Ordering promotional gifting this year? Top things to consider if you really want to make an impact

A novelty shop where you typically find trendy options for bulk gifting items | Photo by Loifotos

There was once a time when businesses could hand out promotional products without much thought. Pens, keychains, table top items and novelty stuff. Anything worked. Those times, however, are well and truly over. Now, promotional items will only have a meaningful impact if they align with consumers’ values as well as their needs/wants.

I am Adele Thomas, Director of Distinctive Confectionery and we’ve been working in personalized and corporate gifting space for over 20 years. Here are my insight into how you can get the most out of your promotional products.

How to choose promotional products

Your choice of promotional products should always reflect your brand’s style, outlook, and values. To a certain extent, these will be unique to your brand. There are, however, certain values modern consumers want to see from all brands. In general, these relate to ethics, particularly sustainability.

In addition to choosing sustainable promotional items, you also need to ensure you choose sustainable packaging. Consumers are increasingly seeing this as non-negotiable. In fact, a recent survey found that 24% of consumers were willing to pay more for products if they came in sustainable packaging.

It, therefore, follows that there is a high likelihood of consumers outright rejecting promotional products unless they are packaged sustainably. Looking at this from the opposite perspective, consumers are more likely to find promotional products appealing if they are packaged sustainably.

With that said, sustainability on its own is unlikely to win over consumers. After all, it should really be seen as a given rather than a selling point. Here are the other key factors you should consider.

What is your budget?

In the real world, price is going to be a consideration for most businesses, particularly in the current economic climate. The good news is that there are sustainable and attractive options at all price points. It does, however, generally make sense to define your budget early so you can quickly focus on items within your price range.

Remember, there are often ways for you to add extra value to your promotional items at very little cost. These may even help your overall marketing. For example, you could create special content to complement your gift. You might even choose to hide this content so it could only be found by people with your gift. This gives recipients an extra, very compelling, reason to visit your website or social media platform.

On a similar note, you could provide a special offer with your gift, such as a discount code. This can be time-limited but should still give enough time for people to be able to use it. You can also use your promotional item to guide people to your website, email newsletter and/or social media presence for the chance of further special offers.

Who is your target market?

If you have a broad target market, then you will generally want to stick with promotional products that have broad appeal. Confectionary is probably the ultimate example of this. Keep in mind, however, that details often matter a lot, especially to modern consumers. For example, modern promotional confectionery can be organic, fair-trade and/or vegan.

By contrast, if you have a narrower target market then you can look at promotional products that have more niche appeal. These can be highly appreciated for two key reasons. Firstly, they are very useful and/or very desirable to people in that specific market. Secondly, they demonstrate that you understand the market. This helps to promote customer confidence.

How durable do you want the item to be?

There’s a difference between sustainability and permanence. Sustainable items are items that are, at worst, environmentally neutral. Ideally, they should make a positive contribution to the environment in some way. Durable items are items that last a long time. Sustainable items are often durable and vice versa but the two concepts are still different.

It’s important to be aware of this because there can be a lot of value in promotional items that are designed to be impermanent. These kinds of items typically create positive emotional feelings and/or memories. As a result, they build positive associations with the brand.

Again, food, especially confectionery, is probably the ultimate example of this. There are, however, plenty of others. Generally, these promotional items tend to be focused on activities and/or personal care. For example, they may include items for arts and crafts, plant seeds or skincare essentials such as lip balm.

With that said, there is still, very definitely, a place for durable promotional items. It is, however, vital that they are genuinely useful enough and/or desirable enough to be worth keeping over the long term. If they’re not, they’ll simply end up being put into storage or discarded. Either way, their promotional value will be significantly reduced.

Do you want the item to be customizable?

Customizable gifts such as promotional chocolate can offer more versatility and flexibility over non-customizable ones. At the same time, more customizability mean more complexity.

If you do want customizable items, then you need to decide who will be in charge of the customization. The usual options are the seller, the presenter, or the recipient.

Having the seller manage customization is often the most convenient option. The downside of this approach, however, is that it can limit the options further down the line. By contrast, letting the giver or the receiver of the promotional item customize it to their taste adds more work on their side, however it increases their options such as personalized designs or branding.

Do you want to leverage a significant event?

You can make a promotional item even more memorable by connecting it with a significant event. For example, there is a reason why so many promotional items are gifted around Christmas time.

Major festivals in general are great opportunities to build relationships with promotional items. At the same time, there is often a lot of competition during these periods. This means you may want to look for less known and/or more personal events you can leverage (e.g., birthdays).

Alternatively, you can create your own events. These could build on real-world, seasonal activities (e.g., back-to-school). Equally, they could just be relevant to your company. Whatever option you choose, you should commit to marketing it effectively.

Your promotional products should, therefore, fit in with the theme of your event as well as reflect your brand values and appeal to the recipients.