Promotion is key for small businesses, but what is the right approach to take when it comes to your promotional products strategy? According to the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), one mistake small businesses may be tempted to make in 2014 is looking at their promotions as discrete activities.
Promotional products as an ongoing action
Often, the decision to buy or distribute promotional products is hinged on a particular event or set of events. The use of promotional products may be tied to an advertising campaign. In 2014, PPAI is encouraging its members to think less of promotions as part of a campaign and more of them as an ongoing or continuous activity that businesses should engage in.
The need to promote your business doesn’t stop, and it doesn’t (in most cases) relate well to the calendar. Tying promotions and the use of promotional products to a particular time period, then, leaves your promotional strategy moving forward in fits and starts, or worse, causes you to lose the traction you’ve built around the beginning of a promotional period.
Looking at bigger pictures and longer goals as they relate to your overall small business marketing and promotional strategy can help you maximize your promotional efforts and incorporate your promotional strategy into your corporate culture. Removing the hard links between promotions and the calendar allows you to make better decisions about how promotional products fit into your overall marketing strategy, which promotional products have the greatest effect and how you can maximize your promotional products budget.
Better still, the continuous approach gives you a continuous stream of data on the effectiveness of your promotional strategy. By making promotion a permanent, ongoing component of your marketing effort, you can begin to reap the long-term benefits that promotional products can deliver to your business.
If you’ve never used promotional products in your business or want to discuss new promotional strategies, our Creative Director Dave Ramsell can help. Grantstreet Creative and its sister company, The Tradeshow Stores, can help you develop or update your promotional strategy for 2014. Give Dave a call at (330) 243-0651 to set up a consultation today and learn how you can incorporate continuous promotion into your small business marketing strategy.
Photo Credit: PLRANG Images For Design, via stockxchng
