You Can’t Save Your Way To Prosperity

Back in 1991 the printing industry, better called graphic communications, was seeing some significant pressure as clients were pulling back on advertising and budget for “print”, including newspaper, magazine and direct mail which were targeted as places to save money. Promotional products media was perhaps the first place businesses looked to save money.

I wrote a few articles and stressed in training sessions that “You can’t save your way to prosperity”. Over the years I have seen several others use my exact phrase, so for me that has been confirmation that the advice is solid. 

To be clear, spending on poorly structured, amateurish advertising with limited success or no success at all, certainly should be eliminated. Well managed promotion, advertising and marketing will always bring greater revenue than the budget invested. So eliminating that investment will eventually lead to overall lower revenue - not more.

Current economic conditions including skyrocketing costs for transportation, raw materials, supply side inflation, employment shortfalls, rising taxes and generally disruptive economic policy, make it more important now to increase marketing and visibility. Not only will that bring revenue increases now, when the economic eb and flow change, those that kept their brand “front and center” will be the ones customers turn to.

This is important information for both you and your clients. Don’t let your own marketing fall victim to the misguided belief that the savings of not marketing will help your business. At the same time it is critical to help your clients understand the dynamics of marketing communications.

Another key feature of promotional products media is that it is the lowest cost per ad impression (CPM) of all advertising. If clients were utilizing broadcast, print, direct mail or even billboard - shifting those budgets to promotional products media will lower costs and maintain or even improve client contact and brand support.

While there are businesses that have flourished and have seen tremendous growth during the Covid pandemic, many if not most, have not. Those businesses that survived the worst (assuming the worst is behind us) will be looking to regain the business they had. By using promotional products media rather than any other media, businesses are able to target the best potential clients and prospects, avoid waste and place their message where it will be seen hundreds of times without continuing costs. The economy of promotional products media can make even small budgets successful.    

For some businesses, you might still find clients who feel they have no resources to invest in marketing. While we know that is a mistake, you can still help them deliver their message, regain their clientele and build their business. Designing gift with purchase, self liquidating promotions or outright sales at a profit of promotional products gives all the benefits without the costs. For example, a wine shop might include a corkscrew with the purchase of several bottles. They could offer them for sale for several dollars and at a nice discount if other items were purchased.

Each client and situation will be different, but virtually all businesses that have regular customer traffic can usually construct a promotional program that allows the cost of the goods to be passed on to the consumer.

Staying in touch with clients is more important now than when the market is robust. Even clients that are knowledgeable and agreeable to promotional products media, may have their focus on other more immediate issues like supplier inventory, shipping costs or delivery schedules. That makes your communications critical. While any contact is good, delivering a promotional product with your contact information or at least a phone call will always be more effective than a text or email!

Final word - don’t let your client go cheap! Fewer contacts with higher quality products will garner better results than a large distribution of inferior items and still hold to tight budgets. Target the most valuable clients and everyone wins.