do’s and don’ts to control promo product spend

Managing your paid ads budget is usually a matter of pressing a few buttons. But how do you manage the costs — and ROI — of physical products that aren’t as easy to track?

The best way to keep a tight hold on your ROI is to manage your promotional product spend in the first place. Try these steps to squeeze more results out of your swag budget.

Do set a SMART goal

Forgive us for waxing philosophical here, but what does success mean to you? You should only spend money on things that bring you closer to your goals, so it’s really important to define your swag marketing goals before you spend a dime.

Goals like, “We want this tumbler to generate more leads,” are too vague. When you’re trying to maximize your marketing dollars, you should set SMART goals for every campaign you run.

SMART goals are:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Actionable

• Realistic

• Time-bound

For example, instead of saying, “We want this tumbler to generate more leads,” you would say, “This $500 order of insulated tumblers will lead to a 20% lift in lead generation in Q2.”

That’s incredibly specific! These are the kinds of goals that help you get a better handle on your ROI, so leave flimsy campaign goals at the door.

Don’t

Forget About The Payoff

Hey, we love high-end giveaways as much as the next person, but does it make sense to give out $200 gym bags to everyone you meet?

To reduce rogue promotional product spending, it’s essential to know the payoff, and depending on your goal, the payoff is going to be different. Promotional products give you plenty of ways to interact with people, but you should share these products wisely. For example, a $200 gym bag is a lot of money for generating leads at an event, but it’s a reasonable expense if it helps you seal the deal on a $200,000 contract.

Do develop a budget based on percentages

Do you have a variable marketing budget every month? That’s a common practice in small businesses, so you can try budgeting with percentages instead of dollar amounts.

Plug everything into an Excel file as you spend money every month. With a few quick adjustments, the spreadsheet will display a pie chart visualizing your budget percentages. This is also a great way to visualize past months’ data to see your historical marketing spend.

Don’t

ignore campaign post-mortems

Promo product campaigns don’t always have a set start and end date, but it’s still important to review your results. When it’s time to strategize for your next event or employee engagement program, look at your past data before making any new plans.

What did you spend? What products did you buy? Did you hit your SMART goal, or did you fall short? Why?

Sometimes we don’t like the answers to these questions, but even if a campaign didn’t perform as well as you wanted it to, asking the tough questions will make you a better marketer. Post-mortems will help you see where you can route money for your next campaign, so always set a date to follow up on your promotional product campaigns.

Do select the right products

To make the most of your budget, you need to choose products that a) fit into your budget and that b) your audience will enjoy using. You might have some fantastic ideas, but if the products are too expensive or so inexpensive that people throw them in the trash, you aren’t going to get results.

Work with a provider like Boundless to choose the right mix of products for your budget. You should also ask yourself what types of products your audience wants to receive.

When it comes to promotional products, you want to select items with staying power. Even if they cost a little more upfront, picks like beach towels, speakers, and leatherbound journals will make an impression, which is the goal of promotional products.