If you don’t have a standing seasonal order with Viking for an assortment of printed promotional items for your business, you are missing out on dozens of fantastic advertising opportunities. Printed promotional products are have one of the best ROI levels of all, and knowing when a giveaway is worth more than a sale is invaluable.
How exactly do you measure the ROI of promotional items? The cost per impression is usually the best way. This is the cost of each promotional product divided by the number of times that product will be seen by a potential customer. While research shows that it can take up to 8-15 times of seeing a company ad before it will influence a person’s buying decisions, promo items can be viewed over and over again until the brand becomes imprinted on the consumer’s mind.
If you have specialty mugs printed up with a funny saying or graphic and your company name, the mug might cost you $3. However, if it is seen 50 times before it is given away or broken, that’s a cost per impression of only 6 cents. You can’t buy any other sort of visibility that cheaply!
Mugs are only the beginning. Go the extra mile and give away coffee thermoses to your best customers – you can even keep a pot brewing and offer them a free fill-up every time they drop into your store, purchase or not!
Pens and pencils are extremely cheap giveaways, and printed calendars are a favorite, as are key rings and mouse pads. Don’t forget printed tees, printed tote bags, printed notepads and so on. There is almost nothing that can’t be custom printed as a promotional giveaway item, so be creative and choose some unusual items.
Kid appropriate things are great too – you’ll come across as friendly and respectful when you ask if you can gift a child with a custom printed toy, coloring book or other item, and the parents will remember your action. Ask your Long Island printer what they can customize it for you – odds are they have ideas you haven’t thought of!
Make sure whatever you use as a promotional product is well made – a pen that is well made will be used more often and prized while a cheap one that starts skipping the first week will be quickly discarded. Remember, the cost of any custom printed item is small compared to its potential ROI!
Finally, commit to actually giving away your products when they arrive. It does not good to have a box of promotional printed items sitting in the back of your store and gathering dust!