Choosing the Right Promotional Product (2)

Here is our list of questions we must answer when choosing the perfect promotional item:

1) What do we want to happen?

2) How will we measure success or failure?

3) What is our target demographic?

4) How will we deliver the item?

5) How much can we spend?

6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

Measuring Success

For us, measuring success is an automatic result of deciding to accomplish something. We didn’t open our business just for the sake of opening it. We do not buy printing and postage and Sticky Notes so that we can spend the money. We buy them to make the phone ring or to make the cash register beep or to keep our employees on the job. We make sure that those things happen by keeping track of the phone calls or the daily cash register totals or retention rates. By keeping track we can determine if the promotion was a success. If it is, then we will do it again. If it is not, we will need to make it better by changing the item, the target or the delivery.

There are many ways to keep track. Simple log books and spreadsheets work fine for most goal tracking. In other cases we may need to conduct surveys or send out questionnaires. Let’s say that your goal is to:

“Increase traffic at our trade show booth by 10%”

The plan then might be to send out invitations with flower seed embedded paper (maybe adding "We will help you GROW your business" to the invite text to tie it in) to all of the prospects that you would like to meet. In order to generate excitement, you might choose to offer an MP3 player as door prize, but everyone who stops by your booth will receive a pre-paid music download card in return for their business card. Tell them about the prize in the invitation. Draw your door prize winner from the business cards you collect. The number of cards will tell you if you have met your goal.


Steve
www.raggo.com

The purpose of this blog is to:

1) help you pick the appropriate promotional item for your needs
2) discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the hottest, newest advertising products
3) highlight the best methods for getting the most out of your promotional product investment


Let’s get started.

Choosing the Right Promotional Product


There are lots of factors which go into choosing the right products to achieve your promotional goals. Here is a short list of the questions we must answer. We will discuss each question individually in later blog entries.

1) What do we want to happen?
2) How will we measure success or failure?
3) What is our target demographic?
4) How will we deliver the item?
5) How much can we spend?
6) How quickly do we need the product delivered?

First, we have to decide what we want to happen. If you are not sure that you want anything to happen, then save your money or invest in your people, plant or product. This outcome or promotional goal can be as precise as:

“To increase referrals from our current customer base by 15% in the coming year”

to as imprecise as:

“To remind our volunteers while they are at home of how much we appreciate their work.”

Whether the goal is carved in stone or fluttering by on the wind we need to know what the goal is before we can begin. For instance, sending a Bic Clic Stic home with your volunteers will probably not accomplish the goal for them that we stated above, but it could be useful in helping to remind your customers to write out a referral for you. Send the pen along with a few self-addressed, stamped postcards and an Audio Thank You Card thanking them for their business and their past referrals and asking them to write out a few more referrals - you will pay for everything. The paper, the postage, even the ink. Who could say no?

Steve Raggo
raggo.com