It’s simply not enough to have great promotional products. You also need a killer strategy for distributing them, one that serves your company’s goals and accurately caters to your target audience. In this article, we’ll cover the most important factors you and your team will need to consider while developing your promotional product marketing strategy.

Identify Your Target Market

There’s little point in promoting your business if you don’t know who you should be marketing to. Identifying your target audience will help you answer some important questions about what your strategy should look like.

If you don’t already know your target audience, consider the demographics your customers fall into. Use those to build a complete profile of your most typical customer which factors in things like gender, age, socioeconomic status, generation, and location.

But it’s not just about knowing who they are—it’s about understanding them. What problems are your customers using your products or services to solve? What do they want out of your business? What outside factors have influenced their purchasing trends? Where do they spend their time, both online and in person?

That last question will be especially helpful in the later stages of developing a strategy, as it will help you decide where to distribute or advertise your promotional products.

Identify Your Goals

Simply put, you shouldn’t be considering buying promotional products if you don’t have a clear goal in mind. Are you looking to promote a new location? Gain new customer leads? Raise awareness of your products or services?

Once your goal is identified, consider how the promotional product of your choice will help you achieve that goal. For example, if your goal is to raise brand awareness, choose a product your customers will use, wear, or display in public. Desk organizers are great and extremely useful for customers, but it does little to contribute to brand promotion, as it’s mostly used in private. You’d have better luck choosing a reusable grocery bag or a branded hat.

Keep your company’s goal in the forefront of your mind during every stage of the marketing strategy—reminding yourself of your goal frequently will help keep you and your team focused.

Choose a Distribution Strategy

The promotional product strategy that’s best for your company will depend largely on the above factors, as well as other things like budget and timeline. There is no shortage of methods for distributing promotional products, but a few of the popular ones include:

• Social media giveaways: offer your followers a chance to win a bigger-ticket promotional item in exchange for a recommendation to a friend or another interaction with your brand’s social media accounts
• Giveaways: great for trade shows, parades, and other community events
• After-sale surveys: ask for feedback from your customers and give them a free reward in return

For some more inspiration, check out our blog on promotional product marketing strategies that real-world companies have used to successfully promote their businesses.

Once your marketing strategy is in place, it’s time to learn how to measure its effectiveness. And remember—one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd is by choosing a promotional product that your customers will actually use (and use more than once). Whatever you’re looking for to promote your business, you’ll find it with Facetime Business Resources.