Planning Your Promotional Merchandise In Advance

Marketing budgets can often be very small, leaving not much spare cash to invest in promotional merchandise. However, figures show how effective promotional merchandise is which is why we recommend planning promotional merchandise into your initial budget.

With purse strings tightening across the country, marketing budgets are becoming increasingly smaller meaning planning needs to be done further in advance to ensure the budget is used effectively. Many companies have already started looking at their budgets for 2013 and are starting to plan how they are going to spend it. We recommend before you plan any further, stop and look through this article to see why you should invest in promotional merchandise.

Many companies choose to spend most of their marketing budget on email campaigns and extensive advertising. But think about your own habits. If you get a email offer, how often do you view it? Similarly, how often do you sit and actually watch or listen to adverts on the television or radio? We are willing to bet the answer to both of these questions is not very often! On the other hand, when you receive a promotional item such as a pen, bag or even something more bespoke, do you throw it away? The majority will keep a promotional item for an average of eight months, making promotional merchandise the most effective form of advertising.

The figures speak for themselves, with 92% of people believing that branded merchandise increased their awareness of a company. People prefer promotional techniques which require their permission. By this we mean, that they can be advertised to only when they want to be. Traditional advertising methods are different to this as they can be considered intrusive. This is because people don't choose to listen to the adverts and are forced to, making it an experience they want to forget.

A well planned promotional merchandise campaign doesn't need to cost the Earth. If you plan far enough in advance you can work well within your budget. You can also work out what you require promotional merchandise for and how it will help your organisation. It is important also to evaluate in some way how the promotional merchandise has worked so you can see if it has been a success or if it will need tweaking in the future.

Here at Total Merchandise we are used to working within tight budgets. If you are struggling with what promotional merchandise to buy within your budget then give us a call and we will be happy to assist you.