While giving away promotional products is a popular marketing strategy in many businesses, it is rarely actually used effectively. If you’re going to spend money on promotional materials, isn’t it logical to go for quality personalized merchandise that your prospective clients would actually want to use and keep? Here are three things you should remember when planning on what products to give away.

What They Want

It’s wrong for any business to assume that consumers will want anything, as long as it’s free. Even as passersby accept your promotional materials, if the articles aren’t useful or desirable, they’re likely to end up stashed away in some back closet box, never to see the light of day. The best promotional products are things that people use every day. If you have a tight budget, try personalized notepads or pens that people will surely use.

Get Creative

Think of creative promotion ideas that’ll make you stand out from your competition. Target your market by choosing a promotional product that is compatible with the theme of your campaign or line of business. If you’re planning an outdoor activity, try personalized tumblers or hats such as those offered by companies like Southwick Specialty Advertising.  Don’t rely on the product alone. Combine it, instead, with other media to increase response rates from your potential consumers.

Choose Quality over Quantity

Your promotional merchandise should reflect the quality of your company’s products and services. You wouldn’t want your brand to be ruined because of a shoddy pen that runs out of ink within a day, would you? Giving away quality promotional products would surely make your potential consumers and existing clients feel that you have high regard for them, and that they are important to your business.

Optimize your Promotional Materials’ Design

The key to optimizing the use of promotional materials is to provide key information for the customer, whether printed on a small pen or on a large t-shirt, without going overboard. Make sure that you include your brand’s logo in the design so that customers can easily recognize that the product is from your business. Use fonts and colors that are clean and professional for easy reading. If you can’t put your entire business address, put your website or phone number.

In today’s highly competitive world of modern commerce, businesses have employed various marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition. Unfortunately, many companies will use the same promotional ideas and products to advertise themselves to the public. Though a number of these marketing campaigns have proven to be successful, businesses need to come up with fresh ideas to captivate the public.

Promotional merchandise that has been branded with the company logo is often distributed by businesses to reinforce their brand image or promote an upcoming event. This method can be extremely effective, especially if the promotional item is unique or useful.  However, many businesses lack the ability to choose the right promotional item that will target the right audience. Fortunately, marketing companies that focus on specialty advertising—such as Southwick Specialty Advertising Inc—can use innovative green promotional items to promote your business.

Eco-friendly promotional items can help create a positive image of your business in the minds of both consumers and prospects. Promotional items can range from eco-friendly shopping totes and wooden twig pencils, to herb seeds in packets and small plants in pots. No promotional item is too unconventional, as long as it is safe and affordable, and it sends a strong message to the target recipients.

Aside from branding your business as a socially responsible and environmentally friendly company, eco-friendly business promotions is often more effective as advertising tools than expensive billboards and bench ads. This is because many promotional items can travel around, while billboards stay only in one place and can be viewed by only a limited number of people.

Moreover, branded promotional items, such as t-shirts, hats, alarm clocks, and stuffed toys, can be seen every day. These items can send a subtle brand reminder to your clients and prospects that will prove to be effective in the long run. Giving away promotional items is especially critical during special trade events and conferences, where many companies will be participating and giving away promotional items to the public.

Consumers will have the opportunity to compare different products at these events, and if your promotional items don’t hold up to the competition, then you will lose that edge. Promotional products must never be randomly chosen, but rather, carefully considered so that they clearly represent the qualities and ideals of your business.

Why go green? Well, why not?

Going green is the least most people can do to save the world. Buyers today have learned to be discerning about the products they pick out, and even demand truthfulness on labels, especially those that bear the stamp “organic”. As a business owner, you most likely understand the significance of a future sustainable society and see good timing in capitalizing on the green trend. Think of great green promotional items to establish your product, as well as your environment-friendly image.

The state of the world today is such that everything modern society does affects Mother Nature for better or worse, from going to the nearest grocery store to choosing certain goods. You make a world more ecologically sound when you encourage your customers towards a green revolution mindset. You can use the following green facts to your advantage.

Buying organics reduce global warming

Your favorite brand of milk is only available in the next city, so you drive all the way just for that. Think about the carbon footprint you leave behind as a result of your journey (whether you drive or travel by public transport). Why don’t you give local milk a chance? For all you know, it may be better.

Support local economy

Aside from reducing carbon footprints, buying local milk supports the small dairy industry of your community. Experts say that many cities facing financial woes cite a lack of local product endorsement. Green business promotion ideas convince people to buy locally and provide a steady stimulus for the local economy.

Strength in numbers

Buying organic juice may seem small-scale, but going green makes those small things matter. Green practices also find strength in numbers; the more green people do and support, the better the effect on the environment. For example, statistics show that the U.S. can save 3 trillion gallons of water a year if every house had water-saving fixtures.

Multiple effects

Green business promotions can also discuss how one green practice can yield multiple effects. For example, products made out of a ton of recycled paper just saved at least 20 trees, a dozen barrels of oil, 7,000 gallons of water, three cubic yards of landfill space, and sufficient energy to power a house for half a year. Our Stone Paper Notebook, made from natural stone, and chemically benign, is waterproof, tear resistant and smudge proof. Saves trees, too—check it out on our product search. Backing it up with scientific data makes the facts more credible.

Filed by Monet Parham, a mother of two, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), a Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group, the suit claimed that McDonald’s was running afoul of consumer protection laws by using toys to market potentially unhealthy meals to children.

CSPI Executive Director Michael Jacobson says: “In time, the practice of using toys to market junk food will seem as inappropriate and anachronistic as lead paint, child labor and asbestos.”

In a statement, McDonald’s says that the lawsuit had distracted attention from “the important issue of children’s health and nutrition.” The company’s spokeswoman, Danya Proud says: “We are proud of our Happy Meals and will vigorously defend our brand, our reputation and our food. We stand on our 30-year track record of providing a fun experience for kids and families at McDonald’s.”

The lawsuit was dismissed by San Francisco judge Richard Kramer, who did not include an analysis of the suit’s merits in his dismissal. CSPI and Parham are debating appeal.