HOW PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS CAN HELP YOUR BUSINESS

1. Promotional products work as employee awards and incentives

Awards and incentive programs can improve performance and motivate employees to increase sales, reduce accidents, boost productivity and give customers better service. In 1994 Baylor University randomly surveyed 1,500 people, asking their opinions regarding employee awards and incentives.

Survey recipients were asked to rate how most employees feel about awards and incentives. The TRUE statements are those with which respondents agreed; the FALSE statements are those with which they disagreed.

TRUE:

• Employees like awards and incentives.
  
• Employees are motivated to win the awards.
  
• Employees work hard to win the awards.
  
• Employees encourage each other to work toward awards and incentives.

FALSE:

• Employees are not interested in the awards or incentives, so the program has no impact on their behavior.
• Employees do not believe they have a chance to win an award or incentive, so they don't even try.

Survey respondents also listed the reasons they believe award and incentive programs sometimes fail. The top two reasons for program failure are:

• Employees are not involved in the planning process - just managers.
  
• Employees lose interest in programs because they are not given timely feedback.

This indicates that effective employee award and incentive programs will feature high employee involvement during the development of the program and timely feedback to employees during the contest.

2. Dimensional mailings improve direct mail response rates

Promotional products, used as dimensionals in direct mail solicitations, can boost response rates by up to 75 percent, according to a study by Baylor University.

The packaging of promotional products can evoke curiosity as well as increase direct mail response rates. A 1993 study by Baylor University found that the use of dimensional mailers can significantly improve response rates over direct mail alone.

For this study, 3,000 school administrators were divided into three groups, and received either: 1) an envelope with a sales letter, sales collateral and postage-paid business reply card, 2) an envelope with similar contents plus a promotional product, or 3) all of the contents listed above, delivered in a box with a diecut slot, instead of an envelope. Here are the results:

• Those who received a promotional product in a dimensional package responded at a rate that was 57% higher than those who received the same promotional product in an envelope.
  
• Response rates for the dimensional package recipients were 75% higher than for the group who received only a sales letter.
  
• Dimensional packaging made a significant impact on response rates.
  

3. Keep customers coming back with promotional products

Customers reorder faster and more often when promotional products are used instead of coupons. In a study by Southern Methodist University, customers receiving promotional products reordered up to 18 percent sooner than those who received coupons and up to 13 percent sooner than those who received no promotion.

Customers who receive promotional products, on average, return sooner and more frequently, and spend more money than customers who receive coupons. In two separate studies, SMU researchers tested whether promotional products would outperform coupons in the area of repeat business and sales.

• Customers who received promotional products reordered up to 18% sooner than those who received coupons and up to 13% sooner than those who received no promotion.
• Customers who received promotional products also averaged up to 18% more orders than those receiving coupons and up to 13% more than those who received nothing.
  

In summary, customers who received promotional products reordered more quickly and ordered more often than those who received no promotional products.

• Over an eight-month period, new customers that received promotional products spent 27% more than those who received coupons, and 139% more than those who received only a welcome letter.
• Promotional products recipients were also 49% more likely than coupon recipients and 75% more likely than letter recipients to patronize the dry cleaner in each of the eight months studied.
  

In summary, new customers who received promotional products spent more and were more regular customers than those who did not receive promotional products.

Promotional products effectively reinforce employee sales contests, too. A Baylor University study of month-long sales contests in retail establishments indicates that contests reinforced by periodic distribution of promotional products were cost-effective and outperformed non-stimulated contests by up to 50 percent.

4. Improve trade show traffic with promotional products

Promotional products can increase traffic to an exhibitor's trade show booth. A 1991 study by Exhibit Survey Inc., found that using promotional products can give you an advantage over other exhibitors for buyer attention.

To promote traffic at its booth, an exhibitor sent invitations to 4,900 trade show registrants. These registrants were further broken down into smaller groups, each of which received from zero to three gifts (before, at, and/or after the show).

To learn what gift combinations had the best results, researchers measured booth traffic, post-show memory of having received the invitation, and registrant goodwill toward the company after the show. Results are described below.

• Invitation response (booth traffic) was significantly higher for those groups who received an invitation to receive a gift at the show than for the groups who did not.
  
• The response rate was highest for the group (11.6%) whose members received a gift set (a coaster before the show and a matching coffee mug at the show). This is 61% higher than the runner up group and almost three times higher than the other groups.
  
• The gift set also increased the memorability of the invitation and the group also showed the most goodwill (positive feelings) toward the company.

These findings demonstrate the effectiveness and flexibility of using promotional products to increase customer awareness, goodwill, and traffic at trade show exhibits.

5. Improve response rates to an advertising campaign with promotional product mailings

Promotional product mailings can dramatically improve response rates for campaigns involving other media, such as print advertising. The following study demonstrates this effect.

For this 1996 study, Dallas Marketing Group and Promotional Products Association helped a national tile distributor integrate the use of direct mail and promotional products into an existing print advertising campaign. Response rates were then tracked for a known group of subscribers. Some subscribers received only the trade ad, while others also received a sales letter, a promotional product, or a promotional product incentive. Presented below are the results of this study.

• The trade ad alone received a .7% response.
  
• The addition of a personalized direct mail letter tripled the response rate to 2.3%.
  
• When a dimensionally packaged promotional product (stress ball) was sent, along with information similar to the letter (but with a bolder presentation), the response rate rose to 4.2% (83% higher than for the personalized letter).
  
• An impressive 9.55% response rate was obtained by sending out an eye-catching direct mail package that contained a promotional product incentive (for a calculator).
  
• The calculator incentive package resulted in more than twice as many responses as the stress ball package, at one third the cost*.
  
• Of those respondents who were exposed to both the trade ad and some form of direct mail, two-thirds identified the direct mail piece as having prompted their response.
  

*This estimate includes only the cost of the promotional products (not the cost of accompanying materials or postage).

6. Generate customer referrals using promotional products

Promotional products help encourage customers to provide you with the names of friends and associates whom you can contact in the future. A 1993 study by Baylor University found that customers who receive promotional products are more willing to provide these leads than customers who don't receive promotional products.

This study was conducted with 20 Mary Kay beauty consultants, half of whom distributed promotional gifts (imprinted lint removers) to customers; the other ten offered no promotional gifts. Both groups then asked customers (200 in all) to refer the names of acquaintances. Findings are presented below.

• Customers who received a promotional product were 14% more likely to provide leads than those who did not.
• Salespeople who gave promotional gifts to their customers received 22% more referrals than salespeople who did not use promotional products.
• 40% of the salespeople who used the gifts commented on how well the gifts were received by their customers.
• Providing promotional gifts to customers increases the likelihood of them providing your salespeople with business referrals, and increases the number of leads generated. Used within a one-time promotion to expand your customer base or as an approach to insure the continuous growth of your business, promotional products are effective tools.
  

7. Build customer goodwill with promotional products

Promotional products foster customer goodwill (positive attitudes and feelings) toward a company and its salespeople. This study, completed by Baylor University in 1992, involved a textbook publisher sending 4,000 educators either: (1) pocket calculator plus a letter, (2) a lower-priced highlighter pen plus a letter, or (3) a letter only.

• Customers who received a promotional product expressed more good will toward the company and its salespeople than those who did not receive a promotional product.
  
• The attitudes of those who received the calculator were consistently more positive than for those who received the less expensive highlighter pen.
  
• Customers who received the pocket calculator or the highlighter pen rated the proficiency and ability of the sales representatives as 34% and 16% (respectively) higher than those who received only the thank you letter.
  
• On questions relating to the customers' personal feelings toward the company and its sales representatives, customers who received the calculator scored 52% higher than the letter only group.
  

8. Promotional products have reach, recall and low-cost

A survey of business travelers at DFW Airport revealed statistically how well promotional products can help market your business.

• Reach - 71% of a business people audience reported having received a promotional product in the previous 12 months. Moreover, 33.7% of this group had the item on their person--a coveted location for advertising that gets seen regularly.
• Recall - When asked … 76.1% of the respondents could recall the advertiser's name on the product that they had received in the past 12 months. In comparison, participants were also asked if they had read a newspaper or magazine in the past week. 80% of the participants said yes, but only 53.5% of them could recall the name of a single advertiser.
• Low cost per impression -- The frequency of promotional products' use is tantamount to advertising exposure. Of those respondents who reported using a promotional item, 73% stated that they used it once a week. 45.2% used it at least once a day. In media measurement, the greater the frequency of exposure, the lower the cost per impression.

9. How long do people generally keep promotional products?

55% of survey participants generally kept their promotional products for more than a year. This means repeated exposure over a long period of time. Again, the cost per impression drops still lower.

10. Can promotional products help me increase sales?

Finding new clients for your business is the most expensive thing you have to do. And without new customers your business will suffer. Customers move away, you lose customers due to attrition; sometimes competitors do a better job and "win" your customers away.

How can you prevent this kind of negative flux? Obviously, you can do what you do better. And, you can offer your existing customers more products and services. But the easiest place to find more business is from your existing client base.

In fact, doing something like that will produce results for lots less dollars and in a much shorter time frame than trying to find new customers to fill the void and bring up the bottom line. According to Entrepreneur Magazine, it costs five times more to generate a new client than it does to resell an existing client.

That of course should not be the only way you get new customers. A solid, consistent sales and marketing effort must be a part of every business. Remember, every day is a sales day. So you should really think about your sales on a daily basis. So why not start with the course of least resistance? Go after your current customers and get more of their business!

Whether your marketing is for new customers or increasing the amount of business you get from existing customers, adding promotional products to the mix will increase your rate of return. It's a proven fact.