Boost Your Email Marketing with Promotional Products!

At the beginning of the year or before the new year, email marketers are required to set up an email marketing plan for the new year.

Here’s a basic jist of what we ask ourselves: “What am I going to do differently this year?” “How am I going to be better for my company?” etc etc.

If you’re not an email marketer, but you send the emails, I’m talking to you too!

How’s your email marketing plan gone so far?

Are you catching no fish with the bait you’re using?

Luckily, it’s only Q2 (It’s 04/06/18, because if you’re reading this in Q4 you may be a little late to the game).

I just want to make sure you’re crushing it when it comes to email marketing because I’m one of you!

So I’m going to offer a few ideas you can implement with promotional products.

Because…what customers don’t love free promotional items?

Email Marketing and Promotional Products

EMAIL EXCHANGE

So this one is my favorite idea.

This works perfectly for e-commerce and small businesses.

In exchange for a FREE promotional product, you get an email address.

Whether you’re receiving a business card or just an online form, you’ll be able to add more email addresses to your list.

So for an e-commerce company, all you would need to do is make sure you have a landing page for the item you are giving away for free.

So I know, this landing page example is TERRIBLE.

I had to mock up something real quick, but the concept is there.

Remember to select an item that is popular with many customers, or else this idea will flop.

Create a paragraph convincing potential customers why they need the item.

With the bait in front of their eyes, you’ll be able to receive a lot of emails for this.

The other day, I saw this idea in play with a dog food company.

They were giving away a free promotional dog bandana.

Did I enter? You know it!

My dog is looking fabulous in her new bandana too.

Of course, they send me emails now, but now I actually know about their company.

Whereas before, I had no idea who they were.

For small businesses who want to use this concept in their shops, give your free item to customers that fill out your form or hand you their business card in-house.

Firstly, you’ll be able to see the smile on their face as they receive something FREE.

Secondly, you’ll be able to actually see the face of your new email subscriber.

How awesome is that?

GIVEAWAYS/SWEEPSTAKES

These can be done online only or in-store, or both!

You decide the rules of the giveaways or sweepstakes, but this will help increase your subscriber’s list.

When people enter the contest, make sure they are aware they are being added to your email list with the option to opt-out.

Majority of those entering will simply check all terms and enter (because I know I do).

Sweepstakes has worked well for AnyPromo.

Because we’re a B2B company, we have to make sure our target audience is specific.

Even then, we’ve ran a few sweepstakes already and got major success from them.

My favorite sweepstake was done for Labor Day and we were targetting ALL customers.

Our goal was to get our name out there, in addition to increasing our email list.

We gave away a promotional Labor Day BBQ set. It included two folding chairs, 2 sherpa blankets, and one cooler.

It was pretty awesome.

If you think about running a giveaway or sweepstake, custom items are always the perfect item!

Check out our items with no minimum!

FOLLOW UPS

When you’re giving away promotional items at a trade show, make sure you do it in exchange for an email address.

People WILL wait in line for a FREE item!

This is the best time to build up your list in person.

The cool part about these events too is that you can communicate with your potential customers right away after the event.

You’ll have every right to send them an email since they gave you their information.

Plus, you can make it personal by adding information from the event that only both of you would know.

Followup with them and ask them about their needs.

It’s just like a relationship, wait too long after the first date to contact them again and the fire disappears.

Don’t wait long to follow up with a potential customer!

INCLUDE DISCOUNT ON ITEMS

Think about it, how many times do you see people pass around business cards?

All the time!

People save the business card and contact the person later.

If you use this same idea with promotional items it may just work.

All you would have to do is pass out promotional items that include your offer to random people outside.

We know the food industry already does this with a random person standing outside with food samples, so why not try it with promotional items?

It’s a great idea to test out to see if it works well with your business or not.

Plus once they shop, they’ll be added into your email list as a new customer.

It’s a great project to try out for small businesses and e-commerce companies.

These are just a few ideas I thought of and AnyPromo has also implemented.

Promotional items are just useful in many ways to get your brand name out in the world!

Combining marketing techniques can help achieve your goals much faster.

What do you think about these ideas? Ready to give them a go?