Dose #28: Creating Connections through Branded Promotional Materials

Matt here with your weekly Subscription Prescription ??

Dose #28: Creating Connections through Branded Promotional Materials

This week's prescription is all about fostering your customer community.

The best brands activate their customers into evangelists who spread the word about you wherever they go.

One of the more powerful ways to connect and activate your audience is through merchandise. There is, however, a wrong way to do this. Thankfully, to get deeper into it, I am joined for this week’s dose by Jim Doyon, the founder of the Woodward Movement.

How many times have you ordered something online and found some freebies in the box? Did you hang onto the stickers? The pens? If you’re anything like us, you’re used to getting these things and immediately wondering what to do with them.

It doesn't have to be that way. And, honestly, if you’re the company giving this stuff away—it shouldn't be this way.

Every item is an opportunity to deliver a message about your brand to your community. So what are you saying? How can you say it better?

Here are 6 key questions to consider when developing effective, brand-building promotional items for your customers:

1. Who are you??

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it helps to start at the very beginning. Ask yourself what your company is all about, and what item is best suited to reinforce that message. How can your merchandise deliver your brand and voice to your customers in an interesting new way?

2. Who is your audience?

Who are they really? When you think about your audience, is it truly them, or who you want them to be? Your ultimate goal is to bolster your community with products that paint your brand in the best possible light—that means meeting your customers where they’re at in their tastes, passions, influences, and ideas.

3. What is your audience doing??

Everybody has interests. Hobbies. Goals. Can what you’re giving away help them in some way? We bet the answer is yes. With enough time and consideration, any brand can connect with any group. It’s simply a matter of creative thinking and identifying commonalities between the brand and the customer. Provide value at all costs.

4. What are you trying to do?

This one is key. The answer to this question defines the goal and informs the message. There are basically three messaging strategies to think about. Are you trying to sell? Are you trying to promote? Or are you trying to say thank you? Keep this in mind when exploring copy, design, and the medium of delivery.

5. What will carry your message?

Pens, calendars, microfiber cloths, keychains—it’s time to leave it all behind. Choose your merch carefully. It’s the vehicle by which you interact directly with your community. Pick something so uniquely you that it could only come from your business. Something that prompts the receiver to talk about it with friends and family, increasing your community/potential customer base organically.

6. How will what you selected expand your community?

This last consideration is critical. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve thought a lot about delivering a tailored experience to your customers. Now, think about including a kind of hook for roping in new community members. Maybe it’s the simple act of giving away two items per person—one for your target and one for a friend outside your base. A new potential member! Consider initiatives that multiply all the work you've already done.

Follow this simple 6-step process, and you’re well on your way to building a community around your brand. The best part is an effective strategy can bolster your bottom line while creating opportunities for your customers to introduce your brand to more and more people.

Are you interested in promotional items? Talk with Jim and his team about how you can get started with an incredible promotional strategy.

Schedule a call now.

That’s it for this week’s dose on fostering your community. Getting this right can be instrumental in taking your brand to the next level. If you have any questions, just hit reply and ask away.?

If this dose helped, please forward it to a friend, and stay tuned for Dose #29 next Tuesday!

- Matt Holman ??

Head of Growth, QPilot

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Launch Best Practices: Checklist on what to consider when launching a subscribe and save program.

33 Subscription Tips: A list of ways you can incrementally improve your subscription machine.

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