Boosting Your Business Swag
Businesses do a lot to advertise. From creative banners to video walls and retail digital displays and business swag, there is no end to the ways they attempt to capture a consumer’s attention. This is especially true for local businesses. Over 70% of people who did a local search, went on to visit a store within 5 miles of their location.
Business swag, or more professionally, “promotional merchandise, is a great way to capture attention and keep your business in the back of peoples minds. Swag can include anything from t-shirts, key chains, backpacks, hats, and even socks. So how do you make the most out of business swag? And how does it actually help your business?
Swag Marketing
Lets face it – people love free stuff. Especially when that stuff is useful, like a t-shirt or a key lanyard. Because of this, swag helps businesses form an emotional connection with their audience and creates high engagement. Additionally, swag can increase brand recognition, which is important for new brands and old brands alike.
Brand recognition is probably the most crucial factor of long term stability for a company. People tend to choose things that are familiar to them, even if they are only familiar on an unconscious level. Having people around town wearing your business swag helps create familiarity in peoples minds. Additionally, your business probably isn’t something people need at every moment, however, when they DO need it, you want to be the first one they think of. Imagine you are a restaurant and someone is hungry. If that hungry person walks past someone else who is wearing a t-shirt with your brand, that will highly influence the chances of them showing up to eat at your place.
Because swag is often worn, it is free promotion for your business. Yes, you have the small upfront cost of printing a t-shirt or some other item. Every single time that shirt is worn, that is free advertising for you. People love sporting brands they care about as it gives them a way to belong to a tribe of people who love similar things. Wearing your business swag gives someone a reason to talk about your business, and people enjoy sharing things they like with those around them.
Word of mouth just works. Promotional merchandise is a form of word of mouth advertising. Somebody wearing your brand speaks just as loudly as them recommending it verbally to another person.
Having business swag also allows you to market your business in very creative ways. Its a great alternative to being annoying interrupted while listening to Pandora or Spotify and is so much more refreshing than glaring billboards. Additionally, swag sees the light of day frequently. Items such as business cards are important, however business cards often get tucked away and forgotten. Because swag has utility as a hat or a shirt, it is used again and again, increasing brand awareness and promotion.
Having business swag can also increase customer loyalty. Loyalty can be increased by swag in two ways. First, a customer can feel grateful for the free merchandise, and to show that gratitude will return again and again to your business. Second, the more someone wears your swag, the more they have to like you. This is a cognitive trick called “dissonance.” Dissonance states that if a person has a belief and an action that are not in harmony, one of the two must change. How this translates into swag, is that the more a person wears your swag, they begin to believe that they like your company more and more (to justify wearing the swag).
So get creative and have some fun. Create swag for your business today and start taking advantages of the many benefits. Use swag giveaways within the company to boost employee morale, use swag with customers to show your gratitude. One last important note with company merchandise: it is a reflection of your business. High quality is the way to go. it may cost slightly more, however, that is how a person will associate your business. High quality merch means a high quality business. Low quality merch means a low quality business.
