What is Promotional Marketing?

Promotional Marketing?  What’s that?  If you’re already familiar with broadcast marketing (like those multi-million dollar Super Bowl ads) and other forms of marketing (print, email, content, etc.) then it might be time to level up by exploring what promotional marketing is all about.

But first: what is promotional marketing?

The simplest definition of promotional marketing is the creative and cost effective use of every day items – pens, mugs, t-shirts, water bottles, power banks, phone wallets (yes, your phone needs a wallet or, at least your clients’ and prospects’ phones do) and so much more to help to tell you company’s or association’s story. Using promotional products for your business’s gain.

Sometimes derided as tchotchkes, giveaways, sway, merch, these promotional products will make a much more favorable, and longer lasting, impression than just about any other form of marketing.

Think about it for a minute.  Do you remember the last pop up you saw?  YouTube ad?  Halftime ad on television?  Maybe if it was obnoxious enough. Or repeated ad nauseum.

We can’t remember everything we see or hear. Probably not even half of it. Promotional marketing helps us overcome that - it helps your business secure and serve more clients.

At a leadership development seminar, there once was a speaker talking about the memory span of various ages. He said not to tell people about a Saturday event on Wednesday and expect them to remember. Remind them Friday night. A reminder is never going to hurt - it’s become the best cheat around. When in doubt, write things down.

Promotional marketing at its core is writing things down. Not on a paper, or on your phone, but on promotional products. By turning everyday items like t-shirts, water bottles, magnets, pens, umbrellas, jackets, towels and more into an advertisement into your brand, you are intersecting your customers when they experience life. You are becoming an essential part of their day to day. You are sticky. What is promotional marketing? Making your message stick.