Promotional items are popular giveaways at trade shows, industry events, vendor fairs, and employment recruiting seminars. But there are a number of other potential uses for your company swag.

Here are 4 additional uses for your promotional items beyond traditional giveaways.

Use as contest prizes. Contests are an effective marketing tool to build awareness and trial of your company and its products. One thing to keep in mind if you decide to use promotional pieces as contest prizes is that the value of your prizes should be great enough to incentivize people to take part in your contest.

Use to build your contact lists. Sometimes it’s critical for marketing efforts to have customer contact information. This way you can reach out to people who have already done business with you to encourage repeat business. But even good customers are sometimes hesitant to give out their contact information. This is where a promotional item that resonates with your customers can be used to incentivize them to sign up.

Use to thank people for filling out surveys. Obtaining the opinions of your customers and employees can be very valuable in building your company culture, improving your services, and developing new products. However, time is also valuable and people aren’t always willing to spend their time filling out a survey. Offer a nice promotional product to people who complete surveys in exchange for their time and effort.

Use as referral gifts. Some businesses rely heavily on referrals from existing customers. One way to ensure your existing customers keep talking about your business with others is to offer a memorable promotional item each time they provide a new prospect to you.

Don’t be afraid to get creative with how your use your promotional items, especially if you find yourself with a lot of leftovers. Remember, the higher the perceived value of your promotional products, the more options you have of using them for things other than giveaways at trade shows.

About the author

EVERSOX is a worldwide supplier of custom branded socks for businesses, retailers, and promotional products distributors — with over 10,000 designs manufactured & 100 major brands served since 2010.