Promotional items are no longer limited to pens, flying discs, and balloons. Advances in technology have allowed for logos and slogans to be attached to almost any product you can think of, from the mundane to the just-plain-wacky. But before you slap your logo on the USB-powered, flower-shaped desk fan, let’s take a look at what makes a successful printed promotional product.

Useful: Useless promotional products end up in the landfill. Whether their given to your employees around the office, or the customer, useful products stick around. It’s why, despite so many technological advances, the printed calendar is one of the most popular printed promotional product. Everyone needs to write their loved ones’ birthdays down somewhere. A remote-control car with your logo emblazoned on it may seem like an awesome idea – actually, it definitely is – but a travel cooler or backpack is infinitely more useful, and likely to be seen more often by more people as a result. Items often found in a person’s “junk drawer” at home or in the office are great examples of inexpensive but useful items – your potential customers will certainly appreciate that branded flashlight when the power goes out, or that branded chip clip when they can only finish half of the bag of Doritos.

Attractive: Even the most useful object will be ignored if it looks cheap or gaudy. Coffee mugs are great promotional products for the caffeinated business crowd, but a cheap, plastic, generic travel mug will often be tossed by the wayside in favor of a sturdy, modern, stainless steel mug. The latter may cost a little more, but this is the cost for attractiveness that will cause the product to be retained by the target, and retention is key. A promotional product that gets put in the back of the cabinet or thrown away is a waste of money.

Enjoyable: This is why human-shaped stress-relief items are so popular. What’s more enjoyable than imagining the face of your current irritating supervisor/co-worker/reality-television star on the head of something you’re squeezing the heck out of? The more enjoyable your custom printed product is, the more it will be seen, used, and talked about.

Relevant: This is not so much about the product, but about its connection to the company it is promoting. What is your industry, and what will work in it? Sure, a calendar with great landscapes is both useful and attractive, but it’s not particularly relevant for tow truck company to use as a promotional product, as there is nothing linking the two. However, a calendar with photographs of tow trucks in front of those landscapes would be perfect. If you provide a service, offer a product that relates to that service – if you’re a plumber at a home show, hand out toilet plungers with a sticker on them saying “If this doesn’t work, call…” It is memorable, useful, and relevant – they won’t go to the phone book to find a plumber when the number is right there on the plunger.

It may be hard to meet all these objectives given a certain budget, but aiming for at least useful and one other factor should be reachable for any company. Automation Graphics offers a wide variety of products with text and logo customization available, with the ability to fit into any promotional budget and a helpful staff to guide you towards the right choice. Contact us today!