The Promo Direct Blog

Launching a new website is often quite an intense experience. Only proper planning for the launch and its successive promotions can ensure a successful launch for your website. Whether it is a brand new site or a site redesigned, the promotion of the brand is an integral part of the overall marketing plan of a business.

Here are some of the active ways of promoting your website:

• You as a business can use the website launch event as a medium to promote your company to both existing and new customers. This can be accomplished by developing a “buzz” around the launch. You can distribute products wherein your logo is imprinted to create an awareness regarding your brand. Promotional giveaways like logo engraved pens, personalized t-shirts, imprinted mugs can be distributed amongst the customers. This helps in better visibility leading to multiple impressions. Here, you can also imprint your website address in the products and hence create more buzz.
• You can use multiple social media channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, press releases to market and promote your new website.
• Banner Ads can also be a huge way of promoting your website before it ultimately gets launched. A 3-4 week’s campaign on Google Ad Words, Twitter, Facebook Ads, etc.
• Create a PowerPoint of your website and publish it on the internet such as slide share, presentation on YouTube and so on. This way you can create great buzz about your company’s new website.

These are some of the ways by which you can effectively promote your new website. You as a business can make use of ideas both old and new (that make the use of internet) and give your website a fabulous launch. So bang on with these techniques and make your launch something to remember.

The world of advertising is quite bizarre. There is absolutely no certainty what will work and what won’t. There are a number of factors that decide the fate of advertising success. Demographic preferences, consumer buying behavior and certain nuances of the target segment highly influence the overall marketing campaign. In order to understand the same PromoDirect—a leading name in the promotional industry, initiated a discussion in one of the social media channels “Which are the Best ways to recall brand in customer’s mind?”

As anticipated, we were bombarded with tons of replies from a lot of marketing geeks and some of these were business owners, and people at a very senior level including managers. Out of this survey what we have seen is some traditional outlook along with a few modern demeanors. We have taken into account all these replies and analyzed in a manner that will leave you with amazement.

• Result 1: 58% says Television/print Media will win the race

Analogy: Perhaps true! However, with the advent of internet and online marketing, the world has been witnessing a new trend of interactive marketing instead of interruptive marketing. Moreover, the ever burgeoning cost of television and other print media is less effective when compared to internet marketing because you can measure the success of the latter one. Also with the rapid change in technology can be a catalyst in making these media less effective. With the rise in VoD (Video on Demand) people are becoming more selective regarding what they want to see, thus further shrinking the bandwidth of these traditional modes of advertising.

• Result 2: 28% says it’s the promotional products that is more effective

Analogy: Cost effective, highly influential this concept is ideal for those who have started their business recently or may be in the industry for quite some time. Many large corporations also patronize the concept of elevating your brand image in the market by distributing promotional products among its customers and future prospects. The result is quite palpable in terms of higher customer satisfaction, better brand visibility and brand recall. However, the flip side is you need to know your target audience like a mother knows her child.

• Result 3: Only 5% still relies on Radio Advertising

Analogy: The number is already abysmally low and it will further shrink with short wave becoming obsolete.

• Result 4: 9% is of the opinion that billboard advertising is the best

Analogy: While this might have worked earlier but no longer any more, at least not the best. There are people who do not even look at those hoardings even if they are stuck in the traffic (We came to know about it from these survey). Moreover, this can make you spend a huge some of marketing dollars without letting you know how much ROI you have got so far.

If we want to take into consideration the above mentioned analogy, we would recommend that other than internet or online marketing it is promotional marketing that can help building trust with your target segment and this way you can clearly convey your brand message to your esteemed customers with proper visibility in the market.

After all, we all know that today’s buyers no longer buy things based on opinions but inclined more towards user experience. In that way promotional products will rule the advertising world along with online marketing.

It is a well known fact that out of all our marketing efforts and ubiquitous promotions, some will become an instant hit and some will suffer major hit back.  The one which resonates so well with your target audience will be the one to buzz around in the market for sometime and gives your brand a new look.

Marketers, often try to create such bustle which becomes the talk of the town for generating new prospects for your business. The idea of promoting your brand with promo items like promotional pens and personalized t-shirts is no different.

Here we will consider some of the best promotion and understand why they are so with a learning edge and try to figure out what could serve the best in the market.

In case of promo items

Remember the iconic bicyclist Lance Armstrong? In 1996, just after he was identified with cancer, he founded his Lance Armstrong Foundation the following year.

In association with Nike, his foundation developed a yellow silicon wristband imprinted with the Livestrong mantra for selling the item as a fundraiser. This, later reported by lancewins.com, resulted in generating more than 45 million of sale. The bracelets very soon became an instant identifiable symbol of Armstrong, who often used to wear the yellow leaders jersey while cycling to seven Tour de France victories.

Lesson: Make your brand unique with a signature look. This is important for your brand’s own identity in the market. This will connect your brand to your niche and customers which will promote stronger relationship.  With promo items like promotional pens and personalized t-shirts your brand can be a messenger which keeps your customers loyal to you along with generating new potential prospects.

You need to create promotions in a manner which easily recognizable in the market and wherever your customers see similar image your name should instantly come in their minds.

When it comes to branding, many marketers believe that change is the only consistent factor that keeps a brand alive and with this misconstruction they try implementing out of the box thinking, sometimes in the form of changing the logo, or may be adopting a new name because of launching of a new range of services. However, the important fact is that you don’t show your creativity just to prove that how radical you are in your business.  In case of your brand identity such creative fluctuations might be disastrous for you and your brand. Maintaining a brand consistency would only ensure your evergreen customers are always with you.

It is important for every brand to make its own identity and create an image that people can easily connect them with. That’s why repetition of activities through an identity is crucial for the success of brands. Over a period of time people associated with a particular brand will be able to connect instantly with that brand. Frequent changes in your brand identity will confuse your customers and this will result in poor branding which, soon, will get reflected in your sales volume.

Some of the important practices that have helped building brands worldwide are:

• The focal point of your brand identity and brand strategy should revolve around you customers deep insights.
• While creating brand identity keep space for accommodating future services and products that can be included under the same umbrella. This may include any possible industry changes or change in business model.
• Your brand identity should always be under a brand identity enforcer and overseer
• In case of any unavoidable situations wherein your brand needs to be repositioned then try to make the new one in a manner that it retains the same old flavor to some extent.

It would be judicious to think twice before you bring any new changes to your brand. Most of the time changes are not in the brand’s best interest. It is always advisable to think about a new product instead of thinking about changing your brand’s identity. Try to come up with a revolutionary marketing strategy if possible.

Getting customers’ attention by distributing promotional items may be a good idea to spread a positive message to a larger audience. This works most effectively when there is a restriction on budgetary allowance for marketing team. Selection of such goods can be crucial at times as this will decide the fate of your business for future and also make ways for your business in terms of congregating potential prospects.

Everybody loves to receive free gifts and if that gift includes some of the features that solves their regular small problems at home or work then people will remember your name. Some of the most popular gifts are Mugs, juggling balls, lanyards, bookmarks, badges, coasters, t shirts, pencils, pens and key rings which will give your brand recognition in the market.

Most of these gifts can easily be printed on. The printing could be in the way of a campaign slogan, a company name or logo or an advertisement of some kind. The type of gift should be considered before the printing is done. Certain gifts may work better with a particular message. The aim is to get the brand name out as far and as wide as possible. Important to know is that while the item may cost very little money, compromising on the quality of the item should not be a consideration.

Printing your company name and logo on these items are pretty easy and these will find widespread usage among your target audience. It is always better to get connected with your existing and prospective clients once a year to rejuvenate the warmth of relationship that you enjoy with them. This way—customers will remember you better and they will also rely on your products. By doing such campaigns you can very well gain market popularity with better brand visibility.