A Check List For Buying Promo Merchandise

OK so you have decided that promotional gifts is something to invest in as part of your marketing communications budget. There are literally hundreds of thousands of items to choose from. How do you choose?

Let’s start with your budget and the quantity required. Promotional gifts have quantity based pricing. It’s all down to economies of scale. One a production run has been set-up and started, unit prices fall with volume. Knowing your budget is one factor. Deciding on the quantity of items you need is another. It may be that you have a specific event such as a invitation only conference or seminar or golfing event. For these you have a general idea of the audience numbers. Alternatively experience can play a part. For an exhibition you may know the typical number of visitors to your stand or a number of events you want to attend. Either way, once you have the numbers you can start to look at how best to optimise your marketing spend on promotional gifts.

How big an imprint do you want? Promotional gifts are an advertising medium but they do tend to have small imprint areas. As a rule of thumb, the higher the unit cost and product size, the greater the print area. With pens and flashdrives we are talking about imprint areas in terms of millimetres (mm) but for mouse mats and shopping bags the areas are measured in centimetres (cm).

So we know the budget and a rough quantity of the items wanted. We know what we want to say. The third point is to look at matching a promotional gift to your marketing campaign and user needs. If a promotional gift is useful to the recipient they are likely to use it and remember/recall the brand and marketing message on it. At the same time choosing a piece of merchandise that suits your marketing campaign is also important for reinforcement.

In an age when we are more cost and environmentally conscious, it is important to optimise marketing budgets and reduce waste. Following this checklist can contribute towards ensuring you get the right promotional gifts, at the right price and in the right quantity to make them a successful element within your marketing campaign. For more information please call us on 0800 158 3080.