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New Update: Boost Social Proof with Reviews & Automation
Stacey Corrin
Stacey Corrin
John Turner
John Turner
Promotional giveaways are one of my favorite ways to grow brand awareness and connect with customers. I love how flexible they are. They work just as well for a small local business as they do for big corporations.
But it isn’t just about putting your logo on something cheap and hoping for the best. The most successful giveaways offer real value to your audience while promoting your brand.
That’s why in this guide, I’ll share some of my favorite promotional giveaway ideas that you can use to get more people remembering your business.
Promotional giveaways are free items businesses give away to attract customers and promote their brand. Common examples include pens, T-shirts, and tote bags with a company logo. Businesses use giveaways at events, online, or in stores to get more attention and build customer loyalty.
Yes, promotional giveaways work by helping businesses attract customers, increase brand awareness, and build loyalty. Free items encourage people to engage with a brand and remember it longer.
According to the BPMA (British Promotional Merchandise Association) giveaways, like pens or T-shirts, can boost increase brand awareness by +96% and lead to more sales.
With that being said, let’s look at the best promotional giveaways for different use cases:
These promotional giveaway items are perfect for businesses looking to increase brand awareness and customer loyalty. Each product offers practical value while keeping your brand visible to customers.
Tech products make great promotional items because people use them every day. Simple items like USB drives and phone chargers are always useful, making them perfect for keeping your brand in front of customers.
For instance, a Stream Deck is an excellent choice for gaming audiences but isn’t relevant to people outside that niche. Yet, multi-USB ports are more versatile and useful for a broad range of people.
Here are some more tech gadgets that will be best-sellers among your audience:
Audio products are popular promotional items because most people love music. Simple items like earbuds and portable speakers get used often, which means more exposure for your brand.
You could give away branded:
Why not have 1 grand prize winner for your most valuable item and several runners up. If people see that more than 1 prize is up for grabs, they’re more likely to enter because they have a greater chance of winning.
Having people promote your brand outside is an excellent choice, but what about when they’re relaxing at home? Smart businesses can turn this into an extra opportunity to keep your company top-mind, even if your audience is just curled up on the sofa.
The solution is high-quality branded homeware like these best promotional items:
Promotional giveaway items like this are seen by your audience every day. They can also be as inexpensive or luxurious as your budget allows.
Let’s face it, who doesn’t love snuggling under a sherpa throw on chilly evenings? With a branded blanket, people can do it in style and will thank you for it.
Gift cards and event tickets make powerful promotional items.
Gift cards encourage people to shop at your store, often spending more than the card’s value. Free tickets to your events help build excitement about your business while bringing in new customers.
You can also offer similar corporate gifts for any events, webinars, or seminars you have planned and give away free tickets to a few lucky people.
Check out our guide to learn how to do a gift card giveaway.
Educational settings need practical and engaging promotional items. These giveaway ideas work perfectly in schools and classrooms, offering value to both students and staff.
Single pens aren’t exciting enough for promotional giveaways. Instead, complete stationery sets offer more value and appeal.
Sets with pens, notebooks, sticky notes, and calendars are useful in any classroom or office. You can also include:
And print it all with your company logo. The result is a promotional giveaway that’s more significant, desirable, and much more useful.
Desk toys make great promotional items in educational settings. Items like stress balls and fidget toys help students focus while displaying your brand. Plus, these items stay on desks where people see them every day.
Here are some quirky desk toys you can print with your custom logo and give away to some lucky winners:
You could even put a collection together for the ultimate stress-relieving workspace.
Plush toys and mascots work especially well in educational settings. Kids love stuffed animals, and school mascots can become beloved classroom items. Since these are custom-made with your brand, they become special items that can’t be found in stores.
If you don’t currently have a mascot, you can challenge your audience to design one as a requirement for entering your contest. The winner can receive their design brought to life for free.
Events are ideal opportunities for promotional giveaways. From trade shows to conferences, these items help your brand stand out and create lasting connections with attendees.
Food and drink giveaways work well at any event. You can match them to different seasons, like:
If you’re a food brand, this is the ideal opportunity to showcase your delicious food products with a personalized hamper for your winner.
And if you’re not, you can always team up with a local business and create some custom treats. Why not ask people to vote for their favorites? After, you can award the top choice as the main prize.
Promotional clothing and wearable brand merchandise are a great way to maximize the value of your giveaway prize. This is because it provides double the benefits:
To get the most out of this promotional giveaway, go for stylish and wearable clothing custom printed with your brand logo, such as:
You should also focus on comfortable styles that people wear often. There’s little point in investing in branded clothes if people don’t wear them and promote your business.
Bags are perfect event giveaways because people use them every day.
Since almost all bags are reusable, people can use them repeatedly at the grocery store, commuting to work, and during general travel. This all adds up to quality and repeated brand awareness.
If you’re struggling to come up with promo products, here are some of the best promotional bag giveaways include:
You can even use eco-friendly materials like cotton or jute for added sustainability.
The most useful products have the best results for promotional giveaways. With that in mind, travel products are always a hit because they’re useful in everyday scenarios that your audience will thank you for.
Whether it’s for business trips, shopping excursions, or even a vacation, here are some branded travel items you could offer:
You can even bundle all of the above together for the ultimate branded travel pack.
As we all know, the weather can be pretty unpredictable. But you’d be surprised how few people are prepared to handle it.
Buying an umbrella is usually way down on our priorities, so we’re often left chancing it on the off chance we’ll miss the rain. They’re items most people want and need but usually don’t have.
This is the perfect opportunity for brands to capitalize on a much-needed item. It isn’t just the recipient who sees your branded umbrella; it’s also seen by everyone else on rainy days, exposing them to your brand.
Sports and fitness businesses need promotional items that match their active audience. These products combine practical athletic use with effective brand promotion.
Like staying safe from bugs and colds, most people are pretty conscious about their physical health. You can get creative with fitness, wellness, and healthcare-related promotional giveaways that you know your customers will use and love.
It could be anything like:
You could even team up with a local gym or fitness class and put together a bundle of promotional fitness items with free classes for the lucky winner.
These days people are a lot more climate-conscious than ever before. So it makes sense that they expect brands to follow suit with the goods they offer. This is why sustainable promotional giveaways like reusable water bottles are must-have giveaway items.
Some of the top choices include:
You can give these items away individually or put them together as a custom drinkware bundle for the lucky winner.
Staying safe and well is a top priority for most people. We all want to protect ourselves from common bugs and illnesses.
As a business, you can show you value people’s health and well-being by offering branded health products.
For example, you could offer reusable face masks printed with your company logo as your giveaway prize. You could even throw in some wipes and hand sanitizer to create a well-rounded bundle.
The great thing about face masks is they’re highly visible. Whenever people wear them, everyone will see your logo, fixing your company in that person’s mind.
Eco-friendly items appeal to health-conscious sports audiences. So put your best climate-conscious foot forward and design some sustainable merchandise you can give away to your audience.
Some popular choices can include:
These items are perfect for giveaways all year round. For an extra boost in visibility, you can offer them on important days like “World Ocean Day” or “World Environment Day” when more people pay attention.
The key to your promotional giveaway’s success is knowing how to run one correctly. Running any contest starts with a robust plan that should include:
An essential step on the list above is which giveaway tool you’ll use to run your contest.
Our top choice for running the best promotional giveaway, especially if you have a WordPress website, is to use RafflePress.
RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market. It’s the easiest way to grow your email list, website traffic, and social media followers with viral giveaways and contests.
This giveaway app comes with a drag-and-drop giveaway builder and flexible giveaway templates for making any type of giveaway.
It also has tons of 1-click entry options designed to grow your business leads and sales, such as actions to:
RafflePress lets you host your giveaway in any WordPress post or page or on custom distraction-free giveaway landing pages. You can share your contest anywhere online while sending targeted traffic to your business website.
Check out this step-by-step guide to learn how to create an online contest with RafflePress from start to finish.
And there you have it!
I hope this guide has helped you find the best promotional giveaways to market your brand easily.
Ready to start planning your giveaway? Try these other helpful guides:
If you found this article helpful, be sure to join us on YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook for more giveaway guides and tutorials.
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