Investing in promotional products can have widespread benefits for your business. This isn’t like other marketing avenues that can be directly attributed to sales. Instead, you need to think of promotional products in a more abstract way.
They can help you to connect with your customers, spark conversations, convince reluctant buyers, and increase brand visibility. All of these are excellent perks for your company and are likely to lead to an increase in sales, but the process of tracking the ROI can be difficult.
With this in mind, we’re looking at some of the ways that promotional products can help to boost sales and maximise the ROI on other marketing channels, while also exploring some of the best ways to track this.
It might seem counterintuitive to give away items for free with no guarantee of a sale at the end of the transaction, but this is the basic principle of promotional items. You could give them to existing customers to say thank you for their loyalty, or you could use them to start conversations with prospective customers and get them through the door.
Whatever your tactics, here are just some of the direct and indirect benefits of using promotional products in your marketing plans.
Promotional products work because they continue delivering value long after the initial interaction. Each use reinforces brand visibility, trust, and familiarity — all of which support future purchasing decisions.
Customers that feel connected to a brand will be more likely to seek out and use their free promotional products. This means they feel some kind of affinity with your company that encourages them to want to share this information with those around them.
When customers feel loyal to your brand, they will automatically return to you to make additional purchases, and will also shout about your brand to their network.
Perhaps one of the most popular uses of promotional products is to start conversations. If you’re attending a conference or trade show, you’re more likely to tempt people to listen to your sales pitch if you can offer them something of value.
The exchange of their time for your product seems like a fair trade, until you consider that you’re enjoying free advertising for as long as that person continues to use their promotional item. Suddenly, it’s clear that this transaction offers far more value for the brand, even if the original prospect never becomes a customer.
By choosing the right promotional products, you can enjoy free advertising that would cost a fortune to pay for in any other way. Tote bags, t-shirts, hats, reusable coffee mugs and water bottles all offer an excellent opportunity to get your brand out and about in the world.
Rather than paying for billboards, you can give away free products that will turn willing customers into walking brand advocates. If they’re happy to be aligned with your brand by wearing or carrying your products, you can be confident they’ll have some kind words to share if anyone asks for a recommendation.
We’re all familiar with the process of sending packages of free products to influencers in exchange for exposure on their social media platforms. Some companies are taking this even further by offering their promotional products to everyone, not just those with a large following. Anyone with a social media platform can become a micro influencer, and they are more likely to appreciate the recognition and the freebies.
It can be difficult to measure the ROI on promotional products because so many of the perks are intangible and relate to things like brand perception and awareness. However, keep in mind that one study found that 85% of individuals who receive a free promotional product from a brand are likely to become a purchasing customer. So for every 100 tote bags you give away, you stand to generate 85 sales.
| ROI Type | Example | Ease of Tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Direct | Event sign-ups, QR scans | Moderate |
| Indirect | Brand recall, referrals | Low |
| Long-term | Repeat purchases, loyalty | Difficult |
To keep track of the ROI, you could ask new customers where they first learned about your company. This will enable you to attribute sales to promotional items. Using this method, you might find that you generate more than one sale per promotional item you give away, as you also need to factor in customers who have seen your product out in the world or on social media.
Another way to track ROI would be to use an event-specific landing page. This is an ideal strategy if you are giving items at an event. You can direct users to a specific URL using a QR code on their promotional item. If you want to keep your promotional items evergreen and not linked to a single event, you can include this information on printed materials offered alongside the promotional product.
And finally, you can also just ignore the ROI of your promotional items and trust that this is a worthy marketing activity. Some things cannot be measured and that’s okay. Rather than stress about the ROI of your promotional products, you could focus on creating powerful brand experiences that encourage brand loyalty and a positive perception of your company.
Use a mix of customer surveys, event-specific URLs, and observed behaviour to build a clearer picture of promotional product performance.
Promotional products are an excellent tool at every stage in the customer lifecycle. From first impressions to creating loyal brand advocates, you have an opportunity to influence the perception of your brand using something as simple as a tote bag or a t-shirt.
Remember that the promotional product needs to have value to the customer, so it should be something useful that they actually want to bring into their lives. Promotional products that only benefit your company in terms of branding and visibility won’t be as effective as something that is genuinely useful to your customer.
If you’re concerned with maximising the ROI of your promotional products, think carefully about the branding and the message to ensure that your products are versatile enough to be used at any stage in the customer journey. They also need to be effective billboards for your company so you can enjoy free advertising while your customers are out and about in the world and using their freebies with pride.
Explore eco-friendly promotional products designed to support long-term growth and visibility.
Can promotional products really drive sales?
Yes — both directly through conversions and indirectly through visibility and loyalty.
Is it okay not to track ROI precisely?
Yes — some brand-building activities deliver value that can’t always be measured accurately.
