Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Add Vigor To Your Marketing Using Promotional Merchandise

By Liz Logan

The UK is in a crisis, we are witnessing one of the longest recessions in the history where Economic output is down by 6%. The banks are still not lending to small businesses and an estimated 30,000 businesses have closed down in 2009. And this, experts say is only the beginning. As a business, if you have made it this far, that's great. You have probably seen some competitors fail and shrinking of the market. While the market might have shrunk, you own a bigger slice of the pie. In the end, only the fittest, the agile and the adaptive will survive.

In such economic conditions it becomes even more crucial that you market your company effectively. Great marketing is effective marketing and even more so in such markets. Lessen the budget, identify the strategies that are the most effective and stick with them. All the same, whatever you do, don't cut the budget altogether. That of course would be a big mistake. If you are not getting new business, you cannot grow. Your existing customers will begin to drop off; your customer base will begin to diminish. It might be crucial in this market to check your marketing budget but cutting it altogether is obviously a very bad idea.

This means the marketing that you do needs to have more punch. Successful marketing needs to be targeted; making sure all you budget is spent in the right market. It needs to be long lasting; so the budget is not all spent in a 30 second radio commercial. It should engage your target audience so they notice your brand and know how to contact you. Lastly it needs to have an impact on your target audience; you need to give them a reason why they should come to you and not to one of your competitors.

This could seem like a lot from any strategy of marketing, yet I'm about to show you one way that includes every one of these components. This way is used by nearly every business that has achieved success on this earth and currently the web has become so broadly utilized that this way is even simpler to use for your business. The solution rests in promotional merchandise.

Promotional merchandise is when a product branded with your logo and possibly company details is given to your target audience. There are thousands of different products to choose from and you should choose the ones that reflect your brand or the target audience. Every one loves a freebie and this method of advertising can be surprisingly effective. You get to choose exactly who you want to give the merchandise to and these people take your products home or to their offices - right where other customers probably are! Promotional merchandise does not have to be expensive. There are products on the market from 8p. Do you know of any advertising method that starts out so cheap and is still this effective?

You may additionally employ this way to award your current customers with corporate gifts. This doesn't merely reinforce the brand, maintaining it in the front of your customer's brains, yet it may result in being awarded with loyalty and as a way of enticing them to purchase additional services from your business.

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