5 Powerful Impacts of Promotional Products and Branded Giveaways

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Promotional Products|5 Powerful Impacts of Promotional Products and Branded GiveawaysThe promotional products industry is big for a reason. In the US alone, companies spent over 24.2 billion U.S. dollars on promotional products. Successful businesses don’t overlook its powerful impacts and you shouldn’t overlook it as well. If you’ve been solely pouring marketing budget on digital ads, think again. Promotional products and branded giveaways are so effective and impactful and your business shouldn’t miss out on their benefits.

What are promotional products and branded giveaways?

Promotional products and branded giveaways are simple gifts. They are trinkets used by big and small companies to promote their service or product. Due to the global pandemic, face masks are currently the most popular promotional items. They’re closely followed by environmentally-friendly products, USB drives, outerwear, tote bags, and t-shirts. You don’t have to spend much on promotional products as you can also opt to giveaway pens, magnets, key chains, and other useful items. All promotional products, may they be big or small, bring in the same powerful marketing impacts.

5 Powerful Impacts of Promotional Products and Branded Giveaways

1. Instant Brand Ambassadors

Giving out promotional products makes people your instant brand ambassadors. They would end up using your item and you will always get free advertisement when they do. It’s not actually free as you spend it but this kind of advertising is something that can go on for many years and give you much value for your money. People keep promotional products for as long as eight months. The more useful the product is, the longer people use them. Given away umbrellas were even recorded to be used for 14 months. Hats were recorded to only last for seven months.

People also tend to give away promotional products that they receive so your simple branding move will truly go a long way. The more people your items reach, the better.

2. Good Branding Impression

Promotional products and branded giveaways give people the impression that your company cares. It creates a sense of community as people will deem your brand as helpful and considerate. Promotional products and branded giveaways create solid brand impressions that no other marketing strategy can match. Nothing is more effective than little acts of kindness that go a long way. It’s truly the little things that matter. If you want to make people know about your business and you want to make them feel that you care, you should invest in promotional products and branded giveaways.

3. Tangibility

Tangibility is supreme when it comes to having a solid presence. Nothing is more engaging than physical presence. Branded giveaways and promotional products, no matter their size, give that. They are tangible.

Consumers have evolved. They can now easily ignore almost all forms of advertising. As promotional products are tangible, it’s impossible to have them ignored. They give a recall rate of 85% because people can touch and feel them. Such tangibility is so much more effective and powerful than TV commercials and digital ads. If you want creative ideas on different promotional products and branded giveaways that you can utilize, you should check out Bladon WA.

4. Recall Rate

Data revealed that 85% of consumers remember businesses that gave them a hat or shirt. While a study on trade show attendees revealed that people remembered companies that gave branded giveaways and promotional products. Of the trade show attendees, 76% were recorded to have a good impression of companies that gave away useful items, tokens, and small trinkets.

This is something that no digital ad or TV commercial can do. The sense of tangibility is strong and it gets all the more impactful when it’s added with functionality. The more functional an item is, the stronger the positive impression it creates. People will truly appreciate your brand if they feel cared for.

5. Value for money

Spending on promotional products and branded giveaways bring so much value for your money. They last long and reach such a wide audience. Unlike TV commercials that can only air for a limited time, promotional products and branded giveaways can provide promotion 24/7. This is the case even if it’s just a pen or a face mask that we’re talking about.

In the case of a pen, your brand will always get promoted every time it is used. Even the simple fact that it’s found on a table already creates a strong impact. The more often your product or brand is seen, the more familiar it will become to people. Customer loyalty can be easily affected when a brand or product is familiar.

Every company’s goal is to make its brand or product familiar. Because in marketing, the goal is to simply make people know that your company or product exists. When consumers know that your company or product exists, they can then have the option to engage with you. The more familiar a product, the higher the rate of engagement. Familiarity breeds trust. Imagine that? All that for a simple pen? It’s simply amazing.

Level Up Your Game with Promotional Products and Branded Giveaways

Don’t miss out on the powerful marketing benefits of branded giveaways and promotional products. You should never overlook the positive branding benefits that they can bring to your business. When choosing a promotional product, opt for ones that are useful and durable. The more useful and durable they are, the more long-lasting the marketing benefits will be.

References:

Promotional products industry sales
https://www.statista.com/statistics/732818/promotional-products-industry-sales-usa/

Most Popular Promotional Items in 2021
https://www.godelta.com/blog/what-are-the-most-popular-promotional-items-infographic

Effectiveness of Promotional Products
https://www.idworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Effectiveness-of-Promo-products-2.pdf

How to save money and time with the right software products

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | How to save money and time with the right software productsTo be on top of everything in the nowadays market demands a lot of work with yourself and adaptability. Moreover, if you own a business, you want to grow your business as fast as possible with all the instruments. So how can you save time to focus on the essential things of your business? And how can you save money by using the right software product?

Benefits of software products for businesses

Let’s begin with how people consume and purchase more and more software products, whether they own a business or for personal use. Moreover, the pandemic has increased the demand with all the work-from-home habits. And people are trying to find the right tool that will help them find their balance between work and personal life. As a result, many types of software products on the market are dedicated to so many industries that can meet our needs.

Thus, using a software product can bring real value to your life and company. First of all, you can save time, time that you can use to focus on the business part instead of organizing your team and projects. Instead of having regular meetings, you can use a project management tool like Monday.com, Asana, Teamwork, Trello, or Notion. Moreover, there is a lot of automation tool that will automize all your repetitive tasks. So, your employee can save time, and you can let them be more creative on other projects.

But first, you have to know what your needs are or your company’s needs. So how do you find out what are your needs? If you don’t know how to choose what is suitable for you, you can always visit a software aggregator to read honest reviews.

Secondly, using the right software product can save you money. There are a lot of products designed to reduce your costs on specific tasks. For example, there a lot of accounting tools that can help you with your taxes and invoices. So instead of paying a dedicated bookkeeper, you can choose a great tool and purchase a subscription that will be cheaper than paying a professional doing it.

Read honest reviews on dedicated websites

If you are unsure which tool is better for your needs, you can always do a little research and inform better. As a solution for this, you can always read dedicated websites like Tekpon.com, a software aggregator where users can find the best solution for their business or personal need. This website offers its users honest reviews about all sorts of software products that will help them boost their business and personal life by improving their productivity, saving time and money, from project management software, content marketing, productivity, financial, network security, e-commerce software, and so on. Everything you need in one place. Moreover, they offer great deals and coupons to purchase the tools you want and need. Also, you can read on Tekpon.com the latest news in the tech and software industry. One of Tekpon’s goals is to offer users all over the world honest reviews on each product to ease their job in making the right decision. Thus, they want to help people and their businesses to boost their business with the right software products.

Grow your business with the right software product

The software industry has been designed products over the years to help people save time, as we live in the age of speed. And also save money to invest in what matters for your company. These two are the main benefits detailed above. But how else the right software can help us grow a company or even ourselves, professionally speaking? You can now manage things that you would not know before. For example, let’s say that you need help with your Social Media accounts, and you don’t know anything about how algorithms work for each platform. If you want to hire a Social Media Specialists, you will need a great budget, more than if you invest in a software product that will help you. The significant part of this is that you don’t have to learn how the platforms work; the tools will automatically deliver you the right insights to understand your customer/followers’ behavior and do the job.

If you don’t understand the importance of purchasing software products, don’t worry. Precisely that’s the reason why websites like Tekpon.com came to light. To help you understand your needs in the actual context where every business is going digital, deliver you the right solution, and help you get the best of your product. So many great tools are designed to ease people’s lives and offer them more time to do the things that matters to them.

Time and money are two vital elements for a business and the owner. And using the right tools will give you back; time to focus on the things you couldn’t before and money to invest in growing your company further. And not only for business owners but also for their employees; if you want to help them be more productive and work better and in a healthier environment, purchasing the right tools is the key to a successful team and business.

How To Take The Stress Out Of Running A Business

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Running a Business|How To Take The Stress Out Of Running A BusinessFrom time to time, the responsibility that comes with running your own company is bound to make even the most competent business person feel overwhelmed or burned out. However, while stress is often unavoidable, you shouldn’t be feeling this way all of the time. After all, prolonged stress can impact your health, while significantly incapacitating your business and ability to succeed.

Therefore, here are some top tips that you can use to take the stress out of running a business.

Work as part of a team. While, as a business owner, you should be prepared to take on a great deal of work, you also shouldn’t try to do everything yourself. After all, it’s unlikely that you’ll be the best candidate for every role in your company, and spreading yourself too thin will result in a lack of productivity and efficiency that will only harm your business. Therefore, one way in which you can reduce your stress levels is by focusing on hiring new employees. This allows you to delegate tasks fairly, in accordance with each employee’s strengths, and means that you can focus on other elements of your business.

Furthemore, you can improve employee productivity (thus reducing your stress) by ensuring that you are a great employer who inspires and excites your employees.

Find a way to automate certain operations. Sometimes, workplace stress derives from the fact that you are feeling overwhelmed, or as though you have too many tasks to complete within a certain timeframe. Therefore, you can easily eliminate this issue by finding a way to automate certain tasks, such as client invoicing and administrative duties.

While this could again include expanding your workforce, you should also look into software that can do these tasks on your behalf, or work with a software development company.

Give yourself a break. As a business owner, it’s important that you hold yourself accountable for your actions and continue to find ways to grow and develop your business. However, it’s also important that you give yourself a break to refresh and decompress. For example, you should ensure that you are not working seven days a week, without any breaks. While this may seem counterproductive (especially when your to-do list is ever-growing), taking a break can help sharpen your mind and ensures that you will work more productively moving forward. Cultivating a work-life balance will also help you bring down your stress levels.

Make the most of your time. Another way in which you can reduce workplace stress is by ensuring that you better manage your time. Thankfully, there are various ways in which you can do this, whether you seek out ways to make meetings more succinct and impactful or put together a daily schedule. Good time management will also encourage you to get work done in a timely manner, as opposed to leaving an important task until the last possible minute. Another way in which you can more effectively manage your time is by starting off your day with the task you are dreading the most, instead of planing to do it later.

How to Start Your Own Business Online

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StrategyDriven Starting Your Business Article |Start an Online Business|How to Start Your Own Business OnlineAn online business, no matter how lucrative or appealing it may look, comes with its own set of challenges and it is often planning that helps launch and sustain any business, even if it is online. Similar to traditional business, there are key requisites that one has to meet before they plan on starting a business.

Good research and ideation is the beginning of any business, and several other aspects are important to determine before starting something, even on a small scale. Online businesses have a low barrier to entry and that is often the reason that most miss planning the key aspects and end up losing profits or creating the distinction for their brand online.

Fixate on the business idea

This step might seem like a no-brainer but it is important to fixate on an idea that is backed by proper research and is a result of proper planning. The important question to ask is as follows:

  • What are the strengths of my business idea?
  • Why is it important to contribute the product/services
  • What are the strengths of my idea?
  • What can be the potential risks of starting the business?
  • What problems is my product/service solving?
  • Who must be the target consumers?
  • Where must my business be present?

Business research writers from Paper Writing Pro say that upon asking some of these questions, it gets easy to determine the strength of the idea and spend considerable time solving the weak areas of the business idea. The first step is proper planning and research of an idea and determination of its potential success rates.

Decide on a name

The thing to keep in mind while deciding a name for your online business is the fact that it must be related and easy to pronounce. Think of exciting names for your business and decide according to the target group. Create a name and design a logo that is easy to recollect and creates a mark in the crowd of many such online businesses.

Carry out a quick search to check if the selected names are not taken already. If this step was missed, you might stand a chance to face legal allegations and procedures owing to copyright issues.

Validate the Idea

It’s often helpful to run a pilot project to validate the idea and the expected success rates. Start by evaluating your idea and upon confirmation, reach out to a small group of people to conduct a dry run. Observe their reactions and opinions closely to narrow them down according to the results.

Make use of technology and create a landing page and list down all important attributes of the product/service. Keep a close watch on the reactions, page landing and study the demographics of the traffic that the page generates.

Most people starting a business online seldom focus on a pilot and focus all efforts on launching a full-fledged business. Upon failure of the idea, the investment goes into waste, leading to a failed business when not backed by sting R&D.

Determine Funding

It is essential to determine and list down the finances required to initiate and run an online business. Determine the major cost heads and go ahead with a financial plan. There are multiple ways of funding. The first way to consider is self-investment. Self-investment also requires the need to determine the sustainability of the business with the funds available.

To upscale a business, you may need additional funding and that can come from outside sources by way of investors. Keeping a strong business plan ready makes a difference in nudging the interest of the potential investor.

Create and share a strong business plan, idea, and pitch to attract them towards funding your startup business. There are multiple series of funding and as the business grows, you could move ahead in funding levels to create a successful and profitable business.

Have collaterals in place

An online business is most reliant on a website and e-commerce listings. Invest the time in creating a powerful and appealing website. Find ways to create a pull strategy that gets the target consumers to check your website. Packaging makes for an important factor and, with the long list of online businesses, creates a certain distinction for easy identification of your online business.

It is also essential to plan the online platform you’d want the business to appear at first. Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are great mediums to leverage the audience and reach out to more people at the same time. If you are looking to sell products online, invest in a good photoshoot of the products and display them on all your online mediums.

An important thing to determine is whether you’d like to create a personal identity by way of a website or you are looking to reach out to the masses by way of e-commerce presence and listings. Once the business scales up, you could even participate in multiple e-commerce marketplaces to increase visibility and reach out to a larger consumer base at the same time.

Make the business legal

A crucial step is to legalize the presence of the business. Even if an online business, there are set regulations and legal issues as per your country’s laws and regulations. Read up on the legalities attached to the nature of your online business. The first step of all-registering your business online. The next step is to determine the tax regulations about the industry of operation.

Setting up the legal structure is important as it protects your business from online frauds, completion, and most of all with forgery and cases of duplication. Copyright your logo and products.

Look for brand partnerships and affiliations

Brand partnerships and collaborations are good ways to increase monetization and towards creating popular products/services. Get into affiliate partnerships with leading e-commerce brands to amplify the visibility of your business online. Cross-marketing with established brands can help a great deal in navigating consumers towards your business and its offerings.

When you plan to step into partnerships, establish a clear representation of your business and its particular offerings to avoid creating confusion in the minds of potential customers. Involve third-party apps and platforms that are authentic and have a good consumer base. Do check reviews and recommendations of the third party before getting into business together.

Improve the credit score of the business

You may consider taking loans to secure the future of your online business. To receive the loan grants with ease, focus on improving and maintaining your company’s and personal credit scores. A poor credit score may restrict the growth of the business beyond a point and create difficulty in taking external financial help.

The key aspect to keep in mind is that the growth of a business happens when the future is well determined and thought of. Think long-term ways and efforts to sustain your online business.

The bottom line

The launching of an online business is similar to launching a traditional business and most of the key aspects remain similar. It is important to consider and lay importance to get it right and making substantial efforts to increase the share of voice in the online market and attracting target consumers to purchase from your business. After a business launches, there is a need for effort to upscaling the business. A good online business can reach consumers on a large scale, offering immense growth opportunities when business plans are made with great research, a strong focus on the offerings, and determination to solve for consumer needs.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Tiffany HarperTiffany Harper is an experienced corporate sector writer, who sometimes helps as an expert to ninjaessay. She specializes in entrepreneurial development and start-up strategies. If you need essay help or business advice, don’t hesitate to contact her. When Tiffany is not working she is writing her book about self-growth and self-motivation.

4 Ways To Boost Employee Morale

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Employee Morale|4 Ways To Boost Employee MoraleYour employees are the backbone and foundation of your company. Without them, it’ll be hard to reach your goals and excel in your role as the boss and owner. It’s in your best interest to build a strong connection with each person you hire.

It’s costly to have to keep replacing employees who aren’t happy or the right fit. Therefore, it’s wise and also necessary to do what you can to keep them around for the long term. The following tips and ideas will help you learn how to boost employee morale and ensure your staff is satisfied and productive.

1. Show You Care

You must show your employees you care daily if you want them to perform well and be happy at your workplace. You can express your appreciation for all their hard work by lending an open ear, giving out specific compliments, offering opportunities for growth, and having an open-door policy. Don’t be afraid to speak up and thank your staff members for doing a good job and for all their efforts. A small gesture can go a long way in helping you boost employee morale. Be transparent and communicate clearly and often to keep everyone happy and on the same page.

2. Offer Attractive Benefits

Another way to boost employee morale is to offer attractive benefits at your company. While you should compensate them well and fairly, there are also other ideas worth considering. For example, you may want to have a game room where they can go relax and regroup or you can offer daycare at your work facility so it’s a friendly and welcoming environment for working parents. In this case, you may want to consider installing a playground rubber mat the kids can run around on and enjoy. You may also want to think about giving your employees days off once in a while or taking them out for a meal to treat them.

3. Ask for Feedback

You can boost employee morale by getting employee feedback and making them feel heard. Not only gather input from your staff but then make positive changes based on their comments and responses. Show you’re listening by adjusting how you operate and manage based on their remarks. They’ll appreciate you taking the time to hear them out and that you’re taking their opinions seriously. Let their feedback guide you to creating a calm, healthy, and organized environment where people want to work.

4. Train Your Staff

Your employees will perform better and be more satisfied at work when you take the time to train them. Offer training as part of the onboarding process and keep it going by rolling out additional opportunities for learning and development throughout the year. Your employees will not only feel more confident and prepared to do their jobs but there will likely be fewer mistakes and safety issues and accidents to deal with when you train them. You must also train your managers so that they can then take over and ensure the other staff members know what they’re doing.