How to Choose the Best Promotional Products and Branded Swag

The possibilities are endless when it comes to promotional products. But not all promotional items are created equal. Some are better than others when it comes to increasing visibility for your brand or company. 

It can be difficult to choose the best swag that is both cost-effective and attractive, but with some research and careful planning, you can find the perfect combination of products that will leave a lasting impression on your target audience.

The power of swag is real, and you can ensure that your investments will result in increased brand awareness and customer loyalty through promo products.

Promotional products are tangible items that are used for advertising a business, organization, or event. These are often distributed at trade shows, conventions, conferences, and other events as a way of marketing the sponsoring company. Promo products are also used internally at organizations to help promote the company amongst their employees. Branded swag and promotional products are great for new employee onboarding gifts and other employee milestones and events.

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to promotional products, people certainly love receiving them. According to Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), 96% of consumers want to know in advance when companies will offer promotional products.

Company swag needs to serve two primary functions: Brand recognition and both employee and customer loyalty. The right promo products can help create a lasting impression and make your brand stand out from the competition. Providing customers with products that they can use and appreciate also increases their likelihood of coming back to buy more from your business in the future. Giving our branded products to your employees can also help your team feel valued and instill a sense of pride in them.

Promotional products have become an invaluable marketing tool for businesses and organizations, allowing them to create brand awareness and reach new customers.

Here are the top reasons for using promo products as part of your marketing strategy:

Giving quality company swag to employees is a great way to boost morale, show appreciation, and create a sense of unity among the team. By providing this type of merchandise, you’re essentially providing each employee with a piece of your brand for them to share proudly with others.

It also allows everyone to show their company pride and loyalty tangibly. This may also be a suitable way to reward employees for achieving goals or meeting deadlines.

Promo products can attract attention to your company's booth at a trade show or conference. Branded swag like hats or bags with logos or slogans can be useful in helping people to remember who you are after they leave the event.

Attendees may be more inclined to talk about your company and its offerings after receiving something tangible from you. Furthermore, these items can also help generate leads by providing people with a way to contact you after the show has ended.

An attractive feature of promo products is that they can be sent directly to potential customers through "lumpy mail" campaigns. When someone receives one of these packages, they will likely be surprised and curious about what it contains - increasing the brand's visibility.

By sending swag directly through the mail, you will also be able to establish a more personal connection with your recipients. It also gives potential customers a chance to experience what your brand has to offer firsthand.

To simplify the process for you, you can even choose to send out curated sets already ready to ship in a mailer box. Check out CorporateGift's mailer kits featuring full boxes or mailers containing promotional marketing materials of your choice.

An onboarding kit is a meaningful way to make a lasting impression on someone since it's given at the beginning of their experience with your company.

For customers, promo products can create positive feelings towards your brand that will carry over into their future interactions with you. For employees, branded swag can be an effective way to help them feel part of the team from the get-go. Providing items that feature your logo and branding helps create a sense of unity and purpose within the organization.

People look forward to special occasions all year,  so these are the ideal times to give promotional products. While most companies remember gifting at the end of the year, there are a ton more reasons (and times of year) to give! These gifts can be used in various ways, like:

• Rewarding employees
• Showing appreciation for customers
• Celebrating an employee’s work milestone or anniversary  
• Giveaways as contest prizes

Branded swag can also act as a reminder to customers that they matter to your business, helping them stay loyal even during difficult times.

You can also express your appreciation and create positive associations with your business by giving branded swag as thank-you gifts. You’re not only showing gratitude for your team's efforts, but you're also reminding them of their positive experiences with your company so far.

Promo products are powerful tools that businesses can use in a variety of situations. When giving  items that bear the logo or slogan of a company, people tend to remember it more easily than anything else. This makes them more likely to recall the brand in their future purchasing decisions.

As door-openers, they serve as an attention-grabber and make a favorable first impression on potential customers or partners. You may also use these as book-a-meeting incentives or as post-meeting thank-yous to express appreciation for your client's time.

Promotional products also have a place in closing deals and regaining lost customers. Also, they can be used to gain back customers who have stopped doing business with a company since they demonstrate that the business remains committed to working with them.

Promotional products are ideal for any occasion, whether you’re looking for something special for your next corporate event or just want to provide some extra incentive for customers. With the right promotional product, you can be sure your message will get noticed. 

Here are some popular promo product ideas to consider:

An effective marketing campaign can be created with the help of promotional gear. Custom apparel can be printed with whatever design you choose, from simple text logos to intricate artwork.

For even more impact, you could consider offering additional items to a commonly distributed t-shirt, such as backpacks, hats,  or hoodies that feature your logo design.

These apparel and bag options are suitable for promo products:

• T-shirts
• Polos
• Hoodies
• Hats
• Backpacks
• Tote bags

In addition, custom swag apparel is highly affordable and can be purchased in bulk orders for large events or distributed individually as giveaways at tradeshows or special occasions. They’re also comfortable to wear, making them a smart choice for any casual occasion. 

Drinkware is one of the most popular promotional product ideas because it can be used in several different settings, including trade shows, conferences, customer loyalty programs, and even as a suitable corporate gift.

Not only does it provide visibility for your brand, but it also serves a practical purpose that customers appreciate. By including custom branding on the surface of the item, you can create a lasting impression on those who receive it.

Here are some popular drinkware items you can use as branded swag:

• Water bottles
• Coffee mugs
• Travel tumblers
• Wine tumblers
• Can coolers

Drinkware is an economical way to promote your brand, as bulk orders usually come at discounted prices. This allows you to purchase items in large quantities while still keeping costs low. It’s also a more affordable option if you want to purchase retail or name brand items.

Want to show you're on top of the latest tech offerings? Consider giving away tech freebies. Apart from being visually pleasing, they also serve a practical purpose that people can use every day and interact with their gadgets.

Here are some popular tech giveaways:

• Speakers
• Wireless Earbuds
• Headphones 
• Power banks
• Wireless chargers 

Overall, tech freebies have a high perceived value - making them an attractive promotional choice for many companies. As tech is constantly evolving, you can use them to display the latest products and services your company offers and to demonstrate your ability to adapt to changing conditions.

Food and candy have universal appeal, meaning that nearly everyone likes them! They also create an emotional response in recipients, which helps to build goodwill towards your brand.

The following are the most popular food and candy freebies everyone is sure to love:

• Cookies with your logo 
• Different types of candy
• Snacks with your brand colors 
• Candy cubes
• Food and snacks towers 

Compared to other promotional products, food and candy are generally less pricey, making them an excellent choice for businesses on a tight budget who wish to get their message out there effectively. These can be distributed quickly and easily at large events or to a broad audience.

Office products make great promotional product ideas because they are both practical and versatile. From handy office kits to desktop accessories and even office party supplies, these cost-effective investments make it easy to spread awareness of your brand among potential clients and employees alike.

The following are some popular office custom promotional items:

• Stationery
• Pens
• Office kits
• Books

Office products come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so you can find something that fits your budget and fits the aesthetic of your business. Not only can they be used to promote business services, but they also serve a useful purpose in the workplace. 

Promotional products are not limited to these items. The versatility of branded swag can go as far as household essentials and even health and wellness products.

Home goods such as kitchenware or home decor can be used by recipients daily, providing them with constant exposure to your brand logo or message. Additionally, these items tend to be longer lasting than other promotional materials, giving you more bang for your buck over time.

To demonstrate that you care about your customers' health, you can also provide Health and Wellness items that correspond with your brand's message. These types of items are highly visible and are usually carried around as part of a client's, customer's, or employee's daily routine, giving your brand maximum exposure. 

For a complete selection of promo products, be sure to visit CorporateGift.com, offering thousands of branded swag options tailored to your specific needs.

Promotional products will benefit your business greatly, as you know. Here are some key advantages that promotional products offer and why they should be considered for your next marketing campaign.

Promotional products are an effective and cost-efficient way to increase brand awareness. They can be used in a variety of ways, including giveaways at trade shows, as part of direct mail campaigns, as corporate gifts for clients or employees, and more.

By associating your business with desirable items that people want to use every day (or even wear), you create powerful connections between your brand and the recipients of those promotional items. This practice helps people recognize and remember your business, leading to increased brand awareness.

Personalized promo products offer companies the opportunity to showcase their new product in a memorable and exciting way. This is especially useful for promoting special events such as product launches, company events, and rebranding initiatives.

These items give recipients something they can keep for a long time, which helps to remind them of the occasion while creating visibility for your business. Not only do they create awareness, but they also provide tangible reminders of your event for recipients to keep.

With promotional items, you can create something special to give away that not only conveys your appreciation but also serves as a memento of the visit or interaction. The purpose of these gifts is to serve as a reminder of gratitude while still providing value through their use and functionality.

Additionally, branded swag offers the opportunity to further promote your business with every use, ensuring that your message reaches a wide and varied audience.

Let your employees celebrate their company pride with branded swag. Not only will they help spread the word about your business, but they can also be used as an effective tool to increase employee morale and loyalty.

With promotional items bearing your logo or slogan, you are showing your employees that you value their work and want them to feel proud of their association with your organization.

Promotional products can be an effective tool for moving leads through the marketing and sales funnel. You create an opportunity for potential customers to interact with your brand tangibly. This physical connection helps build recognition and trust in your brand, which can lead to increased engagement from potential customers.

It is also possible to use these as incentives to motivate customers to move further down the sales funnel. You could, for example, offer a free branded shirt if someone subscribes to your newsletter or purchases a product from your company. The incentive encourages increased engagement with your company, which in turn leads to the lead becoming a paying customer. 

Selecting the right promo products for your business or event can be a daunting process. For starters, you have to consider what kind of item will best represent your brand and create a lasting impression on potential customers.

Using the factors listed below, you will be able to determine which promotional product will meet your needs. This will enable you to make an informed decision that will ensure your success.

When choosing promotional products, it is necessary to align them with your brand to maximize their impact. Take into account your brand's color, theme, and company philosophy, as inappropriate products can harm how people perceive your business.

For example, if you have a professional services firm that focuses on providing financial advice to clients, giving out cheap items such as plastic toys may not be seen as appropriate.

On the other hand, something like a personalized notebook or pen with your logo could help to reinforce the quality of service that you provide and show potential customers that you take pride in what you do.

Trends change over time, so staying on top of them can help ensure that you always have fresh ideas when choosing the right swag. For instance, you might consider giving away a tech-related item to demonstrate that your company is ahead of the curve.

Knowing what's on trend can also help you target specific demographics and ensure that your products are attractive, relevant, and engaging for customers. You can use this information to create a successful marketing campaign and increase your brand's visibility in your target market.

Quality promotional products can make a lasting impression on potential customers and provide an accurate reflection of your brand. Low-quality products may appear cheap or flimsy, which could give off the wrong message about your company’s values and standards.

High-quality products are more likely to be used by customers for longer periods, providing maximum visibility for your brand and logo. This is important because people who use those items will repeatedly expose themselves to your brand’s visuals and messaging more often.

Remember that investing in quality products, in general, demonstrates that your company takes pride in its work and is willing to invest in the highest-quality materials available. This can help build good relationships with customers and may even lead to repeat business.

You should be aware that not all product manufacturers offer full-color options with their products, and you should understand which option is most appropriate for your brand. You should check the product listings to ensure that your logo or artwork can be imprinted in full color.

Full color is best suited for products that have a lot of details and require more vibrant colors to stand out. It’s also helpful when you want your message or logo to really pop off the page.

On the other hand, single-color printing can be just as effective. When you don’t need a lot of detail or color to get your message across, single-color printing is the way to go. It will save you money and time without compromising on quality, making it ideal for businesses that are looking for an economical approach to their promotional products.

There are also many more decorating methods that may be more appropriate for the item and your brand. A classic debossed logo on a leather journal will look much better than a screenprint. Or embroidery will help elevate an apparel piece.

Whichever way you choose, ensure that the method is the best route for your logo and brand.

Consider what type of message you want to send and how you want potential customers or clients to perceive your brand. Make sure you also check whether the product has an imprint area for your message or artwork, including the location and number of imprint locations.

Determine which promotional product will be best suited to your target audience after researching their interests and behaviors. Ensure as well that your brand or message gets across clearly on the product you choose so that it will remain recognizable for a long time. 

Curious to know the ins and outs of distributing promotional products? You can use swag to build brand awareness and promote your business, but determining how best to distribute them for maximum effect is not always straightforward.

Knowing the right strategies for distributing promotional products will ensure that your efforts pay off, so let's dive into all the details.

Trade show booths are an excellent way to promote your business and products. They provide a great opportunity to meet potential customers, generate leads, and increase brand awareness. In this situation, 52% of attendees are more likely to attend an exhibit if they are offered some kind of giveaway or freebie.

Storing and keeping swag year-round can be a challenge, but it is possible with careful planning. By carefully executing a plan, you would have had a smaller margin of excess in the first place. As a result, finding a storage space that has enough space for all of your swag becomes much easier.

Before redistributing your swag, it is wise to check the condition every few months to ensure they are in pristine condition. An awesome advantage that promo products offer is their reusability, which allows you to use them at your next trade show or for other creative purposes such as a pop-up shop, direct mailing, or as incentives.

A sending platform can be a great way to distribute promotional products. It enables you to quickly and easily send out large volumes of items in an organized manner with minimal effort. Plus, it's an efficient way to track inventory and manage orders, so you know exactly how many products have been sent out.

Dropshipping through a marketplace like CorporateGift.com allows you to quickly and easily send gifts, promotional products, or other items directly to your remote employees, clients, and prospects without having to buy in bulk ahead of time or store them yourself.

On the whole, a sending platform makes it easy to send packages from one location to another without having to physically transport them yourself, saving time and money. This is especially beneficial for businesses that have fluctuating employee numbers, as it gives you the flexibility to adjust your inventory accordingly.

You can also create personalized messages with each shipment that will help make sure they know how much they are appreciated by your business.

Managing swag for ongoing corporate programs can be a challenging task if there is no tool to assist you. A swag management solution, such as CG Elite, helps businesses manage their branded products more effectively. 

This is done by offering features such as tracking inventory levels, automating ordering processes for replenishing stock when needed, and creating reporting systems that track marketing effectiveness.

This helps companies reduce costs associated with overstocking and lost inventory, as well as improve the accuracy of their promotional campaigns. 

Measuring the success of a promotional product can help you determine whether or not your efforts are having an impact on your target audience.

Let's discuss several ways to measure the success of a promotional product so that you can make sure that your marketing dollars are being used in the right places.

Analyzing how quickly items are moving will give you an indication of how well your product is resonating with attendees. This will give you an indication of whether adjustments need to be made or if more products should be ordered.

If things are moving quickly, it could mean that people are interested in what you have to offer and that they may even come back for more later. Conversely, if items aren’t selling as quickly as expected, this could suggest that further changes need to be made to make the product more appealing and desirable.

By monitoring the speed at which items move from your trade show table, you will be able to better gauge the success of your promotional products and make necessary changes accordingly.

Sending personalized notes not only shows appreciation for customers who have participated in the promotion but also provides valuable feedback that can be used to improve future campaigns and measure the success rate of freebies.

With the help of a sending platform, you can ensure that everyone who purchases your promotional product is sent a personalized and timely thank-you note.

Analytics for campaigns and occasions are a great way to track the success of promotional products. Sending platforms and swag management tools like CG Elite let you measure how many products were redeemed as well as which offers led to booked sales calls, purchases, or other key performance indicators (KPIs).

This is especially beneficial when running multiple promotions at once. Measuring KPIs such as redemption rate and purchase rate can help marketers determine if their promotion was successful or not.

By tracking these metrics across different campaigns, businesses can compare results and identify trends that will help inform future decision-making processes.

Do you want to maximize sales, build better customer relationships and manage your swag inventory with ease? A swag management solution could be the answer for you.

As mentioned, swag management software can help businesses manage their marketing campaigns more effectively and efficiently. You can streamline processes and automate operations that can help take your business’s promotional efforts to the next level.

But how do you know if it's time to invest in such a tool? Let's discuss the signs that suggest it’s time for your organization to implement a swag management solution.

1. You distribute swag throughout the year

Corporate programs that distribute swag year-round may benefit from a swag management solution. Such solutions can save time and money by providing access to discounts on bulk orders as well as the ability to track usage data like how much was ordered, who received what items, and when they were distributed.

Additionally, swag management solutions are designed to be easy-to-use platforms that provide visibility into all aspects of your merchandising program so you can more effectively manage inventory levels across multiple locations and vendors.

2. You want to send swag to recipients outside your office locations

If you want to send promotional products to recipients outside your office or at multiple different locations, then a swag management solution is an invaluable tool. Swag management solutions provide an efficient and organized way of managing the entire process.

This includes creating lists of recipients and selecting appropriate items, tracking orders and shipments, and ensuring delivery.

This helps ensure that all the necessary information is documented so that it can be easily accessed later when needed. Additionally, they allow you to keep track of who received what item to avoid any duplicates or unwanted items being sent out.

The right swag management solution can ultimately offer automated processes that help streamline the entire process even further for enhanced efficiency and time savings.

3. When holding swag becomes difficult to manage and keep track

Without a swag management system in place, it can be tricky to know how much product you have on hand, as well as what type of product is available for distribution. Without a proper tracking system, it can also be a hassle to determine who has access to the distributed items or if any products were misplaced or stolen.

Businesses with multiple offices and remote employees are particularly vulnerable to this problem. A reliable swag management solution should allow you to easily track, manage and distribute swag. It should also make it easy to know what type of product is available for distribution as well as how much you have on hand.

4. When you want to distribute swag digitally

From email to SMS links, swag management tools make it convenient to distribute swag digitally. This is especially true when working with large numbers of recipients. These services allow you to easily manage your digital swag and its distribution in one place.

This type of solution will also allow you to send targeted messages or offers based on customer preferences, as well as generate reports about your campaigns for analysis. By having all of this information in one place, it's easier to keep track of what is going on with your digital swag distribution efforts.

5. You want to provide accessibility to your swag management

When considering whether you need a swag management tool, you should consider your needs in terms of accessibility, inventory tracking, and control over distribution.

A reliable swag management solution should provide secure access with an easy-to-use interface for all stakeholders. Inventory levels are an equally crucial aspect when managing swag; if there is not enough stock available, customers and employees alike may become frustrated.

Expense reporting can be simplified by providing centralized access for all stakeholders. Having control of swag distribution and use, on the other hand, is essential to maintain brand integrity.

When it comes to choosing the right promo products and branded swag, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Despite this, this guide should be able to help you find promotional products that will make an impression, ultimately helping drive more sales and leads for your business!

We've got thousands of awesome gift ideas to help your business right here on CorporateGift.com.

Along with our vast selection of products, CG Elite members will have access to premium products, storage and inventory management options, advanced tools for tracking gift budgets and allocations, as well as many other powerful features. Come check us out today.