Merchandise Your Business Should Consider Having
As a business owner, you’ll probably already know that one of the best marketing techniques is through promotional merchandise. Whether you give your merchandise out at events, or you sell merchandise to customers, it’s important to have the right items so that your name can spread as far as possible.
It can be difficult to know what kind of merchandise to go for, so we’ve come up with a list of the best types of branded merchandise so that you can accelerate your business as far as possible.
Use clothing as a form of promotional company merchandise
A pair of jeans and a t-shirt will never go out of fashion, and that’s why you should take advantage of this by creating t-shirts, hoodies, caps, and even knitwear such as scarves with your company name on it.
A mistake that many businesses make when branding clothing, is not putting the effort or money into the creation of it. Follow these tips to ensure that your branded clothing flies off the shelves and leaves people wanting more:
- Use embroidery rather than printing. Printed merchandise will soon lose it’s look when people put them through the wash. Embroidery also adds a touch of class and style to any shirt.
- Take time to design your logo/name is spectacular ways so that it’s eye catching enough for people to want to buy it. Remember to think of fashion as well as trying to get your name around.
- Think about the colors that you’re using. Sometimes people don’t want black or white t-shirts. Why not utilize the color scheme of your logo within your designs?
- Ask yourself if you would wear the merchandise with pride. If not, you’ll need to think of how you can improve it so that people will want to buy it. Perhaps running some surveys among a mix of people might just do the trick?
Associate your company merchandise with a cause, challenge, or contest
You may also want to associate you’re branded merchandise like t-shirts with winning some sort of contest or challenge. For example like a race, eating contest, push-up contest, pull-up contest, bingo, something like that.
I recently took part in an eating contest for the sole purpose to win a t-shirt. It’s certainly branded merchandise to the restaurant where the contest was held.
At the same time I’m going to wear that t-shirt and promote it, and the business to other people all the time when they see it. I’ve even worn this t-shirt on YouTube videos, which have the possibility of reaching tens of thousands of people around the world.
Another form of this is bingo. Everyone loves to win a prize and be a winner, so give away your branded merchandise and t-shirts as a prize to a bingo event.
Lots of local restaurants and bars in my area do this as well. Yet again I have t-shirts that are promotional merchandise for that business, but I wear it because I won it.
So try and figure out how to associate your promotional merchandise to some sort of accomplishment, cause or challenge.
Badges/pins
There’s something very quaint about having a badge or a pin attached to either your bag, coat, or even your clothing. However, people aren’t going to go for any old looking badge to wear with pride, so it’s important to think about the design of it.
If designing isn’t your forte, check out Lapel pins from Dynamic Gift and their complete range to see if they can help you along the way. Having a good quality and attractive badge or pin will soon send them flying off the shelves. Another bonus is that this kind of merchandise makes for great gift giving too!
Stationary!
Who can resist a good collection of stationary? Even though the world is pretty much run by computers these days, there will always be the need for stationary, especially pens.
That’s why it’s always a great way of getting your name around! Remember to pick quality pens to print your name on to ensure that people come back for more! It’s also a good idea to keep in mind that stationary is usually the kind of merchandise to take to a marketing event to hand out!
Reusable bags as a unique form of branded merchandise
With the world becoming more and more eco friendly, everyone is always on the lookout for a decent reusable bag. Enter your marketing opportunity!
Think about the size, shape, and strength of your ideal usable bag before even thinking about what you’re going to print on the front.
The great part about reusable bags is that there’s the chance to create a plethora of different designs for people to buy and use. This is truly marketing at it’s finest because who knows how far your name will travel?!
Key-rings are another great form of promotional merchandise
Everybody loves keyrings. They are a great way of jazzing up any boring set of keys and if you’re clever, you could end up creating a set that everybody wants on their keys.
Think about your target audience for your business and create a design that not only looks good, but might be useful to them too. For example, having a keyring that doubles as a bottle opener is a great way of targeting a certain audience!
I don’t know how many times I busted out my key ring with a bottle opener. This happens all the time with friends to save the day. If people have a bottle opener that’s branded merchandise to your business, they think of your company every time they use it.
Give Away Digital merchandise for promotional merchandise
Finally, since everyone is using computers, tablets, and phones these days, why not consider creating digital merchandise? Things like wallpapers, useful apps, and games are a great way of inviting your consumers to use your merchandise without them even realizing!
Similar to promotional merchandise is giving away some kind of free offer. You can actually do this to generate leads for your business as well.
Consider giving away some type of info product, digital download, or other form of digital merchandise to bring in leads. Take whatever industry you are in, and make some sort of digital merchandise that solves your target markets problems.
A great place to start is giving away an ebook, audio training, video series, or some other form of free value-based content. Then you simply put this content behind the capture page, requiring people to enter their name and email to get access.
If you’d like to learn how to create your own ebook, check out this free training on how to build your first ebook!
Why giving away free digital merchandise as a lead magnet is so powerful
The great part of giving away promotional merchandise like this, is it’s free! Also it’s something you know your target market wants. Creating a giveaway like this can be a great way to generate leads and grow your email list.
When you start to build your email list it is a list of highly targeted potential customers you can remarket to. This can help you develop trust, rapport, and credibility with that audience.
Doing this can help you turn this cold traffic into warm leads. All things being equal, most people tend to do business with those they know, like and trust. So build your email list with free giveaways of digital merchandise from your company.
If you haven’t yet set up your email list it’s a very powerful resource to grow your business. If you’d like to check out the email autoresponder I use and recommend, you can learn more here.
On top of that you may need to set up capture Pages as well that integrate into your email autoresponder. You can actually set up a free 14-day trial of quick funnels here to set up that tool for your business.
Company merchandise is great, just think of your customers first
Company merchandise is great, but just keep in mind you should really think of your customers first. What’s in it for them and why should they care about your promotional merchandise.
If you do decide to giveaway Branded merchandise, certainly consider combining it with a value-based digital merchandise giveaway.
Not only will they have the physical company merchandise on hand to remind them of your business, but also something of value beyond the item you gave them.
This can continue to remind them in the future of the great benefits you gave them for free, which can lead them coming back as a customer and future. Plus if it helped you build your email list, all the better!
Focus on your potential customers first, and leading with value, and whatever kind of promotional merchandise you give away, it will be effective!
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