Setting a marketing budget for the year ahead takes time and careful planning. You need to determine that the money spent on advertising represents the most effective marketing effort for your company. This means you have to estimate the costs and decide how much to spend on each aspect of your marketing message. One highly effective marketing strategy is the effective use of promotional items. If your company has not tried this style of marketing before, 2014 is the perfect year to start.
Promotional items make up a $19.4 billion dollar industry worldwide. Flash drives, or USB pens as they are also known, make up around 19.9% of that, or some $3.86 billion dollars a year. Though a relatively recent addition to the range of promotional products commonly available, these little drives have already proven themselves to be extremely popular, enduring and a very effective all round marketing tool.
Develop a Promotional Marketing Strategy
A marketing strategy is not about you. It’s about your target market. Who are they? What will appeal to them most? How can you most easily and cost effectively reach them? It’s all down to market research. Without doing thorough market research before you even think about designing a single USB flash drive, you will be setting yourself up to fail. It is only when you have all your facts and figures, based on solid research you can depend on, that you can start to think of how to execute your marketing plan.
Once you have all the demographic, geographic and psychographic information about your target market, you can begin to determine how best to reach them. Should it be through trade fairs, or other similar events? Would direct mail to a targeted list work better, or is there some other way to get your promotional items in front of the people who matter? You should make this final decision based on the information gathered in your market research. That is where the best answers lie.
Your market research has narrowed down your target market audience and how best to reach them. You now need to decide on the design of the actual promotional item. USB flash drives are extremely versatile in this respect. They can be customized in all kinds of ways. The basic shape, for example, can be a pen that actually writes, a credit card, or a car, boat or ‘plane, or just about anything else you like.
Think of your target market when you decide on the final shape and promotional message of the item. Don’t try to make your company look good just for the sake of it; answer your target customer’s question of, “What’s in it for me?” Make it all about them and they will make your company, or your company’s bank account at least, look really great!
The final cog in your promotional marketing strategy machine is distribution. Once you’ve worked out through market research who your target market is, how to reach them cost effectively and easily, and once you have a well-designed USB flash drive as a promotional item, you will need to work out how to get the promotional items to wherever your target market audience is.
How Much to Spend on Promotional Marketing?
It should go without saying that the more you can spend to advertise and promote your company and its products or services, the better. Don’t stint on this part when you are preparing a budget. Flash drives may be inexpensive per item, but you’ll need plenty of them to get the right positioning strategy and achieve a healthy return on investment.
Before deciding on a figure to allocate to promotional marketing, talk to us. We specialize in bulk customized USB flash drives. We can advise you on your needs and help you estimate the costs involved. We offer real affordable promotional advertising and promotion ideas. We can tell you what’s possible, what’s been done, and what works best. We can supply you with all the information to help you develop a marketing plan that will work for you.
Traditional opinions about the cost of advertising say that it’s expensive. It certainly can be, but it doesn’t have to be. Low budget advertising that still packs a mighty punch is indeed possible with little USB pens. It isn’t so much what you spend on advertising that matters, but how much you spend that is effective. We have the promotional tools. All you need is a marketing budget that won’t break the bank, but will add to what’s already there.
Advertise and Promote …
One way to test the waters is to give promotional USB flash drives to existing clients as anniversary gifts for sticking with the company, or perhaps as holiday gifts at Christmas or New Year. There doesn’t have to be a special occasion; you can simply make one up. Flash drives are useful items. People will keep them and use them. Your promotional message or company logo will be seen by thousands of people over time, just by utilizing this one simply idea.
Don’t overlook your existing employees. They will appreciate a small gift at any time, especially one they can use. Company loyalty will be enhanced with a present of a USB pen that has the company logo or promotional message on it. The idea is to spread these affordable promotional items around to let as many people as possible see them. Start with your employees and existing clients to reach the right audience, and move on to bigger things from there.
Enjoy a Healthy Return on Investment
You can usually get the best return on investment from inexpensive items that are useful, that people actually need and want. Everyone needs a USB pen from time to time. They don’t mind the marketing communications message printed on the body of the item. They understand that it’s advertising, but they also know it’s useful – and it came free. They’ll slip it on a key chain to use as a back up for data files on a personal computer, or one at work. It will be seen all over by many different people.
It’s easy to give something away when people want it. After that, they do the advertising for you. That can last for several years in some cases. All you have to do is purchase the promotional items and give them away. Promoting your business in 2014 effectively, without the usual huge spend on advertising, surely couldn’t be any easier than that.
