Do you like to get swag?
Every body loves free stuff, right? So how do you make your swag stand out? It’s not that tough, if you keep these 3 tips in mind:
- Make it unique to stand out – how much impact do you think another printed ¢15 pen make? Extra points, if no one else gives this away. Branded USB drives? Great – how many of those have I seen, water bottles with your logo, bags, pens, … been there done that and actually got the T-shirt.
- Make it good – no one is going to remember anything that is less than great. Good is the new normal. It’s expected, you don’t even need to show up with mediocre.
- Make it personal. Give me something unique to me and I’ll keep it way longer than a mass-produced piece of swag. (Read MarketingHack #8: Do something unexpected to remember why I mailed a New York creative the magazine that featured her as a winner along with a hand written note.) I bet she remembers that today.
What does good marketing swag look like?
How do you think local influencers feel, when I hand them a copy of a DVD with ‘On Wings of Hope‘? Let’s see how that stacks up:
It’s unique – movies are something people don’t expect to get for free. How many movies has a director given to you? How many of those are filmed in Afghanistan? How many are featured in a TEDx talk?- It’s won a handful of awards and has played at film festivals, had a great private première that people are still talking about (It’s featured as MarketingHack #11).
- It gets personalized – I’ll write a note on the DVD liner; we actually designed some space on it to jot a short note with a silver sharpie.
Would you throw that out? Or show it to your friends? If you need to book a photographer to produce a video for you, would the guy that produce an award wining short documentary in Afghanistan come to your mind; especially if you have a personalized DVD he gave you?
How do I create swag that sticks in their mind?
Now I realize, not all of you are going to fly to Afghanistan to produce an award wining, short documentary; if you would, I’d need to come up with something more unique again. Well follow the same criteria I did:
- Be unique. Take some time to think, but give out swag that is relevant to your business.
- Only use the best. You’re gonna spend money on producing your swag, you might as well make it great. Less than good will land you in the garbage can
- Make it personal. It takes you just a few seconds and makes a huge impact on your audience of one. It’s maybe even the most important of the three tips.
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I’d love to see what you come up with – show off your best stuff – tweet me @photosbydepuhl and use #MarketingHackSwag.
