ASI Home

Member Login

ACCESS ESP

Careers

How To Build a Killer Marketing Strategy for Your Promo Products Business

By Amanda Smith 

The $26.6 billion promotional products industry offers vast growth opportunities with no equipment or inventory necessary, and with the average profit margin of 36%, it’s easy to see benefits of joining this thriving market.

Making the decision to add branded merch to your product line is a great first step, but another big question remains: How do you get these products into end-buyers’ hands? This blog will guide you through effective marketing strategies to pinpoint your ideal customers, stand out from the competition, showcase your offerings in an inviting way and much more to elevate your promo business to new heights.

Identify Your Target Audience
Nearly every market has a need for promotional products, so as a distributor, it’s important to narrow your focus into target markets – think schools, nonprofits, corporate clients, construction companies, healthcare institutions … anyone who could use logoed items.

Understand who your ideal customers are and tailor your promotional products to their preferences and needs. You can start small by identifying businesses in your community or ones you have already established relationships with before setting your sights on bigger fish.

Leverage Social Media
If you want your business to have a wider reach with measurable results, deploying an active social media marketing campaign is a must. Whether you’re looking to establish yourself in your community or aspire to grow nationally or internationally, increasing your brand awareness with cost-effective social strategies will help get your name out there.

Use platforms like Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn to showcase your promo. Engage with your audience through posts, stories and targeted ad campaigns to create buzz and drive interest. Don’t be afraid to have fun with your posts to show the more human side of your company with behind-the-scenes looks, a day in the life at the company and employee profiles.

Build Out Email Campaigns
For one of the most cost-effective ways to see a high ROI and enhanced engagement, email campaigns are the answer. One of the best ways to reach your audience is directly in their inboxes, and becoming an ASI® member will grant you the access to tools that’ll help scale your efforts, measure your campaign’s effectiveness with real-time analytics and much more.

When it comes to building your email marketing campaigns, ASI will help you:

  • Define your campaign goals
  • Segment your target audience
  • Craft compelling content
  • Track and analyze results
  • And much more

Offer Limited-Time Promotions
Who doesn’t love a good sale? Offering periodic sales at noticeable discounts is a great way to create buzz for your brand, enhance customer loyalty and bring in new customers. By creating a sense of urgency and encouraging customers to act quickly before a deal expires, you can spike sales and conversions during peak spending seasons.

There are also a few hidden advantages to running these types of promotions:

  • Clear excess/slow-moving inventory to make room for new products
  • Encourage larger purchases via add-on sales
  • Gain valuable data on purchasing behavior

Attend Trade Shows
While a well-rounded marketing strategy with multiple digital touchpoints is a must, few things can replicate the face-to-face interactions you’ll experience at a trade show. These networking opportunities are impossible to replicate digitally, especially in the promotional products industry, where seeing and touching the physical items to test the quality and understand the true value they’ll have on your business is essential.

Certain suppliers only attend one show per year, so getting to these events is the only way to make a positive, in-person impact on potential business partners. At ASI, we put on more than a dozen events every year – including three flagship trade shows in Orlando, Fort Worth and Chicago – each designed to connect suppliers and distributors to grow our industry. Learn more about all our events at asishow.com.

To learn more about crafting a pitch-perfect marketing campaign to support your promo business, check out our e-book, Everything You Need To Know About Selling Promotional Products.