Top 10 Reasons Why Promotional Items Are More Effective Than All Other Advertising Mediums

Billboards and radio spots can be very helpful to businesses, but when it comes to increasing your visibility, nothing beats promotional products. No matter what type of business you're in, handing out useful items printed with your name and logo can help you spread your message and stay at the forefront of your consumers' minds for years to come. Use this method alone, or combined with traditional advertising strategies, to improve your name recognition fast.

1. They Affect All the Senses

Consumers can't feel or see a radio ad, or smell a TV commercial, but promotional items can engage all five of the senses. These products are tangible and touchable. Unlike other types of advertising, which fade into the background of people's lives, consumers can hold promotional products in their hands, keep them on their desks and wear them on their bodies. Edible items are especially good at engaging multiple senses -- that's why 75 percent of Fortune 100 companies use them.

2. They're Useful

The most that other types of ads can do for consumers is entertain them briefly. By contrast, promotional products can actually serve a purpose. Coffee mugs, bags, pens -- these are all items that people need in their daily lives, so they're bound to use them. They might even come to associate you with the good feelings that these products create. Think about it: If you love coffee, you feel a little burst of happiness every time you see your mug filled with fresh java. And if you were looking at a company's logo on that mug every time, eventually just looking at the logo could make you feel that same happiness.

3. They Last

The typical promotional product is kept for about 12 months. A consumer who spends a full year using and seeing a product with a company's logo on it isn't likely to forget that company anytime soon. Even if people keep your products for a shorter period of time, like a day or a few weeks, they spend far longer with that item than they spend with other types of ads.

4. They Create Lasting Impressions

Research shows that people remember the promotional products they've received, even after they no longer have them. These items have also been shown to create the strongest name recognition of any advertising medium.

5. They're Cost-Effective

Advertising costs vary widely, but in general terms, promotional items provide more return on investment than other popular mediums. They have a lower cost per impression than newspaper, Primetime TV ads and national magazine ads, and a similar cost per impression as internet and radio ads, according to the 2016 ASI Ad Impressions Study.

6. They're for Everyone

Nearly anyone can use a pen, beach ball, water bottle or baseball cap. And if you do distribute a product to a person who can't use it -- like golf balls to someone who doesn't play the game -- he or she will probably give it to someone who can. Promotional products can reach people of all ages, genders, races and backgrounds more effectively than ads that are targeted only to people who watch certain TV channels or read certain websites.

7. They Spread the Message

A person might describe an effective radio ad to a friend, but most of the time, only consumers who experience ads personally benefit from them. That's not the case with promotional items. If you give a logo pen to one person, he or she might lend it to a co-worker or leave it around the house where it can be seen and used by a large number of people. Furthermore, wearable items like shirts and hats turn consumers into walking advertisements of your company's name and logo.

8. They Inspire Reciprocity

The point of advertising is ultimately to drive sales, right? Promotional products can help do that by creating a small kind of imbalance between you and the consumer. Think of it like this: If your neighbor does you a small favor, you might feel inclined to do a small favor for the neighbor in return. Other types of advertising only ask the consumer to do something or buy something. But when you give a person the small gift of a promotional product, he or she is unconsciously primed to give you something back, to return the favor -- say, by using your services or recommending you to a friend.

9. They Can Improve Your Reputation

Companies who use promotional products have a great opportunity to affect the way consumers think about them. According to the ASI Ad Impressions Study, 42 percent of Americans have a more favorable opinion of an advertiser if its promotional items are environmentally friendly, and 53 percent have a more favorable impression if the promotional items were made in the USA. Simply choosing those products, and letting your customers know about their origins, can have a positive impact on your reputation.

10. People Like Them

It sounds simple, but it's true: People just really like getting free stuff. Promotional products are especially popular with the all-important younger demographics. In fact, the ASI study shows that promotional items are the favorite advertising medium by most people. Want to incorporate promotional products into your advertising strategy? Check out Perfect Imprint's selection of useful items today!