How do Promotional Products Fit into an Organization’s Cross Media Strategy?

Using Promotional Products In Your Organization’s Cross-Media Strategy

• Promotional Products for Marketing
  • Embrace Social Media Reach
    • Conducting Audience Research
    • Providing Value
  • Align with the Focus of Your Content Marketing
  • Utilizing Print Advertising
    • Print Collateral and Promotional Products
  • Email Marketing Offers
  • Public Relations
    • Public Relations and Promotional items
• Marketing Strategies that Coexist Have Further Reach

Marketing plays a huge role in the level of success that a business can achieve. Whether you are a solopreneur who has just started a venture or a marketing executive for a large brand, your job is to tell audiences about the company and what it can do for them to increase sales.

To do this effectively, you will probably need to adopt a multi-pronged approach to your messaging. Focusing on one channel for communicating with consumers is going to severely limit your growth potential, even if that particular channel is a perfect location for the target audience. Your goal is to determine how to maximize your resources to reach as many key customers as possible.

Promotional Products for Marketing

This channel is a relatively unique way to build brand awareness and increase customer loyalty for your business. Essentially, you invest in everyday items that people will use and slap a company logo, name, or even a unique design on them that point people back to your business.

This branded merchandise creates additional exposure for your business to the general public. Many businesses effectively include promotional products as a part of their overall marketing efforts toward relevant audiences.

But how does this method fit into a greater cross-media strategy? Let’s take a look at how this can be done.

Embrace Social Media Reach

Any digital marketing strategy, especially in 2022, probably includes a social media aspect. Almost every demographic can be found on one platform or another, making it the perfect marketing tool for reaching key audiences. Information spreads faster on social media than any other medium, so using it to share your promotional products can boost sales of the items themselves and get more people involved.

Conducting Audience Research

Before you hone in on what types of promotional items to invest in, you can conduct important research using social media to find out what products would work. Look up the trending topics on Twitter or Instagram to see what people are talking about. What are the most shared stories on Facebook or LinkedIn and how can you use them to better understand your audience’s needs?

Providing Value

Social platforms are where people go to connect, escape, and entertain, so find out what your customers are interested in before executing a promotional item strategy.

Align with the Focus of Your Content Marketing

Content is king, or at least Bill Gates seems to think so, (and he might know what he is talking about). Your content strategy can play a significant role in enhancing your promotional product campaign.

Let’s say you are an e-commerce brand that creates eco-friendly decor from recycled materials. Your content, whether it takes the form of posts on social platforms, blogs, or website content, is probably focused on repurposing materials to add life to a space and protect the environment.

With this general theme, you can use your content to sell or give away branded merchandise that underlines your business purpose. Customized water bottles can cut down on the number of plastic bottles being thrown out incorrectly. Reusable grocery bags with your logo on them can encourage sustainable shopping that avoids churning through paper or plastic bags.

If you can invest in promotional items that support the themes in your content, your customers will be more interested in obtaining these items and providing you with more exposure whenever the items are used in public.

Utilizing Print Advertising

If there are physical marketing components involved in your strategy, then you can use these to promote products as well. Say you are at a trade show or festival and want to give away some items with a prize wheel. Drawing attention to your booth with a compelling and creative sign might pull potential customers from the crowd.

Print Collateral and Promotional Products

Your plan is probably to have some printed collateral to give away so that potential customers have more information, like a brochure or business card. Maybe you can give them a chance to win a customized hat or tote bag to take away as well. This may leave an even stronger impression than a printout by itself can.

When used in tandem, this promo item will excite them while the printed advertising gives them more information about the brand itself.

Email Marketing Offers

Many businesses find that an email marketing strategy can still be super effective for reaching customers and increasing sales. Although most inboxes are full of spam, if you have talented creatives on your team, these emails can create repeat customers and turn curious individuals into huge fans of the business.

Including offers for free or discounted promotional products in your emails is a great way to generate customer loyalty and excitement. Plus, if they choose to buy the item, that means more exposure whenever they wear/use it. Never underestimate the power of a loyal customer, as they might be thrilled to spread the word about your company. The best brand ambassadors are usually enthusiastic customers.

Public Relations

PR is usually not thought of as a typical marketing channel, since it is not always directly related to selling products or services. Usually, PR is all about selling a brand’s image, which is just as important. If you have a poor public image, no one will want to buy from you.

Partnerships and sponsorships in your local community are great practices to enhance the public perception of your company. You can support charitable events, sponsor local sports teams, and do whatever is important in the community. This marketing method can change how local audiences view your brand.

Public Relations and Promotional items

It also provides you with the opportunity to leverage promotional products. By giving away items in the local community that you are connecting with, people will see that you are a brand that cares about their neighbors. They might be more excited to collect promotional items and use them around others, proudly talking about the company behind the logo when asked about it.

Marketing Strategies that Coexist Have Further Reach

When you find ways to fit the various puzzle pieces of your marketing plan together, it creates a clear, overall picture that can work very effectively. Promotional products may be just one piece of the puzzle, but when that piece interlocks perfectly with social platforms, content marketing, email marketing, print advertising, and public relations, it can generate more brand awareness for your target audience, and therefore, a greater growth potential.