It’s only fitting that I launch into my guerilla marketing blog with my favorite guerilla tactic: promotional products. It’s truly one of the most versatile mediums on the planet, and can be a guerilla marketer’s best friend. When it comes to promos the question I get asked the most is, “what works?” The answer is simple: all of it, and none of it. A lot of people think the key element in promotional products is the product. They’re wrong. The key element is the promotion.
Take, for example, one of my favorite promotional products: the sticky note. They may not be very exciting, but they’re incredibly useful to a guerilla marketer. Sticky notes are economical and versatile. They come in a wide variety of shapes, can be used at tradeshows, included with purchases, and direct mailed without increasing your postage. Best of all – nobody throws away sticky notes.
Now for the promotion side of the equation. People think about putting their contact info & logo on the sticky notes, but a guerilla marketer goes beyond that. Say you want to grow a networking group or promote a weekly event. In addition to putting your contact info on the top and/or bottom of the sticky note you add a ghosted image in the middle that says, “Remember to join us for lunch & networking every Wednesday!” (Not too dark, you need to keep the sticky note useful.) Now hand out your sticky notepads to people you are trying to get to come to the event or include them in letters you send out. You’re likely to set up a subliminal reminder because they see the message every time they use a sticky note. Since sticky notes get passed around so much, so does your message. This is just one of the many, many uses the simple little sticky note.
The bottom line: your most successful promotional products will be the ones where you start thinking about your audience, your message, and your goal before you start thinking about your product.
Did you create a promotional product campaign you thought was just brilliant? Have you seen one of those “Why didn’t I think of that?” promotional campaigns? If so, I want to hear about it.
This is brilliant! With the Entrepreneur Expo just around the corner this is sage advice. I could even see people handing out little pads of post-its in lieu of business cards at their regular networking meetings.
Ps – I love how you “expand my brain” and cause me think of marketing and promotion from a different angle every time I talk to you! Your scary smart.