Article provided by Beacon Sales & Marketing

Do you have a great marketing plan in place? Are you looking for something new?

Are you looking for something new to move people through your sales funnel? Although they’ve been around for years, many companies are rediscovering the ways that promotional products can be the stars of their marketing programs.

Branded with your company logo and contact information, promotional products can be a very effective aide in moving people from the top of your sales funnel to your customer list. Let’s look at some of the ways you can use promotional products in your marketing mix…

Encourage word-of-mouth advertising

Giving customers something that they’re likely to use while they’re in public turns them into walking testimonials for your business. Because people put a lot of faith in the opinions of others, this type of word-of-mouth advertising is an excellent way to get folks into your sales funnel.

While wearable items, such as t-shirts, hats and masks, can be ideal for this, options that tie directly into your products can be even better. For example, a company that sells water filtration systems can give out branded water bottles.

Stay top of mind with customers and prospects

For those in the B-to-B space, there’s nothing like getting a quality item on your prospect’s or customer’s desk. You’ll have your name and contact information in front of that person every day! These promotional products can help turn qualified prospects into customers, customers into repeat customers and result in referrals.

Of course, those in the B-to-C space want to keep their contact information in front of customers, too. For example, right now most restaurants are relying on take-out orders. Including a branded magnet or pen with each order will encourage repeat business. Likewise, appliance repair people can place their contact information directly on the appliance, dog groomers can provide branded dog brushes, and so forth.

Get prospects to commit to visiting your expo booth

A trade show or expo is a great opportunity to move the people who are already in your CRM system further down the sales funnel. Prior to the event, email all of these contacts and invite them to visit you at the show, where you’ll have a nice gift waiting for them at your booth. All they need to do is “click here” to reserve it.

You can bet these people will then make the effort to stop by—especially if you also send a reminder with your booth number.

Drive sales after an expo

After an expo, you can immediately mail a branded gift card offering a discount for purchases made in the next 30 days to all of the qualified prospects who visited your booth.

At the same time, also send an email to everyone else who visited your booth and offer to mail them one of these discount cards. Those who ask for the cards become qualified prospects.

Conclusion

How do you know which of the hundreds of thousands of promotional products on the market are best for your marketing program? If you don’t want to have to figure this out yourself, be sure to work with a promotional products consultant (such as myself) who is qualified to provide advice as well as products.

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