Are you considering gifting some real estate marketing products or promotional items to potential and current customers?
That’s a great idea, and some convincing marketing facts and figures confirm that it‘s a smart move.
But there are also some pitfalls, which can even be damaging when done wrong.
This article will discuss 14 benefits of using custom real estate marketing products, six statistics about the most popular and effective promotional items, and popular real estate marketing products.
In the last section, you will learn how to stand out, be remembered, and take gifting marketing products to the next level.
14 Benefits of Using Custom Real Estate Marketing Products and Promotional Items
Some may scoff when learning about custom real estate marketing products or promotional items.
I also scoffed until I looked a bit deeper into some statistics.
I was a bit surprised, I must say, but see for yourself, although with a grain of salt, since some of the statistics come from slightly biased sources:
- It is easier to recall the name of a particular brand for 90% of people who receive a marketing product (source).
- On average, one promotional item can generate 344 impressions per month, so, in some cases, this might even be cheaper than some paid traffic advertising methods (source).
- To achieve marketing goals, 70% of brands view promotional items or marketing products as mostly or always effective (source).
- A marketing product can create a more favorable impression of the marketer or advertiser in 53% of cases (source).
- A marketing product is kept for two years by 60% of consumers (source).
- The quality of a promotional item and the reputation of the respective company correlates. This perception is the case for 72% of consumers (source).
- 53% of consumers use marketing products at least once weekly (source).
- Less than half of consumers (48%) wish to receive promotional items more often (source).
6 Statistics About the Most Popular and/or Effective Marketing Products
- 85% of consumers remember the advertiser and brand best when the marketing product is an apparel item (source).
- People consider health, technology, safety, and writing products the most valuable.
- Bags generate the most impressions compared to other marketing products (6000 during the period used (source)). Together with writing instruments, they have the lowest cost per impression at one-tenth of a cent.
- Consumers who received a promotional item did business with the respective company in 85% of cases.
- If the marketing product was made in the USA, 53% of consumers (source), and if it was environmentally friendly, 42% had a more positive opinion about a particular advertiser (source).
- Should you combine marketing products with social media advertising campaigns, you can increase the effectiveness by 44% (source).
In order from most often owned to least often owned, these are the marketing products that consumers keep (source):
- Writing instruments (89%)
- Drinkware (88%)
- T-Shirts (80%)
- Bags (73%)
- Headwear (69%)
- Outerwear (67%)
- Poloshirts (65%)
- Desk accessories (64%)
- Calendars (62%)
- USB Drives (58%)
- Umbrellas (45%)
- Mobile power banks (33%)
So, the main goal of marketing products or promotional items is to increase brand awareness.
Looking at the list above, we can see that marketing products are more effective when they can be used daily by potential and current clients.
And the more often they are used, the more consumers are made aware of a brand’s name, consciously or unconsciously.
This can lead to a higher conversion rate toward a potential sale.
If these products are given away, the marketing message can even be spread (not exactly viral) further.
They decrease the same costs it would have taken to reach more potential clients with other methods.
So to summarize a bit, marketing products can get you more for your money because at least the common ones usually have low prices.
At considerably low prices, you can achieve a high impact.
Suppose you do it right and choose the right marketing products.
In that case, it can be 66% more cost-effective per impression than other forms of conventional advertising, such as magazines, newspapers, and TV advertisements (source).
By using marketing products, you can have your real estate business logo printed on them, which remains in cars, offices, homes, or other places for a longer time.
This makes it easier for your potential clients or repeating clients to recall your real estate business name.
Without being annoying, your marketing message can be reinforced by that.
The benefits mentioned above are more likely to unfold when you ensure your marketing products are well-planned and thoughtful.
I will dig a bit deeper into this important factor in the last section of this article.
Another positive effect is that you take advantage of reciprocity.
This is the deeply rooted human behavior that after receiving a positive action, you want to reward this action (source).
So it creates the feeling of wanting to give back.
You might have noticed this behavior already when you read the statistics above.
Popular Real Estate Marketing Products and Items You Usually Think Of
So the benefits and statistics mentioned above look promising already.
When you search in different search engines for promotional real estate items, you will usually stumble upon these conventional items on the first search result pages:
- Realtor keychains
- Tote bags
- Can coolers and Koozies
- Sports and water bottles
- Pens
- House shape clips
- Stress balls
- Tape measures
- Portable cell phone chargers
- House-Shaped flyswatter
- Calendar house magnets
- Circle magnets
- Mugs
- Vinyl desk ads
- Wine openers
- Stuck umbrellas
The majority of these items have price tags below $10.
All everyday items above can be found in the first searches.
Still, pens, tote bags, and mugs will land early in the trash and don’t yield the promising benefits mentioned in the stats.
How You Could Stand Out, Be Remembered, and Take Gifting Marketing Products to the Next Level
Now, I would like to challenge most of the above.
When you take a different perspective, you can take the already promising benefits of real estate marketing products to the next level in impression, conversion, and referral.
You might remember that I mentioned that the benefits of using marketing products really unfold when you ensure that your marketing products are well-planned and thoughtful.
But what is meant by that?
Luckily, there is a great book I would like to recommend called “Giftology” by John Ruhlin (for free on Kindle Unlimited right now).
The author makes a rather obvious case for smart, thoughtful, and generous gifting.
You will see later why it’s rather obvious but often overlooked.
Ruhlin is allegedly the world’s authority in maximizing customer loyalty through radical generosity.
You can also listen to a podcast episode with him on the Jordan Harbinger Show.
If John Ruhlin had a say, he would discard all the above promotional items ideas.
He would do that even though almost unbiased statistics say they generally have a positive marketing effect.
His teachings have been used by Fortune 50 companies, billionaires, and more.
According to him, gifts are the antithesis of trinkets and promo.
People would make fun of you for a long time if you used your name or logo on Tiffany’s vase you gifted for a wedding of a client or acquaintance.
Nevertheless, this is what happens very often in corporate America.
Rather, he makes the case to approach gifting as if you were a billionaire.
And the aim of the gift should be to make someone feel like a VIP or very special.
The gift should impress the potential client or recurring client.
How?
They should think you went out of your way and put energy, effort, resources, and time into a particular gift.
This doesn’t automatically mean you have to spend a lot of money on it.
But it would mean that it took time, energy, and creativity.
That’s why Ruhlin doesn’t give a standard list of promotional items like the ones mentioned at the beginning of this article to his clients that commission him for the gifting services his company provides.
He even points out that a business logo can add value but may also take it away.
An example he mentions is Gucci’s logo.
It’s tiny, almost not noticeable, but everyone knows that the respective product is from Gucci, nevertheless.
So when using your logo on a gift, it’s a good idea to make it classy and not in the face.
Another point he mentions from his own experience is that people in corporate America put in $100,000 in the proper gifting and get $1,000,000 out.
If done well, it can be an ATM machine, according to him.
He makes an interesting example of the proper gifting to a CEO of a larger company in the finance industry.
To create the right gift, they learned about his legacy, character traits, and some serious health issues he had to fight in the past.
His grandma believed in him and inspired him to get into finance when he was eight.
They included this valuable and personal information in a mug, and this CEO cried when receiving this gift.
This was just a mug that Ruhlin would otherwise discard as a bad gift when used conventionally (e.g., just take a mug and put your company logo on it).
But in this case, this rather conventional marketing product was converted into quite a thoughtful and personalized gift, and it wasn’t just a mug with a logo.
So the trick is to find and create a gift that honors the person, shows them who they are, and matters to the receiving person.
This also means that it’s not the person who spends the most on a gift that wins but who’s most creative.
Ruhlin also mentions the risk of offending people if you are not thoughtful. This can quickly happen with gifting food.
The next important factor is timing, almost as important as the thoughtful and creative part.
You will have the best effect when a gift appears to the receiving person out of the blue.
This is in contrast to sending out Christmas gifts that are almost expected and often happen out of obligation.
The right timing can even compensate for sending out a crappy gift.
According to Ruhlin, most people get the timing part wrong, so your gift will be just part of the noise and not necessarily stand out.
One of the author’s last points in the interview is that gifting needs to be a long game because it’s about relationship building.
So, in conclusion, what can we make out of all this information?
The positive marketing effects of marketing products and promotional items are evident because you can take advantage of the psychological effect of reciprocity.
But to get the best out of it, you might want to put some extra effort and creativity into personalizing these products to show the person who they are.
This can even be done with a pen or a mug, and one prerequisite of being able to do this is knowing the other person well enough.
And we are back again at one of the key principles important for other marketing campaigns: knowing your target audience.
This article has been reviewed by our editorial team. It has been approved for publication in accordance with our editorial policy.
