As a start-up company, you’re trying to find ways to promote your business and get things moving within your community quickly. There are a lot of expenses associated with these early days and not a lot coming back in yet, but making room in the budget for some quality swag will actually help to propel you forward.
Spreading the Word
Distributing swag is a great way to get your name out into the community and to let potential customers know what you’re all about. As your swag hits the street and begins to circulate, you’ll find that it’s a great way to advertise and promote your business. Offering swag to existing customers as a reward for referring friends and family will increase your customer base more quickly. Quality promotional items also add value to your new customers, which means they’ll stick around for longer and bring you repeat business.
Batting in the Big Leagues
When you’re just beginning your business, you’re still trying to work out branding, which is like assigning a personality to your business that others will recognize you for. You need to take your place among the other businesses in your community and promotional items can help you to do that. Having professional, high quality swag lends credibility and a sense of permanence to your business. Getting your brand out there visually in the community solidifies you as part of the game and makes you recognizable at a glance. This is an especially important aspect of branding in a market where competition is stiff.
Giveaway Ideas to Get You Going
You definitely need your stock of promo tees and printed pens to hand out to customers and employees, but you can make a big statement with a few creative giveaways as well. Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Coffee: Deliver coffee, hot chocolate, or smoothies to the employees in an office that you’d like to receive referrals from. Include some custom printed coffee mugs bearing your logo and some business cards too.
- Community Events: Attend community events and set up a booth there. Hand out swag that is relevant to the event. For instance, athletic shirts, shoelaces, and water bottles are great items for 5ks and fun runs.
- Coupon Cash: In the spirit of any big spender, show up to trade shows with “cash” on hand. Have coupons printed in the form of fun money and hand them out liberally as you stroll around the trade show.
- Kitchen Utensils: Any kitchen utensil like a pizza cutter or ice cream scoop etc is a great way to keep your brand in front of people. These are items people don’t throw away! You also can create great campaigns with very puny sayings like “Have a slice of easy life with Your company” or “with Your company you get your cake and ice cream too.”