Roughly eight in 10 people own between one and 10 promotional items. Of those people, 53 percent use a promotional product on a weekly basis. Through repeat contact with your branded items, people become familiar with your company & business.
But how do choose the right promotional products? What aspects should we consider when choosing promotional products? I simply list the following aspects, which may help you when purchasing promotional products.
#1. Who will be the ultimate audience for these promotional products?
Before ordering a new promotional product, you need to consider your audience—what would they like? What kind of item would interest them? Which age group do they belong to?
The more detail you consider, the better you understand the audience for your promotional items. And once you know the audience group, it means you can pick out the promotional items that are more popular with them. There is no doubt that this will have a positive impact on your brand promotion. It’s really important to never let price or so-called promotional product trends influence your purchasing decisions.
#2. Durability & Quality
No one likes junk products, even if they are promotional products. Imagine if you purchase a batch of non-woven bags as promotional items to be distributed in an exhibition, only to have the bags break during use. Everyone knows that it is the quality of the bag. But, the bag is printed on your company’s LOGO or slogan… It is conceivable that this will deal a blow to a company’s brand. So, when we choose promotional items, try to think more about durability and quality, not just price!
#3. Consider the Timing of the Distribution of Your Product
If your promotional items are sourced from overseas, then I suggest you start by making a detailed purchase schedule. Typically, it takes about a week from the time you find a professional supplier and send an inquiry until you receive the appropriate quote and start sampling. It also takes about a week to confirm the samples and sign the purchase contract. The production and inland transportation time of the supplier usually takes about one month. In addition, it takes at least 45 days for sea transportation and customs clearance. So, the whole process will probably take you 3 months. Of course, you may also need to take into account some special circumstances, such as holiday factors, port congestion, etc.
In my other article, I detailed how to choose a professional promotional products supplier, the corresponding article is linked below, and hope it can bring you help for importing promotional items.
#4. Uniquely Tailor Your Giveaways
Many people say that when purchasing or customizing promotional items, they must be close to life, and can make the end audience in their daily lives often use. Yes, this is very important indeed. But at the same time, we should not forget that the promotional products we choose should also be close to our company.
If a car sales company orders a batch of towels, T-shirts, or even yoga mats as promotional items. Even though they are really good choices, I would still find them a bit unconventional. Because these products do not really reflect the image of this company. But if we replace these promotional items with mugs with tire patterns, keychains in the shape of cars. Then it would fit very well with the scope of this company’s business.
#5. Control the purchase cost of promotional items
Controlling procurement costs is a problem for every company. For the purchasing of promotional products, I think we can control the cost from the following three aspects:
Anticipate your purchases as accurately as possible rather than purchasing in batches
And, if you purchase various types of promotional products all year round, it is best to choose 2 or 3 regular suppliers to supply you. Because most of the promotional products are not high value, although many promotional products suppliers will give discounts to customers, the discount still depends on the purchase volume of a quarter or even a year. The more you purchase, the more you can save on purchasing costs.
Choose the right product packaging
Packaging costs are actually an important part of all purchasing costs. And, choosing different packaging materials or methods will have a direct impact on your shipping costs. In my experience, I usually recommend using OPP bags for promotional items under $0.50 per unit. For products with a unit price of $2.00 or more, you can consider using colorful or PET boxes for packaging.
LOGO printing methods
The costs corresponding to different printing methods vary widely. If your logo is not complex and has a single color, then I recommend screen printing or pad printing. These 2 printing methods are not only low cost, but most importantly, suitable for printing on almost any material surface. At the same time, the MOQ is relatively low, generally, more than 500 pcs could be customized LOGO with screen printing.
For more professional answers on how to customize logo on promotional items, please refer to the following articles:
