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The Incredible Truth about Promotional Product Advertising
 

Eighty-nine percent of folks who have received a promotional product in the last two years can recall the advertiser’s name. That’s an incredible number.

It takes enormous creative talent and intentional placement to garner that same kind of brand recall for traditional advertising routes, like billboards or magazine ads. Add to this the fact that there is a 500 percent referral increase from happy customers who have received promotional products, and there is very little reason left to avoid promotional product advertising.

Luckily, there are various promotional products to choose from, all of which should accurately represent your brand.

Top Promotional Products

T-shirts

As we’ve discussed in previous blogs, comfortable t-shirts are a must-have in every person’s closet. Design a logo eye-catching enough, and it might just become someone’s favorite t-shirt. Why is this important? Each time that person wears your t-shirt out of their house is an opportunity for infinite brand impressions. For every dollar you spend on a t-shirt, you will average 200 brand impressions. Compare this to a newspaper ad, for example, which gives you approximately 34 brand impressions per dollar spent.

Outerwear

Many people view outerwear as a more high-value promotional product. It is often seen as a status symbol compared to other top promotional products and is commonly offered only to targeted audiences and top prospects. While the cost of outerwear sometimes limits larger orders, the return on investment is huge. Just about half of people who received a branded jacket said they were more likely to do business with that advertiser.

Stickers

Everyone loves a good sticker. From water bottles to laptops to notebooks, they are versatile enough to find themselves on several different products. This kind of exposure means that brand impressions are much easier to garner. They are also extremely affordable! For every dollar you spend on stickers, you are likely to get approximately 125 brand impressions.

Hats

If your target audience is male-dominated, hats are an ideal promotional product. If your company has a catchy tagline or an appealing logo, your hat is likely to be worn regularly. This could mean an average of 3,000 impressions for one hat!

Drinkware

Believe it or not, promotional drinkware is used an average of 2-3 times per week. Whether it’s a mug, shaker bottle, or engraved glass, drinkware gets a lot of use. This means that your drinkware can see approximately 90 impressions in over 30 weeks, making it a strong contender on our list of top promotional products.

Writing Instruments

More than three-quarters of people consider a writing utensil a pivotal part of their day, and they tend to keep one on them at all times. This presents an astronomical amount of impression opportunities throughout the utensil’s lifetime. With a $0.000436 cost-per-impression ratio, they are among the most economical options of any of our top promotional products.

Bags

Due to their versatility and likelihood of reuse, bags are one of the most highly ranked promotional products. To put this in perspective, billboards get approximately 500 impressions for every dollar spent. With bags, this number is over one thousand impressions!

Tech items

While all tech items hold a substantial spot on the list, the best are USB drives. It’s true that their impression numbers are not quite as high as some of the other items on our list, but USBs provide a unique opportunity. They allow you to pre-load additional promotional materials onto them before distribution. If you have a promotional video or additional information about your company, adding this to the USB is a great way to get your information into the hands of potential customers.

How to choose

With so many options for promotional products, it’s important to have a strong understanding of your target audience. What are their demographics? What kinds of products are they likely to use daily? Cool promotional products are great for that short-term wow factor, but 77% of people who have received promotional products say that usefulness is the top reason for keeping the product. Learn to speak the promotional product language of your target clients, and you’ll be well on your way to developing stronger leads.

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