There was the great time for offline commerce when promotional products had a great power, influence and multitude; besides they had no competition the online market that has spread dramatically so far. Currently the role of competitor is acted by the Internet (online ads, viral advertising, banners and links etc.). As a rule promotional products are frequently imprinted with a company’s name, logo, motto or message. Both online advertising and promotional products have the goal to attract people who buy the products you want to sale. Which one of these two advertising ways is dominant?
1. Banner advertising (pay per impression)
Promotional products can be compared with banner advertising. Your brand, internet address or product will be placed on an area with a fixed size of space. The pros of promotional products are the better CTR.
The user will see the trade mark of your company every time they use these products. It’s a traditional marketing manipulation but it works. This is like a banner impression at websites. Normally a user will see your banner one time when they visit a website. At promotional products they will see it always while they use it.
2. PPC – Search engine (AdWords, Bidvertiser etc.)
At the search engines you pay for each click a user makes on your ad. A small example will show you the advantage or drawback of PPC and promotional products.
It’s just simple math. A click can cost you up to a hundred dollars in the worst case. It happens rarely but happens. The average cost per click is mainly 1 to 2 dollars. When you have a monthly budget of $1000 according to statistics you will get up to 1000 unique visitors. Invest $1000 in promotional products and you will get for example 2000 pens with your logo or internet address scratched on it. Send these pens to your possible customers or give it away at trade shows. After you have done this people use the pen they will see the name of your company. From the one hand it sounds as a drivel but why not to try?
When these people one day need products you have in your online-shop they will remind of your company. If they visit your site now this can be seen as a “virtual click”. This can be up to 2000 “virtual clicks” and visitors for your site.
Pros of using promotional products:
1. The user will see your logo as long as they use it
2. High CTR and ROI (return on investment) when you give it to the right user groups (Trade shows)
3. People like to receive them
Cons:
1. The conversion rate can be low if you fail to send the products to the suitable user group 2. High investments for several expensive promotional products and campaigns
3. Risk
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