We sometimes get customers who are confused about who’s who in the Promotional Products Industry. Here’s a quick run down on the 3 common roles in the promotional products industry:

1. Promotional Consultant (Distributor): The Promotional Consultant also known as the Distributor is the middleman who is in touch with the promotional products industry and can offer the Buyer creative solutions and advise for their promotional campaigns. They have strong links with a range of wholesalers and a strong understanding of the industry’s processes. Some Distributors may also do some of the imprinting processes in-house. So the Distributor is an important resource for advertising houses, marketing professionals, businesses and organisations.

2. Supplier (Wholesaler): The Supplier is a promotional products company that directly manufactures, imports, imprints or otherwise produces the promotional products. They do not deal with the general public. They only offer their services and products for sale through Promotional Distributors. Beware though. There are Distributors who claim that they are wholesalers offering direct from factory prices when in fact this is furthest from the truth. When you compare their prices, you’ll find that they are retail prices not wholesale prices.

3. Advertiser (Buyer): If you’re a company or organisation who is buying promotional products from a Distributor for your promotional campaign than you are the Advertiser, also known as the Buyer. Sometimes a company outsources their marketing to a marketing consultant who deals on their behalf with the Distributor.

If you’re the Buyer, work closely with a Distributor who has strong links with renowned Wholesalers.

Just the other day, a promotional consultant got a call from a customer who wanted to order promotional products for a trade show event in a hurry. As usual, the promotional consultant went through the list of questions we normally ask customers to meet their needs. However, the consultant didn’t get much from their conversation. In summary, the questions and answers went something like this:

Consultant: What’s your budget? Customer: Don’t know.

Consultant: Your target audience? Customer: Don’t know.

Consultant: What would you like printed on the products?

Customer: Don’t know. Consultant: Objective? Don’t know.

Customer: Just need the cheapest promotional products you have in 3 days.

Now when a conversation with a customer goes something like that, it doesn’t make things any easier and it doesn’t give the information that’s important in getting the right product at the right cost to you at the right time. If you want a promotional products company to meet your needs, you need to let them know what you need. So here is a quick must know list before approaching a promotional products company.

1. Know Your Promotional Objectives

Unless you’re in a habit of throwing money into the air, you must know your promotional objectives. Why are you going to spend dollars on promotional products? Is your objective to thank your loyal customers, reward new customers, improve customer relationships, promote goodwill for the company to position it in a better light, to attract attendees for a company event, community recognition, to launch a new product, to publicise a new initiative, to motivate staff, to reward staff performance? You need to know what you want to achieve with your promotional campaign.

2. Know Your Target Audience

Before you go to a promotional products company, make sure you know: Who are your target audience? What do they want? Are they your top 20% loyal corporate customers who deserve premium corporate gifts? Or will they be prospects who opt in for your E mail campaign?

3. Know Your Budget

Many customers say they don’t have a budget but when the prices are placed in front of them, they suddenly realise they need a budget. Be sure to set a realistic budget and don’t just go for the cheapest product. Find a product with the best value for money within your budget that suits your target audience. Letting your promotional consultant know your budget also saves time which would otherwise be wasted on recommending you products which don’t fit into your budget.

4. Know To Choose Promotional Products which Fit The Picture

The promotional products and printed message chosen for your promotional campaign should fit into your objectives, target audience and budget. If you’re not clear about which products would fit the picture, seek the advise of your promotional consultant who should be able to give you a few ideas based on your information. Remember, promotional consultants are not there to draw up your whole marketing plan so be sure to give them the information they need to help you unless you’re willing to pay extra for them to do your marketing job for you.

5. Know To Plan Ahead

For best results, plan at least 3 months ahead for your promotional campaign. Don’t get caught up in a last minute mad rush to buy your promotional products. This might cause a lot of stress, added costs and you might overlook certain important things in the purchasing process such as looking through the artwork carefully before approving it for print. Many marketers are also pressured to change things last minute by other decision makers in the company which results in more delays. If you’re handling the marketing side of things in your company make sure you firmly push for a realistic timeline for your promotional campaign to avoid such situations.

6. Know To Measure Your Results

Many people overlook this stage of the promotional campaign. However, if you don’t measure your success, you won’t know how well or how badly you’ve done and you won’t know where to improve in future. Track the performance of your promotional products campaign not only at the end of the campaign but as it progresses so changes can be made if required. You might measure your promotional campaign by asking people how they heard about your company, perhaps even print a unique phone number or url address on the item to know that the lead was generated from that promotional product.

In summary, knowing your objectives, target audience, budget, choosing appropriate promotional products, planning ahead and measuring your promotional results will ensure a successful promotional campaign for you.

Do you have an event coming up in just a few days but you haven’t prepared the promotional side of things for it? Or are you handling the marketing in your company but the decision makers keep changing their minds so you’re left to last minute promotional sourcing? Well, you don’t have to panic. When you need promotional products fast, go to PromosXchange, Australia’s most reliable promotional Company. PromosXchange has a great range of promotional products solutions for your next event which will make your promotional campaign a success. PromosXchange can get your promotional products shipped to you from within 24 – 72 hours. Now that’s what’s called an Express service. Whether you’re looking for low cost promotional giveaways or premium corporate gifts fast for your tradeshows and company events, PromosXchange can help you with the Express Promotional Products range. With PromosXchange lowest prices, quality products and prompt follow-ups guaranteed, you can only gain when dealing with PromosXchange.

Marketing can make the difference between the life and death of a business. If you don’t understand marketing, you don’t understand business and if you don’t understand business, well there’ll be no business. Marketing is an investment that should be a part of the creation of your product/service from development through to promotion and distribution and on to the sales experience and post-sales service. The most common mistake amongst most start-up businesses is to wait and expect the phones to ring miraculously without a marketing plan and marketing investment. Saving money by cutting out marketing is a bit like running a car on a low tank. You can still run the car for a short distance before it clunks out. In the promotional products industry, we see many small businesses trying to save on promotional products marketing at the expense of their business image. For example, we often get asked if we can print one light colour on black tees without the extra white print base which is required to make a print job look good and last. Even after explaining to such customers that sacrificing the white base would make the print look bad, they still want to go ahead with that to save money! That’s when we draw the line and refuse to print such bad jobs as we value our brand image and only want to do the best jobs for our customers. If you don’t want to go into commercial extinction, understand also that you don’t have to spend big to get a good return with promotional products marketing. Just ask PromosXchange for some great promotional products ideas for your next marketing campaign.

The PromosXchange line of promotional t shirts are fashionable and the best value for money in Australia for the high quality promotional t shirts offered. Dress up your image with the PromosXchange embroidered T shirts. Embroidered T shirts are ideal when you need a small logo embroidered on your tees, the most common embroidery of the company logo is on the left chest of promotional t shirts. The standard logo embroidery size for most company logos is normally within 100mm by 75mm. The cost of embroidery depends on the size of your design so the larger the embroidered design, the higher the cost. Choose embroidered t shirts for standard size logos on small quantity jobs when you’re in a rush to get them done as embroidery turnarounds for these jobs are typically much quicker than printing. Once your embroidery is set-up with PromosXchange there’s no further embroidery set-up cost for the same design for your future embroidered t shirts orders. The most popular tees for embroidery is the 100% cotton t shirts as they’ll keep you cool when it’s warm.

Marketing experts agree that embroidered company shirts enhances a company’s image to customers and prospects. Embroidered polo shirts especially are a mark of style. They are also versatile as they look good with pants and jeans. Wear them when you’re playing golf, at sports events, trade shows or simply use them as uniforms for your employees to look smart. Embroidered designs also last longer and are more durable in the wash. PromosXchange offers a large range of embroidered polo shirts from trusted Aussie promotional clothing brands such as Winning Spirit, Johnny Bobbin, Stencil and more. When getting a quote for embroidered polo shirts, ensure that you’ll be getting high quality embroidery as there are a lot of cheap threads on the market which do your embroidered logo an injustice. PromosXchange uses high quality German thread for embroidery on its promotional clothing so the embroidery won’t run in the wash or fade. Reflect your professional expertise today with classy embroidered polo shirts from PromosXchange.

Email campaigns are a great way to communicate with your customers efficiently and grow your business in a cost effective way. Growing your email campaign database can be challenging. However, by incorporating Promotional Products into your email campaigns, you can cross this challenging bridge. To grow your email database, try this. Create an email opt in box displayed clearly on your website with an offer of a free gift to your customer or prospect when they opt in to your email campaign. Your free gift should be Promotional Products with a theme whichs reflect your company. For example, a travel agent can mail out a light up luggage tag, a fitness business can mail out an imprinted pedometer, the options are endless. Shortly after you’ve mailed out the free gift, follow-up with a second mailing or perhaps a personal phone call. Customers and prospects are likely to respond better to you this way rather than outrightly cold calling them out of the blue. Remember don’t just expect a sale imemediately and get disappointed if you don’t get a sale. Your focus should be on building your long term relationship with your prospect and meeting their needs. By incorporating Promotional Products to your email campaigns, you’ll have a healthy growing database in no time.

The downturn of the economy has caused many businesspeople to look around for the best return on their advertising and marketing dollars. Instead of getting lesser sales, sales at PromosXchange, one of Australia’s fastest growing Promotional Products Company, have more than doubled in the last quarter. This is because traditional media such as radio, tv and print has taken a backseat to other forms of advertising such as Promotional Products. The Promotional Products industry in Australia is pretty much in its infancy, only about 30 years young compared to America whose industry has been around for over two centuries so there’s a lot of work to do in terms of making businesspeople in Australia aware of the true potential of logoed products. If you’re measuring the Return on Investment of your marketing (please tell me you are, if not you should), then it’s vital to know that a single logoed product such promotional bags can yield several hundred impressions per month. In fact, according to a study by the Advertising Specialty Institute, just a single promotional bag averages 1038 impressions per month. So if you gave out 1000 of those promotional bags, that makes it over a million impressions per month. Considering the fact that you can buy printed tote promotional bags from under $2, I say that’s a fantastic return.

Consider promotional products over cash rebates or discounts in your incentive programs. This is because tangible incentives like promotional products are identifiable as a reward for extraordinary behavior. Cash, on the other hand, is a satisfier, more than a motivator. Customers or prospects also mentally positively associate free gifts with celebrations while cash is mentally associated with paying bills and covering obligations. Free gift with purchase programs when executed correctly work a treat because promotional products are used daily by many people. Be it that free imprinted toy in a Mc Happy meal or the free printed pen with a magazine, logoed products are certainly used. Some logoed products even get used multiple times a day such as printed pens. According to a study by the Advertising Institute, 44% of respondents use printed pens at least once a week and 20% use printed pens more than five times a day. So if you’re looking to have your brand in front of your customer and prospects every day, promotional products is your answer.

According to a new study by the Advertising Specialty Institute, imprinted bags with your corporate logo or messages are the most frequently used amongst promotional products so it’s the best way to get your company out there. No matter which business you’re in, there’s a good chance you need and frequently use bags from backpacks, laptop carriers, calico bags, satchels, sports bags, coolers etc. Your out of pocket expense to purchase imprinted bags can be a small investment when you buy from businesses such as PromosXchange which offers bags from a low quantity of only 30 units. But of course, buying in bulk will save you money. Your return on your investment on imprinted bags will be huge as everybody uses bags. Tote bags like those found in Coles and Safeway are the most popular as they are low in cost, enviromentally friendly (which sends a good message about your company) and so handy. If you haven’t already added bags into your list of must have promotional products, do it now and reap the benefits!