If you have ever attended a trade show or promotional event, you might have received branded promotional gifts from companies at some point. These gifts may consist of everyday items such as USB flash drives, pens, or eleven umbrellas. However, you might not fully understand why a company would give away free stuff.

The truth is that giving out branded promotional gifts has a number of marketing benefits for companies. Let’s examine some of these benefits.

1. Getting More Brand Exposure

The main reason why brands are willing to spend money on branded promotional gifts is that they provide greater brand exposure. This is because the items you are giving out essentially serve as advertisement vehicles.

For example, if your company gives away tote bags with your company name and logo, the people carrying these bags with them in public are showing off your bag to other people. So these gift recipients are essentially performing free promotion for you for an indefinite period, or until the item is no longer usable.

2. Saving Costs on Advertising

Running television advertisements or renting out billboards to promote your brand can be quite expensive. Businesses may need to spend tens of thousands of dollars each month on such advertisements. Large brands may be able to get away with paying such high costs, but smaller businesses may struggle with it.

Giving out branded promotional gifts therefore serves as a great alternative for small businesses that cannot afford expensive and lengthy ad campaigns. You’ll pay anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to create and give out your branded promotional gifts. As mentioned earlier, the people who receive these gifts will then take care of advertising for you.

3. Improving Your Brand Image

Giving out free promotional gifts to people can make them view your brand more positively. However, you can actually take this a step further with your choice of gift.

For example, you can give promotional gifts that are made from sustainable or recycled materials and advertise this during the giveaway. This will help recipients understand that your company cares about sustainability and maintaining the environment. In other words, the simple act of giving away an item can reshape how people view your brand.

This approach could be useful if you sell a type of product that isn’t generally known for its environmental-friendliness or sustainability.

4. Driving Sales

Offering people free merchandise doesn’t just get your name out there, it also nudges people towards buying your products. This is because people have a natural tendency to reciprocate good gestures. They may see your eagerness to give them free stuff and reciprocate by purchasing one of your products.

This means you might be able to boost your sales by giving people branded promotional gifts that are useful or valuable to them.

5. Improving Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is a powerful thing that many businesses hope to build. It is especially important for growing businesses that can’t compete with industry leaders that have already captured a large portion of their market. The loyal customers who you have developed a positive relationship with are the ones who will still purchase your products even when markets are in a slump. Therefore, they can be an important source of revenue for your business.

One way to build customer loyalty is to give out branded promotional gifts. Such gifts show customers your appreciation for them and this may turn them into loyal customers who pick your brand over others.

6. Creating Hype For Your Brand

Every brand needs hype to get their name out there and draw in potential customers. One way to get people interested in your brand is to host competitions with branded promotional gifts as giveaways.

For example, you can create a Twitter contest in which you ask people to upload pictures or videos of them using your product. You can then randomly select your favorite entry and offer them a high-value branded promotional gift such as a watch, backpack, or tablet.

7. Standing Apart from the Competition

Many industry-leading businesses eventually get comfortable with their position at the top and stop looking for innovative ways to create excitement for their customer base. These businesses may still run advertisements on TV and social media, but they might not really think outside the box.

You can get a leg up on the competition by offering branded promotional gifts. The people who receive these gifts are more likely to give your brand attention than the other brand that uses just advertisements. This method could be incredibly useful for small businesses that are looking for a way to beat out competing businesses that have been around for much longer.

Tips to Make Your Branded Promotional Gift Giveaway a Success

Some tips to make your branded promotional gift giveaway a success include:

1. Choose a Useful Item

You should always choose an item that people will use frequently for your promotional gift. This includes USB flash drives, pens, umbrellas, and even bottle cap openers. This will help with the branding’s effectiveness as people will be reminded of your brand each time they use the product.

2. Don’t Make It Too Expensive

It can be tempting to wow people with a pricey or fancy promotional gift. However, this might not make financial sense. There’s no point in spending tens of thousands of dollars on a giveaway if it boosts sales by only a few thousand dollars.

For this reason you should go for low cost items that people can use rather than ones that are simply expensive.

3. Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience is important for any promotional gift giveaway. After all, you don’t want to give them something they might not like or have use for. For this reason, you should aim to understand who your target audience is and choose an item accordingly.

Creating the Best Branded Promotional Gifts

As you can see, there is no shortage of excellent reasons to give out branded promotional gifts. If you’re interested in getting some of these products made professionally, check out Groggy Dog. We offer a wide selection of exciting promotional gifts and can include your customized branding on them.