Tangibility in the digital age

There’s no escaping that the internet has changed the face of marketing. The digital age has delivered immense new opportunities to reach a global audience. With SEO, PPC advertising and email marketing, ecommerce and social media… there’s plenty of ‘virtual’ opportunities for generating business online. But there’s something the digital world can’t yet deliver…

Tangibility

We human beings live in a physical world and, at least for now, we find it harder to attribute tangible value to intangible stuff. It’s one of the reasons the internet is full of free information and tools. It’s not just far lower production costs, it’s that people don’t perceive value online the same way they do in the real world.

How does this all relate to direct marketing? It’s all about perceived value.

Promotional Gifts

With promotional gifts the recipient is getting something tangible with a perceived value. Sure, promotional gifts are low cost, but the right ones are perceived as more valuable. They are kept, reused and shared.

This makes promotional gifts ideal to use in a direct marketing campaign in support of your digital campaigns. An email, tweet or blog article has no perceived intrinsic value and is a one-shot wonder… whereas promotional gifts will be seen again and again.

The right promotional gift gets your message across and are ideally suited for building long-term brand awareness. In-between online marketing campaigns you know that recipients are being repeatedly exposed to your brand.

People love free stuff

Promotional giveaways are a proven marketing method.

Compared to online marketing, giveaways capitalise on people’s love of freebies, the higher perceived value of tangible items and reaching people in different ways (e.g. at events/ tradeshows).

The key is identifying what you want to achieve:

• Attracting prospects
• Encouraging a sale
• Standing-out
• Delivering your message

Attracting prospects

At tradeshows it’s standard practice to draw in potential customers with giveaways. It draws a crowd and creates a buzz. This works for all kinds of events, in-store promotions and out on the streets… places where online marketing can’t create the same buzz.

Encouraging a sale

Point of sale giveaways are a classic marketing technique. Customers are offered a free gift when they make a purchase. Usually this is over a certain amount or on limited product lines. This works well when it’s a time-limited offer… ‘while stocks last’, ‘this week only’ or ‘the first x customers only’ etc.

Standing-out

As with any kind of marketing, it’s important that your promotional gifts are memorable. Come up with a memorable promotional gift that stands out and you not only create more initial interest, but you’ll be building greater brand awareness in the long run. Stand-out items get kept longer, seen and shared more.

Delivering your message

Creative, quality design is essential when it comes to getting your message across online. Whether that’s a website or marketing email… the vehicle you use to deliver your message is important to its effectiveness. And so it is with promotional gifts. The right one will enhance your message, support your brand and resonate with the recipient.

The upshot of all this…

Digital online marketing is incredibly effective and the internet continues to rapidly become the dominating medium across the board. But, in this hugely competitive digital age, don’t overlook the tangible results that can be had from supporting your online efforts with real world promotional gifts.