Use holiday promotional items to bring good cheer

Thanksgiving just passed us and so did Black Friday and Cyber Monday – the official starts to the holiday shopping season. While more customers decided to forego the lines of brick-and-mortar stores in favor of online shops to grab the latest deals, The New York Times reported, the month-long hunt for gifts is still a mad rush for buyers and retailers.

The scramble can especially be hard for smaller businesses hoping to get more patrons through their doors. There is a day set aside for them – Small Business Saturday – but one out of 28 shopping days until Christmas might not be enough to keep a small shop or company afloat. So how do you let the buying public know about your brand and what you can offer them?

You can find your answer in branded corporate gifts and promotional items. Let’s take a look at a few smart ways you can use giveaway products to market yourself and enable your business to contend with the big box stores or the companies that seem to get all the attention over the holidays:

1. A cup of cheer
There’s a whole plethora of traditions that people hold dear during the holidays whether they celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or just the season itself. Once December arrives, many offices, restaurants and bars play host to holiday parties where one of the centerpieces is always a festive punch, eggnog or hot buttered rum. Many people are practically guaranteed to arrive and mingle by the bowl and rest of the spread, so employing branded drinkware to either use during the party or hand out afterwards can get your business the recognition it needs.

The partygoers will not only be able to use your branded corporate gift, but they’ll get a reminder of your brand and company. They also might be more likely to patronize your business over the holiday season. Your patrons can sip their morning coffee or nightly cup of hot chocolate out of the promotional mugs you gave them, too.

2. Winter clothes needed
You can’t sit by a nice roaring fire all the time, even if most of us don’t want to leave the house to brave the frosty temperatures that December and the rest of winter bring. However, businesses wanting to make multiple impressions should use the colder temperatures to their advantage by offering branded apparel like sweatshirts, windbreakers or even knit sweaters.

So far, more apparel sales are exceeding electronics this holiday shopping season, Reuters reported. More customers are gearing up for ice, snow and below freezing weather and spending their cash on winter clothing and foregoing new televisions and other big ticket electronic items that are usually popular with shoppers during Black Friday sales.

With a bigger need for clothes you can bundle up in, this is a great chance for brands to not only get their message out to potential customers but also to do some good. Branded jackets, coats and hats can protect your patrons or anyone else from the chilly weather and get your logo, name and slogans more impressions whenever they walk outside their house.

Offering smaller coat or jacket sizes that children can wear will also endear your business to the kids’ parents since children’s clothing isn’t cheap and they grow out of their clothes in a few years.

3. A useful gift
Winter clothing isn’t the only promotional item your customers and clients will put to use during the holidays and the rest of the year. Promotional tech gifts are more popular this holiday season as businesses hand them out as thank you gifts to employees and customers alike.

So far, branded power banks are the hot gifts this December, according to the Advertising Specialty Institute.

“A few years ago, there was no such thing as a mobile power bank – but now they’re becoming ubiquitous,”  Nate Kucsma, the ASI’s marketing research director, said. “In fact, according to a new research study ASI is releasing in December, power banks are now one of the most sought-after products from the under 45 demographic.”

Promotional power banks, portable chargers and USB flash drives all make for valuable gifts both clients and customers will use again and again over the coming year. Think about how much you charge your smartphone, tablet or transfer files. More than likely, you use one of these necessary gadgets everyday either at your office or at home.

With that said, consider how many people and the number of times they’ll view your company’s name and logo branded on the side of the device. If you want to thank clients and market your brand at the same time, don’t just limit yourself to few products, though. Consider stylus pens or regular branded pens you use everyday.

The holidays mean giving and gathering around with family and friends. And many people across the U.S. will crowd the nation’s airports, train and bus stations to visit their loved ones. Giving away promotional bags ahead of time will not only give your patrons another piece of useful luggage, it will also make hundreds of impressions for your business. If your customers use the branded duffel or backpacks you gave them while at the airport or train station, you get a better chance of people seeing your brand.

A business must think about the possibilities the holiday season can bring for it if it uses the right kinds of promotional items.