Last Updated on October 6, 2013 by New-Startups Team
You’re heavily promoting a new line of products and services on social media. That’s good, but you also need to come up with something that offers more control and effectiveness in increasing brand royalty. This is where promotional giveaways can be a blessing in disguise.
Photo Credit: MissMalaprop
The giveaway tactic works most of the time whether it’s implemented at a trade show, a local company event or even online. And because they allow for more engagement compared to display banner advertisements, you can take advantage of consumers giving you the liberty to gather their data for analysis.
However, something that is being given away for free doesn’t always mean consumers are going to find it desirable. This is why you need to create a swag that generals a viral buzz and gives people a reason to keep the items. Here’s some ideas to to create the best swag for a giveaway:
Custom Tees
Custom tees give you space to enforce the startup’s brand image through relevant design and content. You also get the option to include the website URL, business address and other contact details so that onlookers can know more about your company.
BlogDash’s founder David Spinks utilized the concept for a search engine marketing event. He gave out 20 T-shirts to his close friends, and asked them to promise that they’ll wear them at least one day at the event. The result was that he managed to give out a great promotional message, while staying frugal with the strategy.
Branded Pens
Photo Credit: InfoCash
Custom promotional pens that are created with state of the art technology can create dynamic branding for your startup. They are also inexpensive to use as a promotional tool and can be given out to more consumers compared to t-shirts and other giveaways. They can get the word out quickly, which will translate into consumers trusting your business sooner than you expect.
International Reviews marketing manager Mellisa Burke used the custom pen giveaway strategy at the Mobile Asia Expo 2013 held in Shanghai. While it was a tech-based event, the pen giveaways turned out to effective for the company, even more than face to face conversations and printed brochures. Turns out the more useful a giveaway item is, the more likely people are going to use it at the event and at work. Customer satisfaction will also lead to future business referrals.
Recyclable carry bags
Businesses often neglect that event attendees find it pretty difficult to carry all the brochures, giveaway items and souvenirs, and that is the reason why some of the items (and most of them in some cases) end up in the trash. To grab this window of opportunity, you can look into recyclable carry bags as they will offer attendees a lot of convenience. Best of all: they will add the ‘green tag’ to your startup.
Target celebrated Earth day by giving away reusable bags to 1.5 million consumers. The bags had items such as laundry detergent, dish soap (biodegradable) and other sustainable products. Furthermore, the company also decided to offer a 5% discount to consumers who used the bags for shopping.
These items can create the ideal giveaway swag. If you have any ideas to add, feel free to do so in the comments section. Or check out the list below for some additional startups providing branded swag:
- Foldable.Me of your startup mascot.
- Stickers or temporary tattoos from StickerYou.
- Or all kinds of goodies from RightSleeve.
