What Are Promotional Materials, And How Can Your Business Benefit From Them?
We all love free stuff. Some might deny it and pretend not to like free stuff, but even those people sometimes can’t keep their curiosity in check. People often see the same product samples from different companies at events and expos and still try them all. It is almost like we do it involuntarily. Almost every successful brand uses promotional materials to its advantage.
Some might argue that giving away free products or discount codes wastes money. But in reality, if you can execute it right, marketing and promotional materials can make you significant profits. You can easily understand this by looking at large-scale enterprises’ marketing efforts.
Companies are willing to spend money on extravagant marketing and promotional materials because they know their ROI. In this article, we explain what promotional material is and what its advantages are. Additionally, we also take a look at some of the promising promotional or marketing materials to use for your business.
What Are Promotional Materials?
Any material you print, write or contain graphics promoting a business or its products and services is promotional material. Generally, promotional materials primarily focus on the company’s name and branding.
Any promotional item or product you use is technically promotional material. However, in general terms, promotional materials are printed marketing materials like brochures, postcards, catalogues, etc. If you refer to anything other than printed material, promotional material is like calling a tomato fruit.
We know it’s true, but we don’t think of it like that. For many of us, marketing and promotional materials are only billboards and direct mail. But yes, in a broader sense, anything that enhances brand awareness or attracts potential buyers is promotional material.
Hence, the types of promotional materials can come in sizes, shapes, and forms. It can be the direct mail that arrives at the customer’s doorstep of the sample products you give away at events or expos. Giving away promotional products or gift items also helps you build good relationships with your audience.
What Are The Advantages of Using Promotional Materials For Your Business?
Your business organisation gains a lot by using different promotional materials to market your products and services. Since you can use everything from a matchbox to a backpack as promotional material, you get significant control over its ROI.
Even face masks have become promotional material ever since the pandemic. According to the Global Ad Impressions Study in 2020, a $5 face mask can have a CPI or Cost Per Impression of about 0.1 cents. Imagine the ROI you can generate with such excellent CPI rates.
We are not saying that you should invest in promotional masks when the pandemic is starting to disappear. The numbers above are nothing but an indication of efficient promo materials could be for your business. And we are just getting started here. Let’s look at some of the other significant benefits of using promotional material for your business.
Boost Brand Recognition/Recall
Brand recognition or recall is arguably one of the most compelling benefits of using promo materials for your business. People can recognise a bottle of Coca-Cola even if you show them a silhouette image. Wouldn’t you want the same kind of recognition for your brand too?
If your target audience can recognise your company just by looking at your branding or tagline, you have made it a brand. With the help of marketing and promotional materials, you can get closer to this goal. Who knows, with the right strategy, your company could be the next Coca-Cola.
Of course, you can’t possibly reach there with a single successful marketing campaign, but it could be the start you need. And if the success stories of Coca-Cola and McDonald’s teach us anything, it is to use promo materials to boost brand recognition.
However, it would be best if you tried to put your brand logo on items your audience will likely use regularly. If you think hard enough, you can probably think of someone still using an age-old Coca-Cola keychain or t-shirt. Such promotional materials serve as a constant reminder of your brand.
Strengthen Customer-Brand Relationship
Merely people recognising your brand is not enough for your business to succeed. You also need them to buy your product/service. More importantly, you need brand-loyal customers who will not just buy your products but also advocate them to their families and friends. Luckily for you, promotional materials can help you out here.
People always like to receive things that make them feel valued, which doesn’t necessarily mean sending them gifts. Sometimes your thoughts go a long way than any gift. For instance, consider sending promo materials like personalised birthday postcards to your existing customers.
And if you want to make an impression, you can include another promotional material like a keychain with the letter. After all, 57% of people report keeping the promo materials they receive for five years or more.
That’s like running the same personal advertising campaign for the same person for years. And over the years, the customer will likely go through several life experiences, and your brand could be a part of that. It should now be clearer why promotional materials are such a big deal for some brands.
Boost Employee Morale
The success of a business organisation depends on its employees as much as it does on its customers. Furthermore, if you can’t convince your employees to trust your brand, there isn’t much point in trying the same with your customers. Branded promotional materials can help out your business in the following ways.
- It can unite your internal teams.
- It can help you welcome your new hires.
- It can help you boost brand awareness.
Business organisations that motivate their employees can boost their profits by up to 27%. Of course, giving your employees promotional materials is not as big as giving them a raise, but it certainly helps. It is a cost-effective way of showing your appreciation and showing that you value their efforts.
Instead of thinking of promo materials as a reward for your employees, think of them as motivational incentives. And an employee who is satisfied with their work environment is likely to wear or use your promo materials outside work too.
So in effect, you get free brand promotion from your employees while keeping them happy and motivated.
Highly Cost-Effective
Another reason for using marketing and promotional materials for your business is their highly cost-effective nature. Remember how we discussed the CPI or Cost Per Impression of face masks earlier? Yes, that’s just one of the examples of how cost-effective promotional material marketing can be for your business.
You may not have the deep pockets to use promotional material like brand giants like Coca-Cola. But, the beauty of using promotional material for your business is that it does not have to be expensive. You can even use something as simple as a matchbox as your promotional material.
In other words, you can decide how cheap or extravagant you want your marketing strategy should be for your business. You have the flexibility to choose from practically countless types of promotional materials for your campaign.
What Are The Types Of Promotional Materials You Can Use?
As we mentioned before, there are numerous types of promotional materials you can employ for your business. You can pick any promotional material that you think is ideal for your business and can resonate with your target audience.
However, here is a list of marketing and promotional materials that offer the best results for your campaigns without burning a hole in your pocket.
Direct Mail
Direct mail is an excellent promotional tool for your business because it’s relatively inexpensive and highly personalisable. Above, we discussed the case where you can use personalised birthday postcards to create a bond with your customers. Regarding promotional materials, direct mail is not as lasting as other materials, like keychains or refrigerator magnets.
However, the emotional impact of sending a postcard or birthday letter is significantly more significant. It shows how your brand cares for its customers and is willing to go the extra mile. Furthermore, you also have the option to enhance its effectiveness by adding different promotional materials to the letter. You can even get a design for your postcard from a template gallery to make things easier.
It is also worth mentioning that you can use direct mail automation software like PostGrid to send such letters and postcards easily. PostGrid enables you to schedule the delivery of your personalised mailers, so you practically don’t have to do any work. In other words, you can send promotional materials without lifting a muscle with automation.
Writing Instruments
Another type of inexpensive promotional material you can use for marketing your brand is writing instruments. It is one of the practical and valuable promotional materials to use for your campaigns. You can quite easily brand writing instruments like pens and pencils.
However, there is one downside to using promotional materials like pens and pencils. The lifespan of pens and pencils is relatively short compared to other items like keychains or refrigerator magnets. Hence, you might want to keep that in mind before using writing instruments for marketing.
Tote Bags
Tote bags are also great as promotional materials for your business. They are helpful to the customers and easily noticeable by others around them. Furthermore, tote bags are reusable. People often take them to grocery stores, beaches, and even gyms.
Additionally, printing your branding onto a tote bag is much easier. Its relatively large surface makes it easily readable too. It is no wonder several brands use tote bags as one of their most preferred promo materials.
T-shirts
A list of effective marketing and promotional materials is incomplete without T-shirts. It is another valuable and efficient way to spread brand awareness for your company. But make sure you have them in all sizes, such as small, medium, large, etc.
With T-shirts, you have a variety of options to choose from too. You can choose an attractive colour, pick the model, and use beautiful prints or slogans. However, compared to the other promotional materials we discussed, these are relatively expensive and difficult to handle.
Post-its Or Sticky Notes
Like writing instruments, Post-its are an excellent choice for targeting people working at home or from their office. It is equally helpful for students and homemakers. Hence, it is one of the most diverse promo materials.
People often use it to write down reminders and can stick it anywhere they want. Furthermore, people usually tend to read sticky notes whenever they see one. Hence, such promotional materials can have a higher reach than you think.
USB Flash Drive
If you are willing to spend a little more on promotional materials, you can consider using USB Flash Drive for your campaigns. People often use USB Flash drives as backups and carry one around, much like a keychain.
And unlike the other promo materials we discussed, no one would throw away a good flash drive. They would find one way or another to use it. Besides putting the branding on the flash drive’s exterior, you can also include some marketing content inside it.
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