Reminder advertising — that's what people outside the industry used to call promotional products.

They are an excellent way to put businesses' names and contact information in front of future customers, helping to make contact at the right time. They are also effective for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to brand at public events, such as trade shows, 5K races and fun runs, music fests and even in swag bags.

But one thing we and the thousands of promotional products distributors that work with Idea Custom Solutions know is that promo products are also a great way to engage customers actively. Increasingly these items are being used as carrots or incentives to sign up with businesses, non-profits or educational institutions.

Sign Me Up!

One online journal called Finance & Commerce is known primarily in the banking community as a source of news on noteworthy trends in banking, lending and economic development. At the end of July, the journal honed in on a trend among smaller banks and community banks especially: the use of incentives to gain account holders.

Now it's true that for years banks have used promotions to lure in new customers. Everything from beverage coolers, desk toys, Nerf footballs, toasters and local sports promos have been popular. Many years ago, one bank in hunting country even made news when it gave out guns to new account customers. But community banks are a little different.

Finance & Commerce said that a federally-chartered credit union known as Village Trust Financial Cooperative has plans to give its members incentives that include “branded swag such as T-shirts or coffee mugs for those who make monthly pledges or commit to signing up 10 or more (other) members."

A director of this African-American owned bank, Me'Lea Connelly, thinks tying incentives to word-of-mouth will help build a strong community bank while minimizing marketing costs.

“The black community in Minnesota has a really rich history of economic power and economic growth and cooperative economics,” Connelly said. The plan is to offer incentives to bank's regular checking and savings customer essentially to recruit their friends and neighbors to come in and open new accounts of their own.

While this presents an innovative approach to promo products branding, it's probably still true that most SMBs and larger companies still prefer the simple giveaway approach.

Incentives Everywhere

Take Uber, for example, which rallied beach lovers and summer enthusiasts to sign up for its ride-sharing service with branded beach balls, beverage bottle openers and other Uber swag.

Moreover, branded "company swag" is a popular tool not only in signing up new customers, but also in rallying enthusiasm both inside offices too.

The Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI) published a story about a study that cites increasing use of incentives within the office to engage employees. Especially in the services and tech sectors, firms are using branded promotions as a way to keep connected with remote employees. Others use them to reward employees or welcome new workers into their companies.

Whether its employees, association members or new customers that your SMBs have in mind, Idea Custom Solutions provides promotional products industry suppliers, distributors and decorators with the best graphic design services. Our vector artwork and embroidery digitizing will set you apart with customers, while freeing you up to spend more time focused on supporting them!