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There’s absolutely no point in investing in promotional products if you don’t get them in the hands of your target market.
The whole idea behind giving promotional items away is to build a brand, and eventually, generate a return on your investment. So even before you decide to invest in them, you need to figure out a distribution strategy that gets your promotional products in the hands of your customers, at the right time and right place.
So what’s the best way to distribute your promotional products?
To start with you need to have the fundamentals of your marketing strategy addressed. That lays the foundation for the strategies you’ll adopt for distributing them among your target audience.
Ensure you have answered these critical questions, before looking at specific channels of distribution:
- Who is your target audience?
- Where do they hang out, online and offline?
- What kind of promotional products would they benefit from?
- When do they need them?
- Why do they need them?
- How would they like to receive them?
Answering these questions makes it much easier for you to decide which channels will be most effective to get maximum exposure, the biggest reach and generate the highest returns on your investment.
In this article, we’ll give you 5 key approaches to distribute your promotional products and get them in the hands of your audience. Here they are:
Distribution Channel 1: Personalized Distribution
Do you have a specific group of customers that are your biggest sources of revenue? Or perhaps, you’re looking to build a relationship with bloggers in your industry?
Whatever the case may be, personalized distribution is a targeted, personalized and highly effective way of distributing promotional products. You can choose to mail out your promotional products to specific people who you’d like to initiate or maintain your relationship with. People love to receive gifts!
A great way to have ‘maximum impact’ with this approach is by reaching out to influencers. Influencers, as you’d know, have large audiences and give you the opportunity of reaching out to several thousand people in your target audience with a single post on their social profiles. Influencer marketing can generate up to $6 in returns for $1 you invest. So, why not invest that $1 in giving promotional gifts to influencers, so you can leverage the relationship in the future?
The same applies to distributing your promotional products to a specific group of prospects you’re interested in initiating a relationship with. You might have identified a group of people in a specific target location, like stay at home mums in a specific suburb. The best way to reach them is by giving them a gift, because everyone loves them!
Distribution Channel 2: Trade Shows & Conferences
A fantastic way of getting your promotional products in the hands of your target audience at the right time and right place is by giving them away at trade shows and conferences. This is where your market is going to be, and branded promotional products can be a great way to make a good first impression.
What seems to be doing particularly well at events like these is promotional items that your prospects can use at the trade show itself. The most classic ones are pens, USB’s, notepads, and stress balls, all of which offer a lot of utility on the spot.
A smart approach would be to minimize your costs of distribution at events like these. By hiring interns or volunteers looking for retail work experience, you’d create a win-win by letting them hand out your promotional items as people walk past your stall.
(Image Source) Trade shows mean lots of promotional items are handed out, why not supply branded bags for attendees to carry everything!
If you’re looking to reach the maximum number of people at trade shows, sponsoring a whole ‘gate’ where people enter the venue can work wonders. That way you won’t miss a single person walking into the venue.
Distribution Channel 3: Social Media & Email
Depending on what your promotional product is, social media & email marketing can be great ways to distribute your promotional products among those that want them. This is achievable by simply asking people to register their interest in receiving promotional products from you.
Running competitions on social media can be excellent for stimulating excitement and interest among your target audience. This seems to work extremely well during holiday season, when everyone is interested in receiving gifts.
Westjet Airlines ran a christmas promotion where they asked people to tell the airline what their ‘christmas wishlist’ was before they boarded the flight. On landing at their destination, the airline surprised them with all of their gifts arriving on the conveyor belt where passengers were waiting for their luggage. That’s the way to do a promotional give away in style!
Wrapping it up
Think about where you’re going to distribute your promotional products before you decide to invest in them. Another innovative way of distributing the right promotional products, is to simply ask your target audience what they’d like to receive. Don’t just treat promotional items as a way to give ‘something’ away. Give what’s truly relevant to your audience, so the focus is always on building a meaningful long term relationship, and not using promotional products as bribe to lure customers to buy from you.
Use the distribution approach that works best for your business and your customers, and you’ll see how your promotional products do the marketing hard yards for you, effortlessly.
Reach out to Good Things to explore how we can help with your promotional product needs.
