There are lots of ways to market your products and services; there are only so many ways to do it right. Most businesses give away gifts as a part of their corporate gifting program, send out marketing material, and distribute promotional items to advertise or market their products. You’ll get better results in these endeavors when you keep the following points in mind:
Don’t distribute promotional items just because you have to
Just because you thought that it was a best practice or because you noticed that other businesses engage in promotional products distribution, it doesn’t mean that you should do it too. Distributing promotional items or giving away gifts to customers works for some businesses and not for some others. Think about your prospects and experiment with your promotional items. If it works, go full steam ahead. If it doesn’t, switch to what works.
Customize your promotional products
Just like you don’t send out mass emails addressed “Dear Everyone” or “To Whomsoever It May Concern” anymore, sending out promotional products that are not customized to your entire list of potential customers is a bad idea. If you don’t personalize the products, your prospects aren’t going to be impressed. They can’t relate to you, trust you, or buy from you.
Split-test your promotional items
You know what works best, all the time? Split-testing. Not all of your customers are the same. You can also bet on the fact that your customers could be male or female; young, middle-aged or old; modern or conservative, etc. How could you possibly send out one single promotional item – such as a USB stick, a mouse pad, or a promotional bag – to such a diverse set of potential customers? You don’t. Segregate your prospects into different groups demographically and then send out relevant promotional items to them.
Follow-up, even if it is not to “sell”
Most sales people and business owners think that “follow-up” is an action taken to close a sales process with a prospect. Not always. It can be a courtesy or service-based follow-up too. It’s a good practice – and it really sits well with your prospects – to call them after you dispatch a shipment of promotional items. Call them up and ask them if they received their promotional items. Ask them if they liked them. Find out if they would have wanted something else, if they had a chance.
