#i think it came from a new caledonia phone number?

[wingsofninewheels]

Did anyone else get this Shining Nikki jellyfish suit ad in their voicemail?

[servaxo]

How to make your mark with advertising giveaways

When you hear the word advertising, what do you picture? A billboard on the side of the highway? A TV commercial? A page in a magazine?

A promotional product?

When creating your next marketing budget, you may want to consider adding promotional items to your marketing mix. According to PPAI, promo products are the most effective form of advertising—more than broadcast, mobile, online or print. And Canadians say promo items are their favourite form of advertising.

In this Blue Paper, we’ll talk about why advertising giveaways work so well, and discuss the advantages of classic, contemporary and co-branded advertising promotional items.

  The power of promotional items

We know advertising giveaways are effective, but what makes them work so well?

1. Promotional products are in it for the long haul

Think about how many computer pop-up ads, magazine pages or 30-second TV commercials people see each day. Now think about how much time they spend processing those ads. While people might recall an especially entertaining or insightful ad, most advertising goes by so fast it is often forgotten.

Promotional products have incredible staying power, with people holding on to them for an average of eight months.

2. Promo items promote brand memory

People don’t just keep and use promotional items—they remember where they came from. While studies have shown that brand recognition from video ads drop by half overnight, an impressive 85 percent of recipients remember what company gave them a piece of apparel like a shirt or hat.

3. They create goodwill

In a world where people fast-forward, click “skip” and flip pages to avoid advertising, promotional products continue to create excitement. In fact, getting a promotional product affects how people view a brand. Remember that 82 percent of recipients view a brand favourably after receiving a promotional product. Moreover, 83 percent of recipients are more likely to do business with a company after receiving one.

What truly makes advertising promotional items stand out is that they are more than just information—they’re a gift. They show appreciation and gratitude.

  Picking the perfect giveaway

Now that we’ve talked about why advertising promotional products work, it’s time to find the perfect promotional product for your brand.

When choosing an advertising promotional product, keep in mind your goal is for the recipient to keep the item for as long as possible. People hold on to promotional products that are:

Fun

Functional

Trendy

As you choose your promotional product, be sure to remember:

Your budget

Your target market

The number of giveaways you need

How the item will represent your brand

Narrowing down the choices

With so many advertising promotional items to choose from, finding something that will keep your company top of mind can be difficult. Refine your search by considering these categories: contemporary (products that are hot now), co-branded (products from a popular brand) and classics (items that never go out of style).

Contemporary

Show your company’s relevance by choosing a promotional product that is hot right now. When fashion trends and fun items like message boards start showing up on shelves at your local store, it’s likely you can tap into those trends for a standout promotional product.

Having trendy advertising giveaways can help you make positive impressions in several ways.

It can turn your table into the place to be at a trade show or event.

It can demonstrate that your business is keeping up with the times.

Customers often appreciate and are excited by trendy items, so they’ll be more likely to keep them.

Fashion forward

Fashion is ever changing and so is your brand. Stay up to date with the market by selecting products that feature the hottest trends, like heather fabric. Or take advantage of the return of the fanny pack—this time as a sling bag. Fashion-forward advertising promotional products are sure to be popular. And because they are trendy and current, your recipient will likely want to show them off at home or at the office.

The must-have item

Having a hot item on hand is a simple way to catch the attention of attendees at a trade show. It’s also a good way to show gratitude to customers and employees when used as a thank-you gift.

Right now, Qi® wireless charging pads are a must-have tech product. With so many smartphones being created with wireless charging technology, these types of products will only grow in popularity. That makes wireless chargers a good bet for your brand.

PopSockets® have become an extremely popular accessory, something Liz Blackburn discovered when her college started handing out the PopSockets Phone Stand – Full Colour.

“Because they were trendy, I was seeing more and more people using them,” said Blackburn, the Operations Manager at the College of New Caledonia in Prince George, B.C. “In particular, my boss was using one and recommending them to everyone and they were buying them.”

The college purchased a branded version for on-campus staff, and quickly realized demand was higher than expected. “When we would go to another campus for meetings, staff members would be asking where [the PopSockets] came from. So, we had to send them to those staff members as well,” Blackburn said.

When their recruiters saw how popular they were, PopSockets were added to the list of promotional items to hand out to potential students. “When students come to visit, they get one and it reminds them to do things like check on their admission status,” Blackburn said.

Co-branding

If you want to take your advertising giveaway to the next level, consider pairing your name with a well-known brand. Many companies are now offering to co-brand promotional products.

Under Armour® is one of them. Currently the fourth best-selling sporting goods manufacturer in the world, their high-quality line include shirts, bags and more. Since these products are already popular, there’s a very strong chance an Under Armour promotional product will be used frequently. If you brand an Under Armour bag with your logo, for example, your name will get more attention.

The classics

Eighty-two percent of Canadians keep promotional items because they’re useful. That’s a major reason why classic promotional items remain popular. Other reasons include:

They’re available in a variety of price ranges, from high-end to budget-friendly.

They are available in a variety of colours, so it’s easy to match your brand or show off your logo.

Many have trendy variations, allowing you to tie a useful classic to a fun contemporary promotion.

According to one study, the three most popular promotional items in Canada are:

Writing instruments

From the budget pencil to the high-end pen, every writing instrument generates almost 3,000 impressions, making them an ideal way to provide customers with your contact information.

Just ask April Molloy, a CSR/Administrator for Encore Metals in Winnipeg, Man. She’s been using the Paper Mate® Sport Pen as a giveaway for several years.

“We have multiple generations of these pens,” Molloy said. “We’ve gone through pretty much every colour and translucent one available. I like to tell customers they’re limited edition,” she says with a laugh.

The pens are kept in the shipping department, where drivers are encouraged to use them to sign forms and take them when they need them. “They have our logo and company website. Customers take them and hold on to them, so they always have our information on hand,” Molloy said.

Shirts

Polo shirts are a great way to create a polished, uniform look for your employees. And they can be worn outside the office to further promote your brand. Comfortable T-shirts make great gifts to thank customers for their business.

Bags

Bags turn your brand into a billboard. Each one generates more than 4,700 impressions. And bags come in a wide variety of price points. You can give high-end bags to your employees who need to carry their laptops or you can hand out simple tote bags to customers at an event. Either way, bags are sure to please.

  Promotional giveaways are the ads people want

What makes advertising giveaways so special is that they are more than ads—they’re also gifts. By finding the right promotional item, you can turn that gift into thousands of brand impressions.

The post How to make your mark with advertising giveaways appeared first on 4imprint Learning Center.

How to make your mark with advertising giveaways published first on https://getyourlogos.tumblr.com/

[jessette20]

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As a small business owner, you only have so much time to focus on social media. Marketing is rarely given full-time focus in a small business. Instead, it’s wrapped up into other necessary coverage like sales, content development and design.

Where do you draw the line of knowing what’s necessary and what’s not? In this guide, we’ll provide a selection of Twitter tips all geared for a small business.

To get an overall understanding of using social media as a small business, check out our thorough guide here.

Is Twitter useful for small businesses?

So is Twitter useful for small businesses? The answer is that it depends on your industry, your audience and your available resources. Twitter’s own study explored their audience’s behavior and how it impacts brands.

It found that Twitter users, compared to the general online population, were more likely to discover new things, were more open-minded and they like being the first to try new things.

In addition, when it came to products and services, Twitter users in the US had a positive influence index across most demographics and topics. So if your small business’ target audience fits within Twitter demographics, then it’s probable that Twitter could be useful for you. You’ll be able to get in touch with an audience that values experiences and influences their network of follower, which can make them receptive to your brand and potential advocates for it.

Let’s move on to how you can get the most out of Twitter as a small business.

Pick three goals

Setting social media goals is necessary for any network that you take on. If you don’t have goals, then you don’t have metrics and that leads to sporadic posts. Choose three to focus on. Any more will divide your time and affect your focus.

The more common goals for Twitter include:

Increase direct sales

Become a customer support channel

Increase brand awareness

Track industry trends

Once you have these in mind, write them down and determine your metrics, such as mentions or link clicks. These metrics will come in handy later when you’re taking a look at your analytics reports.

Use social monitoring to find customers

Social monitoring is tracking what people are saying about you (or someone else) online. It can be used to find new sales leads, track customer sentiment and even check in on what your competitors are doing.

Social monitoring also helps improve your content sourcing, one of the most time consuming parts of social media management. Learn how to use Twitter advanced search to set up parameters for your brand that will help you stay on top of even indirect mentions of your business.

The Sprout Smart Inbox feature comes in handy here for searching across multiple networks. Enter brand keywords and common search terms associated with your brand and the messages will display right along with any @mentions. So even if someone doesn’t mention your brand by name or misspells it, you’ll still be there to help them out.

For small businesses, you might have only one or two locations to focus on. Another handy search function is searching location tagged Tweets with a set mile radius. If you’re a burger restaurant and someone Tweets about “need burger rec” within 2 miles of your zip code, the message will come in and you’ll be right there to offer your restaurant up.

Takeaway: Automating your social monitoring comes in handy because you don’t have time to chase down every lead. Have the leads come to you.

If you’d like to try out these search parameters but don’t have Sprout Social, you can save your searches in Twitter or sign up for a demo.

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Take advantage of native Twitter media

Twitter favors media that is uploaded to its own platform over sharing from another. If you have a photo that you want to share, it’s better to upload it than to post a link. Twitter photos and videos receive a larger preview treatment while photo links have smaller ones. A native video may automatically begin playing for a user while a YouTube link still requires someone to click through.

Wild and wise, Muthonjo is a powerful, deep coffee layered in ripe cherry sweetness, and lingering savory, mineral complexity. Read more about the story behind this coffee at the link in bio, or tap to buy. pic.twitter.com/f4zGOqW7s6

— MADCAP COFFEE (@madcapcoffee) November 8, 2018

An eye-catching photo or video goes a long way when you’re scrolling down your timeline. Madcap’s photography is used in most of their Tweets. You can’t miss them.

Marketers are planning to spend more on video ads because they work. Even without the ad part, video Tweets are six times more likely to be Retweeted than photo Tweets and three times more likely to be Retweeted than GIFs.

One study examined Twitter ad video lengths and placements. It found that regardless of length, in-feed video ads were effective in communicating a brand’s message, being informative and creating a buzz.

Takeaway: Upload your media natively to Twitter. Adding video ads to your Twitter strategy will help increase brand awareness. This is great for new product launches or informational campaigns.

Reuse & repurpose your content

As mentioned before, sourcing content takes time. Make it easier on yourself by repurposing your existing brand content. Due to the nature of a fast-moving timeline, a Tweet doesn’t last very long on Twitter. This means that your followers might not have seen what you Tweeted even five hours ago.

To combat this, don’t be afraid to Tweet the same content several times over the course of a week, month or even year if it’s evergreen. For each Tweet with the same content, switch up the featured media or text that’s accompanying it.

Using an easy scheduling software like Sprout cuts down on time. You can queue or schedule your Tweets on Monday and rest easy for the rest of the week.

Recent changes at Twitter mean that they’re cracking down on spam and spam-like content.

4/ So, we’re working on providing you with an easily accessible way to switch between a timeline of Tweets that are most relevant for you and a timeline of the latest Tweets. You’ll see us test this in the coming weeks.

— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) September 17, 2018

The new Twitter timeline features “In case you missed it” and “best Tweets” sections that favors Tweets from accounts you’ve interacted with before or Tweets that Twitter thinks you’ll like. This section might help out your business but don’t count on it to be your only tactic. In fact, Twitter already responded to user feedback by offering an option to turn this section off.

Takeaway: Tweet your content and tweet it often, again.

Set aside time for content sourcing

Your content does not have to be solely branded. Separate your content sourcing and your scheduling time. Content sourcing includes finding relevant industry news, blog posts and learning industry trends.

Identify the news and publications that are most relevant to your industry. Set up alerts for these sources or add them into your RSS reader. For your brand, set up keyword alerts. And for the hot topics of your industry, take a look at your timeline to see what everyone else is talking about.

The easiest way to see what today’s topic is is to add every new follow to a list. Do you have some major influencers in the food industry? Add them to a private list. Check this VIP list often for new content to Retweet.

Sprout makes it easy for you to find content. The Find Content feature highlights the viral pieces of content in the major industries. Use this to see what people are talking about, how popular it is and compose without ever leaving the window.

If you use Feedly to connect your RSS readers, you can easily use one of their integrations, including Sprout, to schedule your Tweets.

Takeaway: Use automation like an RSS reader or keyword alerts to get content relevant content delivered to you instead of searching for it. Set time aside to source this content.

Decide on your brand voice

Your brand voice is what will make you stand out from the crowd and compete with the bigger brands. Our guide here will help you develop your unique brand voice. This strategy only takes commitment. You don’t need to Tweet often, you just need to stay consistent.

We have been informed that the agricultural cycle of nuts and legumes is NOT what this month is about and we are deeply, profoundly sorry. https://t.co/HmKqBlx1z4

— Berkeley Bowl, Friend to Persimmons (@BerkeleyBowl) November 5, 2018

Look, sometimes you gotta squeeze 'em before you buy 'em. If your touch becomes a fondle though, you're gonna have to leave the store. https://t.co/YGHGEURRHo

— Berkeley Bowl, Friend to Persimmons (@BerkeleyBowl) October 9, 2018

Berkeley Bowl is a supermarket that is known for its snarky and funny Tweets. You wouldn’t think a supermarket would have a brand voice, but theirs handles it well.

Takeaway: Creating a brand voice will help you stand out in the timeline. A little snark and humor goes over well on Twitter.

Match your profile page to your goals

This may sound like a generic Twitter tip but it’s especially important for small businesses. Do you want to increase your sales via Twitter? The make sure people know who you are, what you’re selling and how to buy it. You can put your shop link into your bio or pin it to the top of your profile page. Don’t forget that your cover photo and profile photo provide ample room for you to get your message across.

Do you want people to Tweet more about your brand? Add your branded hashtag into your bio like Braxton Brewing Company did. The company also pinned an upcoming event at the top of their page. It’s a direct sale page for tickets and will be there for anyone to easily see when they visit their profile.

Takeaway: Brand your profile page out and put your goals front and center.

Conclusion

Small businesses are low on time and resources. The best ways to combat this and still get what you want out of Twitter is to invest in software that improves your efficiency and take on a few strategic improvements at a time. Twitter moves fast so it’s okay try out a few different strategies. Once you find one that works for you, stick with it until the next change that Twitter makes affects it.

We’d love to know more about what you’ve found to be successful on Twitter. Tweet us @SproutSocial with your ideas, or let us know in the comments below.

This post Twitter tips for small businesses originally appeared on Sprout Social.

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