How To Maximise Your Promotional Marketing Budget

Whilst we would all love to be working with hefty marketing budgets, the reality is that many businesses are operating with more modest resources. Any spend, therefore, needs to deliver a profitable ROI. Fortunately, it is not necessary to have a vast budget in order to create a great impact using promotional products, providing a few basic principles are followed.

Here’s how…

Firstly, think carefully about where you plan to distribute your products. A simple concept, but one that is often overlooked. For example, if you are planning to hand out freebies at a trade show pay attention to which items would be most appreciated. Generally this will include products that are useful in nature or quirky enough to stand out from the crowd. USB flashdries have recently been highlighted as the product considered most useful by recipients (BPMA research); however, an every popular product is the promotional trolley coin keyring. Starting at just 41p, this is comparative to a mid range promotional pen, so definitely one for the budget conscious.

Secondly, optimise your branding. Promotional products have varying print sizes so make the most of your budget by choosing an item with a large clear print area. It is a false economy to choose something tiny, as the logo just won’t be noticed.

Thirdly, consider an appropriately-sized gift for the type of campaign. If you’re on a tight budget, choose items that are lightweight in order to reduce your carriage costs. If you intend to send out giveaways as part of a direct mailing, double check the dimensions to ensure you don’t miss a cheaper postal bracket by a matter of millimetres!

Finally, with such a vast array of promotional gifts available, it is necessary to make considered choices, and think about your intentions. Predetermine your objectives and use them to select your gifts. If you want a promotion with longevity, why not choose a travel mug rather than a plastic mug? If the campaign is more suited to novelty items, then sweets, lollies, stress shapes, or the ever-popular logo bug, are perfect for affordable, low cost promotions.

It is also worth bearing in mind that the larger the order, the lower the cost price per item. With some forward planning, much money can be saved by buying in bulk for future advertising.

Budget campaigns don’t need to be cheap – with a savvy choice of product, ‘budget’ can easily translate to ‘cost effective’.