Branded Promotional Products

As a preferred member of the Advertising Specialty Institute, Qualprint is a respected and reputable supplier of quality promotional products. We offer an amazing array of customizable promotional products to support your overall marketing programs and help your brand win the moment. Here’s a brief overview of branded promotional products, the best ways to use them, the most popular promotional items and how we can help you use them effectively. You can also jump directly to our promotional ordering site.

Promotional Item Printing Promotes Your Business

The idea of giving away freebies to promote a business has probably been around for millennium. But promotional products were first recognized as a legitimate advertising medium in 1912 by the Advertising Federation of America. Put simply, promotional products are customized items that people brand and offer to prospects and customers to promote their businesses and build loyalty. Customized promotional item printing can be powerful tools for accomplishing a number of business objectives:

• Advertising your brand – building both your brand image and awareness
• Reminding prospects and customers that you exist
• Rewarding a client for their continued loyalty
• Making potential customers like your brand – giving them a moment of joy and making them more likely to do business with you – even something as simple as a piece of candy included in a mailer sent to prospects can have a surprising payout

Put another way, if you can cost effectively get something branded with your name on it onto a customer’s desk or into their kitchen – or get people to walk around wearing apparel promoting your business – it’s hands down a win.

Ideas for Using Custom Promotional Products

There’s no limit to their potential uses, but here’s some of the most popular and effective ways to use custom promotional products:

• Supporting an Event – If people are coming to an event you created or are sponsoring, give them something to take home to remember you. They are also highly effective as conversation starters for salespeople looking to intercept prospects.
• Rewarding Customers for Their Business – Sending loyal customers even a small item as a thankyou can go along way and if kept, can ultimately work to start a conversation between your customer and a potential new one
• Enhancing the Unboxing Experience – If your marketing program includes sending products or materials directly to customers or prospective buyers, you know that the experience people have opening what you send can influence their decision to buy. In short, that experience can be a critical part of winning the moment for your brand. And adding a premium or promotional item to the package – a pen, a hat, something useful around the office – can help you create a better experience.
• Gifts and Rewards for Employees – Promotional items aren’t just for customers and prospects. They can also help you build loyalty among your employees. And if you give them apparel, you’re also turning them into walking ads for your business.

One of the most important things you can do to maximize the return you get on any promotional item is to ensure that what you giveaway is ‘on-brand’ – helping to tell your brand story. For instance, if a key pillar of your brand is sustainability, give away branded reusable shopping bags. If you’re promoting an outdoor lifestyle, give away water bottles. If you’re all about relaxation, try stress balls or fidget spinners.

The Most Popular Promotional Products

According to recent research by the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI) here’s a list of some of the most popular promotional products – all of which we can help you source and customize. PPAI also offers an estimate of the potential impressions each item can create over its lifetime:

• Outerwear — Jackets, rain slickers, and windbreakers can achieve an estimated 6,100 lifetime impressions.
• T-Shirts — Items like t-shirts can achieve an estimated 3,400 lifetime impressions.
• Headwear — Marketing products like hats, visors, and similar headgear achieve an estimated 3,400 lifetime impressions.
• Bags — Backpacks, tote bags, and drawstring bags can achieve an estimated 3,300 lifetime impressions.
• Writing Instruments — Marketing products like pens, notebooks and pencils can achieve an estimated 3,000 lifetime impressions.
• Polo Shirts — Promotional items like polo shirts can achieve an estimated 2,300 lifetime impressions.
• Desk Accessories — Trays, bookends and organizers can achieve an estimated 1,450 lifetime impressions.
• Drinkware — Marketing products like coffee mugs, water bottles and glassware can achieve an estimated 1,400 lifetime impressions.
• Umbrellas — Promotional items like umbrellas can achieve an estimated 1,100 lifetime impressions.
• Power Banks — Power banks for charging electronic devices can achieve an estimated 900 lifetime impressions.
• Calendars — Promotional products like calendars can achieve an estimated 850 lifetime impressions.
• USB Drives — Marketing products like USB flash drives can achieve an estimated 700 lifetime impressions.
• Personal protective equipment (PPE) has also emerged as a big item thanks to COVID but this could ebb or flow with the pandemic. Typical examples include masks, hand sanitizer, bandanas, and face shields.

For more on how we can help your marketing and print programs win the moment with promotional products, contact us anytime. You can also jump right to our promotional ordering site featuring over 800,000 items from over 3,000 distributors using the link below.