Startups and smaller-scale businesses often do not have the funds required to host promotional events. Although, promoting your brand is absolutely essential.
Handing out tons of free gifts that boast your unique company logo may not be the ultimate solution for your restricted budget. This is especially true when there are several affordable solutions to consider.
There are several effective ways of marketing your brand or startup at promotional events without having to invest a small fortune in the process.
The following affordable promotional products will help you market your business without having to invest a small fortune.
1. Custom Tee Shirts
Even though printing free custom tee shirts and handing them out at promotional events may not be an affordable solution for startups, it would be wise to have a few custom tee shirts printed with bold designs for your employees.
Creating tee shirts with great designs that are wearable out of the office for casual social events will ensure your employees are wearing their creative company tee shirts on weekends.
Therefore, your employees will be marketing your brand while going about their day.
It is crucial to take into account that when using printed tee shirt designs as promotional products, the design used will be able to make or break the success of your idea.
Therefore, it may be a wise solution to get a graphic designer involved or have several employees provide feedback on the overall appeal of your chosen design.
2. Tote bags
While you may not be able to hand out free grocery tote bags with your business’s logo printed on the front, you can keep a stock of vibrant custom tote bags for customers to purchase for a small fee along with their products.
Keeping a stock of plastic printed bags will not just harm the environment, but when considering that your customers will likely throw the bag away shortly after use, plastic bags are not entirely useful for promoting your business.
Your customers will likely hold onto their tote bags for countless shopping trips to come, which means they too will be marketing your brand while they are going about their day.
While providing tote bags for your customers is a great way to increase brand awareness, this effort will also help you grow an eco-friendly brand image for your business. That will prove extremely beneficial for your reputation within the local community.
3. Pocket-sized notebooks
When it comes to affordable promotional products that are cheap enough to hand out for free at events, small notebooks with your business’s logo printed on the front may be one of the most affordable solutions.
Notebooks are pleasingly cheap and you will be able to have your company details printed inside as well.
What’s more, potential customers will likely be using your free notebooks rather than tossing them out as they would with promotional items such as lanyards and keychains that they may not particularly find useful.
4. Pens
Promotional pens are likely one of the most commonly used promotional products to date. Even though your free pens may get misplaced and lost, everyone uses pens.
Considering the general affordability of printing pens, it would be a great idea to use them as marketing tools by handing them out along with your printed notebooks.
Regardless of the type of promotional items you opt for, it is vital to ensure you are handing them out to interested customers rather than the masses.
This is because handing out promotional products to the masses will cost your business and you won’t be able to expect any sales in return.
For this reason, it would be wise to have your employees hand promotional goods out to interested customers who have shown interest in your business by filling out customer information forms.
5. Business cards
Even though business cards may not entirely be viewed as promotional products, a successful promotional event will not be complete without them.
While you are handing out your tote bags and other affordable goods, you should be handing over a business card too.
As business cards are exceptionally affordable, you will be able to hand out as many as possible to encourage brand growth at your event.
The design on your cards is as important as the design used on your promotional tee shirts, which means you should stray from the commonly used designs and opt for a modern approach.
Using laser cut or embossed designs on your business cards will ensure they are appealing and as unique as your business.
What’s more, including your personal cellphone number will be a great idea to humanize your business to your target audience. This effort will suggest that you are involved in customer support and willing to assist outside of office hours.
6. Reducing the costs of promotional events
Hosting a promotional event can be understandably stressful, especially when your business funds are limited.
However, with a money-savvy approach to how you spend and who you invite, you will be able to make it a successful day without spending a small fortune.
Inviting your attendees strategically by only using quality leads will increase your number of interested customers.
In addition to this, it would be wise to use self-marketing methods to market your big day.
Using affordable promotional items and inviting them strategically will essentially save you significantly as you will not be handing out free items to uninterested customers.
There are several effective ways to self-promote your event to reduce promotional costs. From wearing your own merchandise to taking advantage of social media platforms.
While social media platforms are possibly the most cost-effective solution for affordable marketing, it is crucial to utilize the platforms correctly in order to appeal to your specific target market.
You can create events and share your business page across groups and make the effort of connecting with interested customers through messaging systems.
If you feel you would rather hand your social media presence over to a more capable individual, it would be a great idea to consider opting for a social media influencer that specializes in approaching your specific target audience.
I am Adeyemi Adetilewa, a media consultant, entrepreneur, husband, and father. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of Ideas Plus Business Magazine, online business resources for entrepreneurs. I help brands share unique and impactful stories through the use of public relations, advertising, and online marketing. My work has been featured on the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Addicted2Success, Hackernoon, The Good Men Project, and other publications.
