Last updated on April 17th, 2024
Social Media has emerged as a go-to-marketing vehicle for every company. Giving a perfect platform to every brand to generate interest, directly connect with their target audience, and increase consumer engagement. In this post we will be focusing on how the use of promotional products can boost your social media returns.
Giving away promotional products may sound like the oldest trick but when done as per the prevailing trends can help in creating brand awareness, increasing the customer base and building brand evangelist. Not convinced? Have a glance at some interesting facts mentioned below:
- As per a study by BPMA, approx 84% of respondents stated that a branded promotional gift goes a long way in increasing brand awareness.
- While 66% agreed that they can remember name of the brand printed to a product even from the previous year.
Further, 79% confirmed, they are more likely to do business with the same company in the future. - So, promotional products and social media campaigns when made to work together can drive better customer engagement while creating brand awareness.
Take a look at top 4 Tips to drive maximum mileage out of promotional products:
1. Exciting Giveaways Encourages Sharing-
Giving promotional gifts in exchange of liking a page or subscribing a newsletter, signing for a contest or sharing a post is a good deal. This encourages sharing, helps your brand reach to new audience thus, resulting in increased followers.
For example, if a user is rewarded with a promotional mobile case, coffee sipper, custom mugs or any stationery item in exchange of subscribing to a page then he/she will feel delighted and is more likely to encourage friends and colleagues to do the same.
Image Courtesy: ebay
2. How About Personalized Promotional Gifts-
In order to gain an edge over competition, you need to take promotional gifts/products one step further. So, give a thought to personalized gifts and strengthen the relationship with your existing and prospective customers. It is a tried and tested way to build customer engagement and greater loyalty.
For Example: Stress balls and stress toys make an ideal promotional giveaway to a salesman while giving a promo pen or coffee mug to a teacher or student is the best option.
Image Courtesy (Etsy)
Further, to boost your social media campaigns, hashtag it #bestwaytousepromomugs and share a picture of your promo mug being used in different ways. Like for keeping make up brushes, turned into a planter, decorative candle or as a pen pot,i know an oldie but a goody;).
Now share it on every social channel and encourage your followers to share pictures of same or retweet. You can also reward the user with maximum no. of shares, retweets or tags. It is a simple thing but when done brilliantly can go viral too.
Another, classic example of this is Walgreens, that created a campaign around the popular #ThrowbackThursday hashtag by encouraging followers to share old pics of their graduation years and it created a lot of buzz.
3. Not a Fan of QR Codes? Think Twice-
QR codes, appear to be an old tech but let me tell you when used smartly, they can prove to be very effective.
To drive maximum value, make sure, you are printing these nifty bar codes on items or gifts of great utility so that the code can confer value. Not sure, what I am emphasizing on, take a look at this example:
For Example-Heinz Ketchup did a great job with QR codes. They gave sauce bottles as promotional products with printed QR codes on them to their customers. This QR code took customers to a fun game and this idea became a big success.
However, to read these QR codes, customers need to download an app using any smart phone. Next, app scans the code which directly sends users to your desired landing page , social media page, blog or any other web page.
Thus, resulting in increased user engagement and traffic to your social media campaigns.
Image Courtesy: Creative Focus Marketing
4. Hashtags are Everywhere! –
As we know, hashtags first became popular with twitter but are now widely used on every social media platform including Instagram, Facebook, Google+. For the success of your social media campaigns, push your creative limits and devise some inventive hashtags around your campaign.
Once you have created your hashtags, print it on the range of promotional products you have selected. Using these products for giveaways at an event or hashtag related competition can prove a fantastic way to engage your target audience.
For Example: Audi’s #WantAnR8 hashtag campaign was a huge hit with the audience and is still considered as one of the most successful campaign in the history of twitter. So, to promote your social media campaigns, make creative hashtags and directly engage your potential customers with your brand.
Image Courtesy: Spreadshirt
On a final note:
We can conclude on the note that using promotional products effectively can help you build brand recognition, reach out to a larger audience thus result in driving new business. However, when using promotional products, avoid these mistakes:
Never make the mistake of using junk products as promotional gifts. It will do more harm than good.
Promotional products need to be a reflection of your brand image, so don’t go for the common products rather come up with creative ideas.
Always giveaway branded promotional products that include your company name, business logo design, URL or slogan if any.
So, make use of promotional products with the above mentioned strategies to bolster your social media campaigns.