Promotional Products that Really Work: Top 10 Advertising Products

Promotional products are huge. It’s practically impossible to think of a successful business that doesn’t have some sort of promo product, be it nothing more than the standard branded pens.

Before you decide to make the leap into promo products, make sure that you have some idea of what “branding” means. Build your company image with a well-designed logo and standard slogan. Your company brand can be enhanced by promo products, but you must have a good logo to start with.


What are Promotional Products, and Do They Work?

In simplest terms, promo products are useful or decorative items – merchandise – imprinted with a company’s name, logo, or slogan and used in marketing campaigns. The most common promo items are pens, mugs, and mouse pads.

Baylor University conducted a study on promo products, to survey how effective they actually are. In the study, 3,000 school administrators were divided into three groups and sent a specific type of mailing. The first group received a simple envelope with a sales letter and business reply card. The second group received an envelope with the same sales letter and reply card, but they also were given a promotional product. The last group received all of the contents that the second group did, but their mail was delivered in a box instead of an envelope.

How did it turn out? Actually, the results were impressive: the administrators who received the box of goodies responded at a rate 75% higher than those who received only the sales letter, and 57% higher than those who received their goodies in an envelope.

Another study, conducted by Southern Methodist University, explored the role that promo items play in gaining repeat customers. After two separate studies, their results showed that customers who received promotional products returned sooner, more often, and spent more money than customers who received dollars-off coupons.