6 Mistakes to Avoid When Ordering Promotional Products

Promotional Products – Giving away promotional items can be a great way to establish brand recognition and stay fresh in the minds of your clients or customers. This specific campaign can also be a great way to show appreciation to current clients or gain new ones by setting a positive first impression. Of course, with any campaign, it is important to have a game plan, budget, and plenty of time to execute to avoid any pitfalls you may face. Here are a few “No No’s” to avoid when ordering your promotional products!

Ordering Items without a Strategy

Why are you ordering these products? What purpose will they serve? Who will see them? Are you handing them out to complete strangers at a trade show or mailing them to current clients? These are questions you should be asking yourself before purchasing branding materials. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is placing a blind order with little to no plan of why you’re doing so. A good place to start is to draw up a buyer persona and campaign strategy plan. This will help you to establish which products speak to your audience and best represent you and your brand. 

Poor Design

If you don’t have a graphic design team or individual on hand, you may consider hiring a professional to assist you in putting together a design for this project. Many promotional product companies like Gopromotional will have a dedicated professional graphic designer team available in-house. Just because you have a logo for your business does not necessarily mean it will translate to any surface. A graphic designer will ensure you have the right balance of text, imagery, and white space so that your logo and information is legible and formatted correctly. It is likely you will need to provide your brand’s logo in vector format so that it can be scaled to multiple products or surfaces without losing image quality.

Not Considering Your Audience and Their Needs

Your audience is the primary reason for this marketing purchase, so it is crucial that you take them and their needs into consideration before ordering promotional products. The question of who will be receiving these products should be raised again before deciding on which products to hand out. Once that is established, consider collecting survey responses for what your audience would use or want out of this marketing campaign. Sending out generic and thoughtless products just for its sake somewhat defeats the purpose, and odds are, it will end up in the trash.

Last Second Purchases

A last-second order is rarely the move and often a recipe for mistakes to be made, additional fees, and of course, stress. It’s recommended to place your order 1-2 months in advance so that you have plenty of time to choose the best products for the campaign, discuss a vision and design with a professional, test product options before committing to a bulk order, and of course, budget time for any delays or errors to be fixed.

Skirting Quality for Quantity

Remember, these products represent your brand and your image, so you don’t want to skimp on quality. Again, if you are purchasing swag just for the sake of purchasing swag, the initiative could hurt rather than help your marketing efforts. And if quality promotional products are not in your budget this year, focus your efforts elsewhere until you do have the budget. Do not compromise a campaign that will ultimately lead to a waste of money and materials. A cheap pen that quits working after four uses will end up in the trash, causing your marketing campaign to be just as short-lived as the life of the pen. 

Getting Too Personal

A good rule of thumb is to avoid getting too personal or invasive when it comes to giving out free promotional products. It’s suggested to prevent involving politics and religion or any sensitive topics, as this can be divisive and offensive to clients and customers, causing them to turn away from your business.

Using this article as a guide can help you avoid the common missteps involved with such an investment and hopefully set you up for a successful marketing campaign that will leave a positive imprint on the minds of your clients and customers.