Individual consumers may find everyday items the most useful. These include pens, rulers, calculators, t-shirts, and backpacks. Although novelty is a consideration, utility is probably the everyday consumer’s most important consideration. But for the business owner or other important client, the impressiveness or expense of an item is more of a consideration. Business owners may find leisure-themed items the most useful. These items include professional bags, golf ball markers, plastic golf pencils, and higher end pens. These quality items will indicate the customer’s status and they will feel comfortable displaying them in their office and at leisure.

First, however, you must ask yourself what items are appropriate for the kind of business you run. If you gave out crystal maracas as a book publisher, customers would be left wondering what the link between your promotional product and your business was, and you wouldn’t reap as much direct positive association as you would if you had given out promotional reading lights. Some ideas for common businesses are as follows:

And the list goes on. Hopefully this provides an initial idea of what promotional items would be appropriate for your audience based on your business. Of course, promotional items like pens are always a good idea because of their ubiquity and utility regardless of the field of business.

Another important consideration to make is your budget.  If you want to reach a lot of people on a certain budget you might want to select a cheaper item in order to be able to afford more of the item. Promotional pens are always a good value. If you want to advertise to a smaller audience people and leave more of an impression, such as in the case of business owners, you might want to go with a slightly more expensive promotional item. Golf drink bottle pouches are a good promotional item in that case. You could also choose to mix and match by buying a few of the more exclusive items and a larger portion of everyday promotional items for the ‘average joe’. The possibilities are endless.

If you are unsure of what to buy, try taking a look, first, at what your competitors are giving out. Then make a list of possibilities and see how many items you are interested in you could buy with your advertising budget. Consider your business and your target consumer. Then, make choices from there and things might be a little easier afterwards.

Though there are many considerations to make including your target audience, your budget, and what items are appropriate, choosing a promotional product is a smart move to make and will benefit your business for years to come. Regardless of the item you choose the goals are the same: to increase visibility, to increase brand loyalty, to reap advertising value, and to appear stable, caring and trustworthy as a company.