Getting Your Promotional Materials Noticed – Oyebola Toyese

All types of businesses use promotional materials to market their products and services. These materials allow customers to study information about their product or service, but often prompt customers to act on the offer during a promotion.

Promotions are often confused for advertising, however, promotions are not the same as advertising; advertising is generally much more expensive than promotions. It is used to bring long-term awareness to customers while promotional materials are relatively inexpensive and typically serve as incentives to customers.

Promotional materials are geared towards reminding customers about a business just like advertising specialties, such as calendar, pen, paperweights, notepad etc. that contain the name and phone number of the business. Sometimes, a company will send out promotional materials like coupons to generate leads or to drive traffic to their store. But the question is, do these promotional materials create an impactful picture in the mind of the customers? Especially when these materials are free, customers tend to get them eagerly without paying attention to the printings of these materials. However, the success of your promotional products will depend on what merchandise you choose and how you implement them. This is how it works:

1. The first thing to consider is target market. Most business owners forget that what they are trying to communicate will determine how well materials get noticed. You need to ensure that you are not giving your materials to those who won’t be interested in your product or service. Most people go overboard with bulk purchases of T-shirts, mugs, pens, calendars and so on. The truth remains that, it will be much more effective to get a few good promotional gifts to reward the loyalty and support of the customers in your business because these are the people who will advocate your brand and continue to invest in it.

2. Another reason is that most companies tend to overlook the items that will make their customers feel valued. However, factors like your industry, business values and different type of customers you are approaching should be considered. These promotional materials should be ones that the customers will be happy to use. This will ensure that your business is seen and registered in the minds of other potential customers even after your initial contact. Note: these items may not always be what you like as most of us look forward to using shirts, calendars and so on because we love them. Instead, choose promotional materials that will add value to your business and brand. Be creatively creative.When planning promotional materials to target minds, companies feel it isn’t necessary to carry customers along. Why not try a survey asking potential customers about what products they will like to see and use the most? This is a good tactic if you are unsure of what exact promotional material will be most effective for your campaign.

3. And finally, mind the colors, designs, position of details and quality of these materials as they are very important. Always remember that the main purpose of these materials is not just for freebie sake but majorly to expose your business and what you do in other to attract valuable customers.

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