When you receive a gift that looks like it has been well thought-through, it’s a good moment for the receiver. You are impressed with the effort someone has gone to. Or the fact that someone knows you well enough to give you a gift that really resonates. A gift that you love so much you can’t stop talking about it.
That’s the receiving bit. Not that this is the intention of giving, but the effect of how a client will feel about you and/or your brand going forward.
So instead of giving for the sake of giving, give to create a moment or even better, many moments. That’s why well thought through branded promotional items that you gift to your customers and clients can really have an ongoing impact, and not become a one hit wonder… off their desk into the secret santa basket!
8 Step Process of Creating a Promotional Gift Experience
Who is the gift for? What type of person are they? What kinds of things currently resonate with them?
Think about your business / brand – Who are you? What’s essence of your brand and your brand values? Is there something that you are feeling increasingly passionate about?
Brainstorm with your Promotional Specialist to discuss the tried and tested and the latest and greatest, along with any other ideas you have.
A good promotional idea connects customer, business/brand, and the message – in a memorable way.
Strategic Design – Think beyond placing a logo on the promotional item. How can you create more for the customer through this experience?
Quality Check – Great design, poor quality promotional item – is not a good look. You want something to last more than 5 minutes. The ideal scenario is for the customer to integrate the promotional item into what they do. So they keep using, keep being reminded of you.
The packaging – Create the experience right through to the end. You want your customer/client to be excited about opening your gift. Anticipation is a beautiful thing. So don’t miss this opportunity.
If it’s a good gift, people will tell you and continue to talk about it. I have lost count of how many people speak to me about my Promotional Pens.
If you are looking for Christmas Gifts for your Customers/Clients I encourage you to start to finalise your plans to avoid missing your required dates.
Organisations seeking to assist their staff and clients with stress management are well-placed to show their support by offering corporate branded exercise apparel and equipment that promotes a healthy lifestyle.
Anyone grinding madly towards a deadline or the end of financial year knows how stress can impact your work productivity and your life away from work. As well as increasing your overall health, the links between exercise and stress-reduction have been acknowledged for some time.
Endorphins are the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters and they spike in production when you exercise. Whilst exercise also helps stressed employees forget the long tiring days and allows them to focus on moving their body, it’s also beneficial in clearing the mind, especially with outdoor activity or yoga. Being physically tired instead of not just mentally tired is also a great way get a good night’s sleep and feel recharged in the morning.
Employers can help reduce stress with a few simple ideas:
Management can Lead By Example: In order to reduce stress it’s important for managers to lead by example. They can stay positive in the face of negative or stressful circumstances; make time to go for a run and fit in exercise; drink plenty of water and eat healthy, organise walking meetings outdoors rather than in an office or boardroom; take regular breaks and socialise. This will show your employees that it’s OK to take some time out. Consider a clever gift for your employees that allows them to monitor how much water is being consumed during the day.
Introduce a Corporate Wellness Program: statistics show that exercise and a healthy lifestyle is important when it comes to alleviating stress at work. A wellness program can include paying for a portion of gym membership; running a company-wide health eating challenge or encourage divisions to compete in a step challenge. A couple of ideas that will help employees unwind and feel better about themselves. This program can be supported with a range of promotional merchandise that employees can aim for if they achieve certain goals or levels within the program, such as pedometers, smart bands, workout apparel, fitness Towels, High End Water Bottles to name a few.
Create Social Activities: Your staff spend a lot of time with each other and it’s really important that they have good working relationships. When staff enjoy coming to work, the atmosphere will improve and lead to higher productivity, collaboration and even customer service. Perhaps once a week set aside some time to bring your staff together in a fun environment; play a team sport such as game of basketball or soccer or even take the staff our for a healthy lunch at a vegetarian or raw food restaurant. Social activities help reduce stress, boost morale and build successful teams. By also providing the staff with suitable sports gear like t-shirts, socks, shorts, sunscreen and caps, they will also feel rewarded and part of a team.
Provide a ‘Chill Out’ or ‘Zen’ Area in the office: By creating a quiet room in the office with some lovely relaxing music playing in the background, walls painted in a soft neutral colour, scented diffusers; with some oversized bean bags and encouraging your employees to take a 10 or 15 minute break during the day to relax and get away from technology, can help stress and possible burn out. A nice environment can improve happiness. Include some products such as branded LED Candles, stress relievers, eye masks, yoga mats etc.
Sports gear improves fitness engagement!
Stanford researchers summarised 26 different studies in a paper published in The Journal of the American Medical Association and reported that collectively, the studies showed that pedometer users walk more than 2,000 additional steps each day than non-users, and their overall physical activity levels increase by 27%. Aussie kids scored a dismal D minus (worst grade) on the physical activity report card, Australian children are the least active in the world. By encouraging parents to get more active through company programs, they can lead by example for their children and ensure they live a healthy active lifestyle. Lower rates of active transport (walking) as well as higher rates of sedentary behaviour, particularly increased time spent in front of screens is a contributing factor. Branded sports gear is by no means a solution to this issue, but could prove to be a motivator.
With the Promotional Products Association International noting that 73% of those who received promotional products use it at least once a week, branded promotional sports and health/lifestyle products are going to improve not only your brand awareness and overall business, but the wider health of your staff, customers and general public.
Promotional products and Social Media: Valuable touch points for your business.
Combine Promotional products and social media platforms to create valuable touch points for your business. Ask any business and they will state that social media is an important component of their communication with current and potential customers, as well as being valuable in increasing their brand awareness.
When social media was first considered a useful medium for business, it was all about having a LinkedIn profile and a presence on Facebook. According to the 2016 Sensis Social Media Report business on social media has grown with nearly half (48%) of small to medium business (up from 31% last year) and over three quarters (79%) of large businesses (up from 56% last year) now having a presence on social.
Social media is not going to go away and those businesses that can stay ahead of the game by finding new ways to increase engagement with customers will be the ones that will reap the rewards.
Like social media, promotional products are a cost effective way to remind people about the benefit of doing business with your organisation. They also build brand recognition, reach a wide audience and establish a positive reputation.
From a recent survey conducted by APPA 52% of people who have received a promotional product will do business with the company after receiving it and their impression of the company is more positive! Team this up with the Sensis Social Media Report findings that 52% of consumers are more likely to trust a brand if it interacts in a positive way with its customers on social media and you have two advertising mediums that can clearly work together.
With nearly 50% of recipients using a promotional product every day, a company logo will be seen by others regularly, thereby creating more impressions over time without additional expenditure. These people will then engage with your customer to find out more about your brand, what you do and how you can help them. This word of mouth referral is valuable and key to people discovering new brands, products, services and experiences. Sharing a brands content on social media is the word of mouth function online and continues a person’s engagement and trust with a brand.
Boost your brand awareness by bringing Corporate Gifts and Social Media together
Mount Franklin invited social media fans to tag who they would love to share their Lightly Sparkling Fashion Collection watch series with.
Now more than ever, in our fast paced environments with pressure to achieve targets, marketers need to reward and build brand loyalty, create content that maximises the customer journey and experience through multiple platforms. This can be achieved by running a campaign using promotional products and a planned social media strategy.
The visual nature of Instagram and Facebook make these platforms ideal for a corporate gift/social media crossover. Instagram is growing continuously with more than 600 million people using the platform and 100 million users who joined in the previous six months of 2016 … a desirable audience worth tapping into.
7 ways to boost your Promotional Products through Social Media
There are a variety of ways to incorporate promotional products into a social media marketing campaign to fire up your brand awareness.
Create Desire … a desirable promotional product gives the impression that the company is Quality! Every year the promotional product industry releases a large range products in the latest trends suitable to showcase a corporate logo. Images on Instagram and Facebook can generate desire with your target audience and encourage brand reach. An idea could be to produce a small quantity of fashionable watches with a custom pattern printed on the watch face with your company logo. Post the image of the watch on Facebook and generate activity. The company could then reward those that were active by requesting a PM with their details and send them a watch, thereby positively impacting your brand and rewarding users.
Invite your social media followers to incorporate your branded products in their social media posts (User Generated Content) by offering a prize for their involvement. You get the best of both worlds: Promotional products being used and social media visibility. Getting followers to create social media content about your brand is ideal!
Use a hashtag to drive a conversation on Instagram around an event your brand is involved in. Encourage participation by offering a branded gift as a prize to one or more participants.
Create content about your company’s products and services that feature you, your staff or your customers wearing and using branded apparel. Your staff will feel rewarded and your customers will feel appreciated.
Usability is a key criteria. Statistics show that over 90% of people received a promotional product in the last 24 months, so it makes sense that the product be useful so it will still be around for years to come. With the popularity of video content, showing how to use products is another way of getting brand visibility and engagement.
Combine branded merchandise and social with wearable technology. Touch Screen Smart Watches come in all shapes and sizes and some of the latest styles look like a fashion watch but perform like a computer … your customers can stay in touch by receiving social notification via their watch with your brand on the go!
Every industry has social media influencers. Identify who they are and approach them about how they could incorporate your branded products into their social media content.
Enjoy,
Diana
Diana O’Cobhthaigh, is the owner of Turnkey Promotions, boutique agency specialising in promotional merchandise and product development. Turnkey Promotions provides a helpful and consultative experience that is tailored towards our clients’ Branding, Values and Vision. Diana and Turnkey Promotions are focused on a partnership that delivers precision in planning, quality products and timely delivery.
Who doesn’t love tech gadgets? Let’s face it, a lot of tech gadgets might sound beneficial as corporate gifts at first, but after a while they become obsolete. One of the handiest tech gadgets around is the Smart Tag … a convenient Bluetooth / GPS tracker that can help you find your keys, wallet, bags, or anything of value that can be lost or misplaced. Tracking children, grandparents and pets are also possible!! With some devices you can even find your phone by pressing a button on the Tag to make your phone ring, even when it’s on silent!
Lost time looking for lost items
According to The Tile, the average person misplaces upwards of 3,000 items a year and then spends over 60 hours a year searching for them. All told, our misplaced stuff adds up to billions of dollars annually. When you attach a Smart Tag to an item, you are really tethering them both to your phone an easy to use downloadable app.
The most commonly lost things tend to be small (keys, wallets, bags, luggage, pets), however, you’d be amazed at how frequently big items also go missing. A true story of a man who’s motorbike disappeared from his home with a Smart Tag on it. He uses the app to mark his motorbike as lost and found that it had been taken for quite a drive and was soon reunited with his treasured motor.
A variety of shapes
Smart Tags come in all different shapes and sizes. The key ring versions can be added to a set of keys, attached to a bag or backpack; whilst the coin version can be placed in a purse or wallet or left in a car. There’s also a wearable watch version so you can easily track your kids or partner in crowded places like shopping centres and amusement parks … not to mention it also comes with a handy UV indicator to keep an eye on sun exposure when at the beach or having a picnic.
No matter what the size, we have a style that will fit your logo, making it a great corporate gift your customers will be grateful for in years to come.
Applications
Home: Who hasn’t lost their keys or wallet in the home? With a Smart Tag you can easily locate these items. See the last place you had it on the map and make the phone ring when you get close!
School: Parents wanting to keep an eye on kids walking home from school can place a coin smart tag in a school bag or attach a keychain version.
Sports: A Smart Tag in a sports bag at an athletics carnival can reduce the amount of stress involved in finding your bag amongst hundreds of others.
Caregivers: If you’re a primary caregiver of elderly parents who are suffering from dementia, Smart Tags can be used to help locate relatives who may have wandered away from home or attach one to a bracelet they wear to help find them quickly should they be difficult to locate.
Office: Leave a Smart Tag in your purse or laptop bag provides peach of mind with added security.
Pets: A Smart Tag attached to your pets collar will help you find them if they manage to run away, especially during storms or fireworks.
Travel: Smart tags will make finding and collecting your luggage after a flight simpler and quicker or place coin smart tag in your passport wallet and it will always be easy to find.
And after all that as the band U2 believes, if you still haven’t found what you’re looking for … then it’s probably not meant to be found!
Enjoy,
Diana
Diana O’Cobhthaigh, is the owner of Turnkey Promotions, boutique agency specialising in promotional merchandise and product development. Turnkey Promotions provides a helpful and consultative experience that is tailored towards our clients’ Branding, Values and Vision. Diana and Turnkey Promotions are focused on a partnership that delivers precision in planning, quality products and timely delivery.
Organisations seeking to assist their staff and clients with stress management are well-placed to show their support by offering corporate branded exercise apparel and equipment that promotes a healthy lifestyle.
Combine Promotional products and social media platforms to create valuable touch points for your business. Ask any business and they will state that social media is an important component of their communication with current and potential customers, as well as being valuable in increasing their brand awareness.
Who doesn’t love tech gadgets? Let’s face it, a lot of tech gadgets might sound beneficial as corporate gifts at first, but after a while they become obsolete. One of the handiest tech gadgets around is the Smart Tag … a convenient Bluetooth / GPS tracker that can help you find your keys, wallet, bags, or anything of value that can be lost or misplaced. Tracking children, grandparents and pets are also possible!! With some devices you can even find your phone by pressing a button on the Tag to make your phone ring, even when it’s on silent!