 


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