With the right combination of a curated style and an effective outreach strategy, the sky is the limit for the impact your promotional products can have!

The most successful promo product collections, the ones that go absolutely viral, are supported by outreach activities and campaigns that help raise awareness, excitement, and a sense of exclusivity surrounding their launch. By building up hype before the items even hit the market, brands can boost the impact their promotional products will have!

Building Hype for Your Merch

It can be challenging to build up excitement around a merch launch, but here are a few strategies that can help make it happen:

1. Engage Your Audience

Before we get into the strategies for marketing your promotional products, we need to go back to the basics of developing them. Successful promo needs to be based on a strong understanding of your audience – of what they want, what they like, and who they are. Only with this understanding can you create custom merchandise that’s going to appeal to them.

There are tons of research tactics you can use to get to know your customers on a deeper level, and you can read all about them in our blog, "Getting to Know Your Customers". But in this case, there’s one strategy that stands out among the rest–and that is simply asking them what kind of promo they want! By engaging directly with your customers through an online poll or a survey, you can gather the information you need while also generating interest and excitement for your next product release.

When you include them in the conversation, your audience will feel valued and like they are a part of the design process, giving them a sense of attachment to your brand and your branded items. Moreover, you’ve given them something to look forward to, and they’ll be sure to keep an eye on your brand for that new product drop!

2. Promote Product Visibility

Our second piece of advice may seem simple, but it’s a core building block that every successful promotional product line must be based on–and that is to make your promo VISIBLE! Often, businesses don’t put the effort in to actively raise awareness about their products, and this can result in your customer base not even being aware that you have branded items or clothing! It’s absolutely imperative that you feature high-quality photos of your promo items on social media, create a page, post, or category on your website to feature your latest promo releases, and display samples of them prominently (or have your team use or wear them) in your place of business.

3. Create Excitement Through Exclusivity

Now that you have created a product that’s well suited to your audience and made sure that they know it exists, you will have a strong base to start up some marketing activities that build up interest and excitement around your branded items.

In particular, we find that brands can have huge results when they manage to curate a sense of exclusivity surrounding their promotional products.

A good example of this strategy in action is Starbucks’ Red Cup Day. Each year, the coffee giant keeps its audience on the hook as sometime near the launch of their holiday drink menu, they announce the date of “Red Cup Day”. This unofficial ‘holiday’ marks the date that they give away a free, reusable branded cup to any customer who orders a qualifying holiday beverage. The catch? Stock is limited, so fans should make sure they get to their nearest Starbucks location while supplies last.

In this example, a company uses a limited supply, the allure of ‘free stuff’, and the anticipation of a one-day-only event to generate excitement for a branded product–but there are other ways to achieve promo hype! Running in-person or social-media contests where the winner receives a bundle of not-yet-released merch can be a great way to create a sense of value and exclusivity around your product. Often, companies will also partner with online influencers, sector-specific leaders, or celebrities to promote their upcoming promotional items through their platforms.

Ready to build a promo line your customers can get excited about? Get started today by choosing from our hundreds of customizable products, and be sure to contact us if you need any help along the way.