Growing Your Brand With Corporate Gifting (and Calculating ROI)

A study by the Advertising Specialty Institute found that "promotional products are one of the most impactful and cost-effective advertising mediums for businesses."

9/10 of people recall the name of a company that has given them a promotional product. That’s an astonishingly convincing statistic for business owners and marketers!

So why aren’t more businesses leveraging this business growth hack?

One of the main reasons businesses don't invest in corporate gifting or branded promo items is the perceived upfront cost. And yes, depending on what items you choose, the upfront cost can be significant.

This article challenges you to think about the return on investment – or ROI – which is not as easy to measure as the ROI of other marketing activities.

Calculating the ROI on promo items is heavily focussed on impressions – the number of people who are likely to see your branded product. Here's how it works...

No. of Items x Cost Per Item = Total Spend

Impressions Per Product x No. of Items = Total Impressions

Total Spend / Total Impressions = Cost Per Impression

Let's break this down in a simple case study:

250 x $3 = $750

50 x 250 = 12,500

$750 / 12,500 = $0.06 per impression

To put that into perspective… the average CPC for Facebook advertising across all industries in 2019 (June) was $1.72.

The trick is finding the right products to promote your business. Here’s a few tips on how to do that…

Know your target audience

Prick promotional products that your target audience will enjoy or find useful. Go through each promo / gift item and figure out which ones are related to your business and which ones are not.

Set your budget

Some promotional products will be more expensive than others so it’s important to work out what you can achieve for your budget. Pro tip: Delegate! Get an expert in procurement like T.U.S to do all the leg work for you!

Choose high quality

Whatever your budget, the research is clear that is the promo item or gift are to be used for an extended period, the quality needs to be there. Choose as high quality as you can afford.

Include your branding

Leverage the marketing potential of your promo item or gift and include your corporate branding and any other information that is relevant or of specific interest to your customer.

Don’t forget about distribution

Think about how the product needs to be distributed in case postage will impact on your budget or other logistics. Another consideration is where you will store them, as promo items can often be bulky. Talk to us about our warehousing services to check this one off your list.

The top 10 buyers of promo products are from the following industries:

• Education

• Hospitality

• Corporate Businesses

• Healthcare

• Not-For-Profit

• Construction

• Government

• Trade & Professional Associations

• Real Estate

• Automotive & Logistics

Corporate gifts and Promo items are relevant for just about every type of business in any industry. And remember they can help your business with the Four R's... Recall, Reputation, Retention and ROI.

Some of the most popular items include branded writing instruments, clothing, bags, drink ware, headwear, calendars, desk accessories, USB drives and umbrellas. When it comes to branded gifting, the choices are virtually endless. Total Uniform Solutions have over a decade of procurement experience, so we know where to source even the most unusual gifts!

Download our 30+ page Corporate Gifting Guide to find out how you can make corporate gifting and branded promo products work for your business.