You’ve probably amassed an awe-inspiring collection of pens, tote bags, and t-shirts after years of conferences and tradeshows, but what is the value in all these giveaways?  Today, promotional products come in all shapes and sizes, but the reality is that to make the most of your marketing dollars, you need to choose items that are focused, creative and functional.

Of all the advertising mediums available to an organization, branded products make the most of your budget with an average cost of $0.005 per impression compared to $0.045 and $0.058 for magazines and radio respectively.  This makes them a great option to add to your marketing mix, but to enhance the payoff even further, here are three tips to maximize the effectiveness of your giveaways:

1. Define Your Focus

Keeping the end goal of your marketing campaign or tradeshow appearance in mind will help focus your search to find the perfect product.  If you’re trying to recruit young employees, your choice will be very different than if you’re trying to reward long-term clients for your business.  Promotional products are definitely not one-size-fits-all, so the more closely you can tailor the items to your brand and marketing campaign, the more they will resonate with the recipient and create a memorable impression.

2. Be Creative

Give your customers something unexpected and outside the box.  We had a thank-you campaign for our customers where we sent them a balsa wood glider with their name engraved on it.  They were fun, original and you can bet that our customers told everyone around them where it came from.  The more creative the product, the more likely you will get free word of mouth marketing and increase the return on your investment exponentially.

3. Be Utilitarian

The key to making sure that the cost per impression is low for your giveaways is to select something that the end user will keep around and use on a regular basis.  While novelty items can be fun and have their place, if you can give your customers something functional that they’ll love to use, you’ll be able to advertise for free (after the initial investment) all year round.

Navigating the enormously vast world of promotional products can be daunting, but with these tips, you’ll get as much of a marketing boost from your promotional products as possible.

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