Top 5 Benefits of Promotional Products for Customer Loyalty

Why Promotional Products Matter

A toothbrush from your dentist, complete with their name and logo. A smooth-writing pen embossed with a local realtor’s name and email. A small Swiss Army knife that fits perfectly on your keychain, complete with the company logo and phone number. Promotional products like these are proven, powerful marketing tools with lots of benefits for businesses.

Building tangible products like these into your advertising strategy can pay off big in brand recognition, lead generation, customer loyalty, and more.

76.1% of consumers in this study indicated they could recall the brand name from a promotional item they’d received in the last 12 months. By contrast, 53% said they could recall a TV or print ad over the past month, while just  27% remembered an online ad. [SOURCE]

Enhance Your Brand Recognition and Brand Loyalty

Building a brand is about making impressions, with each “touch” strengthening your growing brand’s identity. Promotional products like T-shirts, writing utensils, golf balls, and reusable bags are great ways to do this. This is where having a unique, recognizable logo and tagline for your business can really help.

As a brand, it’s hard to stand out. But as customers learn to associate your brand with useful, desirable products, they’ll be more receptive to your message. Branding and dispersing these promotional items widely gives you a leg up on the competition. If potential customers like your promotional item and find it helpful, they’ll form a positive connotation with your brand, making them more likely to choose your company when they need your products or services.

Build Emotional Connections with Your Customers

Our emotions affect our decisions. For this reason, building an emotional connection with your customers is critical. Persuading them to buy your merchandise or subscribe to your products is often a decision driven by emotion.

Understanding how to steer potential customers to your brand starts with a quick overview of persuasive rhetoric. Aristotle called the three corners of the rhetorical triangle ethos, pathos, and logos. They focus on credibility, emotion, and logic.

Ethos: In Greek, ethos represents “character.” It’s where we get our modern term “ethics.” Regarding Aristotle’s modes of persuasion, this idea centers on persuading through credibility. In modern marketing, convincing a customer to rely on your product can happen in various ways, such as having a respected figure or celebrity recommend your product.

Pathos: In Greek, pathos means “emotion or experience.” It’s part of a large family of English words related to feelings and compassion, like “empathy,” “sympathy,” and “apathy.” Its power to persuade, according to Aristotle, lies in its ability to appeal to our everyday emotions and experiences. In modern marketing, getting your audience to care about your cause, love your product, or sympathize with your perspective are great ways to prompt them to act.

Logos: In Greek, logos describes “words, speech, and logic.” In Aristotle’s view, this was the most important part of the rhetorical tripod because he felt an effective argument must appeal to our sense of reason for it to be convincing. The same remains true today–many customers appreciate an appeal to practicality. As such, presenting facts and figures can help you make your message more convincing.

Have you ever considered how branded items create emotional connections? Consider some of these scenarios:

●      At a concert for your favorite band, you buy a sweet T-shirt printed with the band and tour name. Ever after, that tee makes you an even bigger fan, and it reminds you of the fun you had, evoking a sense of nostalgia, belonging, and community. And it makes a great conversation starter anytime you wear it!

●      You’ve always seen a certain car brand as a symbol of success. Now, you finally have one, and the sense of achievement is palpable. You fit the car, and the car fits you…and when your family needs a bigger vehicle, you plan on sticking with the same brand you love. Talk about a win-win scenario!

●      As a business owner and golf fan, you know that significant returns come from small packages. So you emblazon your logo on 10,000 golf balls and give them away as a promotion. For years afterward, whenever a golfer tees one up or finds one in the woods, your logo makes a positive impression!

Long-Term Engagement with Your Customers

Tangible products, as opposed to digital ads, are more likely to leave a lasting impression. As discussed, usefulness and desirability are key. Quality can help, too. The better an item looks, feels, and functions, the more likely you will earn that customer’s loyalty.

Secondary Connections and Word of Mouth

Positive connotations are a powerful currency. And it doesn’t hurt that many people often see and use promotional products. If they’re handy and durable, they may even be borrowed or passed around. That gets folks talking, producing more powerful currency for your brand.

Affordable and Effective Marketing

Today, in advertising, search marketing tends to be the focus. But US marketers spent nearly three times as much–$16.9 billion annually–on promotional products. Why? Because they’re not just cost-effective, they're also highly efficient. Their cost per impression is minimal; they reach a large audience, have a longer lifespan than radio/TV/digital, and generate persuasive word-of-mouth advertising.

How Empire Printing Can Help

Promotional products are a great way to enhance your brand’s exposure, increase its reach, and strengthen its identity. But as discussed, it’s important to associate your brand and name with a quality product. Let Empire Printing, known for its high-quality promotional items, take your brand to the next level. Shop your options today at empireprinting.com