Giving away free merchandise has its benefits to your company. While promoting your brand with product giveaways ensures you’re increasing your branding awareness, it can also help increase revenue. But if you’re also curious about other ways brand merchandise can benefit your company, here is an overview, including a few tips and tricks.
Drives Customer Brand Loyalty
If you want to promote your brand and drive customer loyalty, giving away branded merchandise is the way to go. While everybody loves free items, this makes your brand more memorable. And the next time they need products or services you sell, they will remember to go to your business.
While this strategy is excellent for your company, it makes the customers feel good about shopping with you. However, every t-shirt or hat you end up giving away might not bring in every shopper. But there are still a number of opportunities for you to convert someone into a paying customer.
Generates New Leads
Whether you have other methods for driving leads to your business, giving away merchandise is an excellent opportunity to keep increasing your lead generation. While this strategy works to attract new customers, it’s also ideal for retaining current customers.
You can generate leads by running a Facebook live video and selecting random customers for free merchandise. Or you could provide free products in your shipments when a customer is ready to place an order.
Cost-efficient Marketing
When it comes to the cost differences between running an ad campaign and giving away free merchandise, which do you think costs more? An ad campaign does not last forever, and you don’t know for sure if it will be successful or not.
Simply giving out free merchandise puts your brand out there for people to see. Yes, you paid for the merchandise, but now you have a free promotion constantly working for you to attract new customers.
Increases Brand Recognition
As you may already be aware, marketers choose from several strategies to increase brand awareness. Between investments in ad campaigns and getting the message across to their audiences, they work efficiently to capture the attention of new customers. The same effect happens when you give away your merchandise.
The best part of this strategy is that your brand gets the most exposure for a more extended period. This strategy means you’re constantly building your brand reputation, giving you a greater chance of finding new customers along the way.
Outmaneuvers the Competition
Your competitors may not even consider giving away brand merchandise, so why not go for this strategy? One of the many reasons businesses fail within the first few months is because they don’t effectively try to differentiate themselves.
One of the most dependable strategies for positioning your brand is offering complimentary merchandise. While this method exposes your brand more often, you’re also winning over the competition.
Brands can expect to increase their overall growth by 10-20% when constantly spreading awareness. And because giving away merchandise attracts attention, new customers will be more than likely to remember your brand when comparing your business to competitors.
Increases Employee Self-confidence
Employees are a large part of what makes a company so successful. If you care for them, they will care for you right back. By giving them company merchandise, you’re taking the opportunity to increase your employee retention rate. Employees want you to make them feel like they are part of the company.
So, giving your employees a hat, t-shirt, coffee mug, or handbag is a perfect way to boost their self-esteem. And not only are you boosting their confidence, but you’re also giving them a sense of purpose. You are reminding them why they are working for such a fantastic company.
Acts as a Business Card
Business cards can be a great way to network with people. But they might not be as effective as giving away free merchandise. Chances are good that, when handing someone a business card, they are more likely to get lost or thrown in the trash. However, providing someone with free branded merchandise allows them to hold on to it for a while.
Tips for Crafting Your Brand Merchandise
Before you design your merchandise, understand who your audience is first. It’s essential to be aware of who you’re targeting. This way, you can strengthen your message to increase brand awareness.
Once you learn about your target audience, the next step is to choose a company that can create promotional products for you. Be sure to look out for one that offers high-quality products and plenty of customizable options when finalizing your decision. Next, you can select the right products, be creative with the design, and have fun with the process.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Giving Away Free Brand Merchandise
When your company is providing free products, make sure the products are unique. While product giveaways are fun to hand over, there is a strategy to give away brand merchandise.
A water bottle or a notebook with your company logo on it is something your audience might find interesting. Giving away a unique item they can use comes in handy since 80% of promotional products that are useful last more than a year. Unique products also make your brand stand out, and you’re making it more memorable.
Be sure to include relevant information that ties to your brand. If you place irrelevant information on a product, how will your audience know where to find or contact your business? Try to avoid this mistake by including your contact info and a web address so they can research your company further and hopefully make a purchase later on.
Takeaways When Offering Product Giveaways
There are many benefits to giving away promotional products to your customers. A few things to keep in mind is always to be sure you’re sending the right message to your customers.
Be aware that giving away free products won’t always drive new leads, but it will create more exposure for your brand. Lastly, ensure your company is sending out beneficial products to the customer and creating a lasting impression.
Logo Design On Your Brand Merchandise
It’s important to have a solid logo design on your product giveaways because your want your logo to instantly remind your customer about your brand and business. One way to design a creative logo is by running a logo contest and hiring multiple freelance logo designers to create your business logo.
Eleanor is the editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine. She was the director at a marketing agency prior to becoming a freelance web designer. Eleanor lives in Philly with her husband and dog, Bear.