rushIMPRINT Blog Home

What Are The Most Popular Promotional Products of 2023?

Posted on by Kathy

Growing your business is often the number one priority for business executives, marketers, or solopreneurs. There are multiple ways to do this, such as creating a better product, offering more services, increasing sales, or building brand awareness.

Most Popular Promotional Products

Brand awareness is a crucial aspect of any marketing campaign. For new businesses and fully established companies alike, informing people about what the brand is and what it can do for them is very important. Even well-known brands like Coca-Cola or Google have to run brand awareness campaigns to inform people about new products or initiatives.

There are plenty of ways to increase brand awareness. You could focus on improving search engine optimization for your website content, making it easier for people to find you on search engines. You could also run an email campaign or send promotional mail directly to consumers’ homes. It might even make sense to rent a billboard in your city. One unique method to build brand awareness that you may have never considered is using promotional products.

What are Promotional Products?

A promotional product is a tangible item that contains company information on it. This could be the company logo, name, or even contact information. These items are then either given away or sold to various groups to increase brand awareness whenever someone uses the item in front of others.

This strategy is not just a trend, as it has been utilized for decades by companies who want to promote themselves in a unique way.

Why Invest in Promotional Items?

At this point, you may be asking why. Why should you spend money ordering promotional products to give away when you could allocate those funds for other marketing efforts? Here are a few of the benefits of using promotional products as a brand awareness strategy.

Cost-Effective and Repeatable

For most other marketing campaigns, you have to run them over and over. Social media ads can only be used for a certain amount of time, emails disappear into inboxes, and people toss junk mail immediately after receiving it. But promotional products can produce impressions over and over again, as long as the people who own the items continue to use them. Every time they throw on that shirt with your logo, people are seeing your brand’s presence. The only price you have to pay is the initial order, and if you choose to sell some of the promotional items, then you will make some of that money back anyways.

Leveraging Loyal Customers

When current customers are a fan of your business, you do not want to waste that enthusiasm. Giving away free promo items can build customer loyalty, but it can also leverage their excitement into stronger brand awareness. If they love supporting your brand, they will be thrilled to use these products in public and tell others about your business.

Reaching a Broader Audience

Although your marketing should focus on the target audience the most, promotional products allow you to reach a broader population. Anyone might encounter your logo or company name if someone is wearing a branded hat in public. Though they might not fall under the umbrella of your target audience, that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t love your product as well. These items give you easy access to more sets of eyes, increasing brand awareness and potentially leading to more sales in the future.

Now that you understand the why, it is time to talk about the what. What products should you consider ordering that can be customized with your quality logo or company name? Here is a list of some of the most popular promotional products that businesses can use to increase brand awareness and customer loyalty.

Custom Tote Bags

Tote bags are all the rage because they can serve many uses. People use them to carry personal items to work, to the gym, while hiking, to social events, at theme parks, and a thousand other places. Reusable tote bags are eco-friendly products, so they are the perfect accessory for the environmentally conscious mind.

Branded Sport Towels

Pittsburgh Steelers fans know the value of a good sports towel, and so do many others. This promotional item is useful for those who live an active lifestyle and need to dry themselves off after a heavy workout or intense activity. These are great giveaways and could spark a conversation that leads to a new customer.

Promotional T-Shirts

One of the most visible promotional items is the t-shirt. Ordering them in bulk makes for a budget-friendly choice, and everyone loves free t-shirts. You could also choose to sell them if you wish. Shirts are one of the best promotional items out there because they can be easy conversation starters and are very visible to others.

Custom Water Bottles

Hydration is important, and more and more people are learning to bring their H2O on the go for healthier living. These trending products, if purchased from a high-quality brand, are perfect for rewarding employees or giving away in a raffle at a local event or trade show. Make sure you order the minimum quantity for bulk so that you save some money on the front end.

Custom Stadium Cups

If you are looking for a more inexpensive promotional item to buy en masse, then stadium cups are a perfect choice. These custom products are cheap but frequently used, which would provide maximum exposure for your brand. Even if they lead to one impression every time they are used, that is a solid investment for brand awareness.

Personalized Polos Shirts

If you want to provide something a little fancier for your giveaway, then custom polos could be the way to go. Perfect for a golf outing, a Sunday morning at church, or just everyday dining, polos with logos, (that sounds like a good brand name right there), serve as ideal promo items.

Promotional Umbrellas

If you want to brandish your company name and logo with a flourish, then custom umbrellas would work for you. No one loves to be drenched in the rain as they go about their day, and opening up an umbrella draws attention. If a quality logo can be seen as it opens, then this popular promotional product could catch the eyes of potential customers.

Custom Koozies

Keeping drinks cool is a constant battle, especially in the summer. Fortunately, koozies make the battle a little easier. They are ideal promo products because they are small and cheap, but can still see a lot of use in front of others.

Portable Chargers

If you want to go out of your way to give loyal customers or employees a real gift, then devices that provide wireless charging for other devices can make a wonderful promotional item. Combine their functionality with a custom design that contains your logo, and you provided an exciting product that also advertises your business. Plus, many people will ask to borrow a portable charger, so every time that happens, a new impression occurs.

Promotional Writing Instruments

Simple is sometimes the most effective when it comes to the most popular promotional items. Pens, pencils, styluses, sticky notes, and more can be simple solutions that people of all ages can use. Workers especially could bring high visibility to your brand if they use this type of product throughout the work day, either on-site or in their home offices.

Other Ideas for a Promotional Product

The list of potential promotional items really is endless. If you want a few ideas, explore our most popular promotional products, as a starting point for your plan. You could give away health and wellness products like hand sanitizer, lip balm, stress balls, or exercise bands that are customized with your company name. Useful devices/accessories like Bluetooth speakers, USB drives, and mouse pads make fun promotional products as well. You can choose truly unique promotional products like stainless steel straws or cord organizers. Whatever provides the most impressions for your business is a forward-thinking idea. On the other hand,

Implementing Promotional Products into Your Marketing Plan

Having promotional items to give away is one thing. Knowing where and how to use them is another. You shouldn’t spend one cent on promotional products unless you have a plan in place. How do you know who to give them to? Should they be free or come at a small price? Where can you be strategic so that the highest amount of visibility is achieved? Some of these answers can help guide your promotional product strategy.

Where to Give Products Away

If you are unsure when and where to give away or sell promotional products, think about how to get the most exposure to the right audiences. Do you attend trade shows as a representative of your business? Bring some business cards, branded notebooks, custom sunglasses, promotional pens, and other small items with you. Try partnering with a local charity event and set up a booth where people can spin a wheel or enter a raffle to win a prize. Send out a corporate gift of promotional hats during the holidays. Search for any occasion where you can give promotional items to people who interact with your target audience.

Who to Give Products to

Though you should be willing to give some of these items away to anyone, particularly at public events, there are a few groups that you must hit. First, your employees deserve a gift. Giving them a little extra involvement in the growth of the company can help them feel valued, and water bottles or t-shirts that you give them could bring additional brand exposure from their social circles. Another group is the local community. Giving away items in the service area will increase local brand awareness among the people that are most likely to buy your product or service.

When to Run a Promotional Product Campaign

Though your marketing funds may be focused more on supporting digital or print marketing, using some of that extra cash flow to order promotional items can be done at any time. In particular, promotional products should be given out near events or major holidays. This is when people are most likely to want to purchase something or grab some free swag. When your business is first starting, you may want to hold off on this type of campaign until you have built a loyal customer base. Otherwise, you may have no one excited enough to display your company name and logo in public.

Have Fun with Your Promotional Product Strategy

Getting the most impressions and brand awareness may come down to selecting the right items for your campaign. What are the most fun promotional items that would be in high demand from your customers or employees? Could an inventory of eco-friendly products with your logo get your team excited about advertising the company to the public by wearing t-shirts or hats? Have fun with how you use these items to improve customer loyalty and brand awareness.

Conduct Research Before You Begin

The best-laid plans are backed by research. That may not be the exact quote, but it is certainly true. Before you start buying the most popular promotional items and giving them away, learn more about how to use them effectively. Check out how major brands in your industry have done so successfully in the past. See what your competitors are doing and if it is working. Do some audience research to see what your ideal customers would be interested in.

Once you have a solid foundation of data to back up your plan, implement a promotional product campaign to gain more visibility and recognition for your brand in the public sphere.