Some of the best product and company promotions involve a series or combination of promotional items. While many people think of promotional items as a one-off giveaway that publicizes a company, some of the most successful promotions run for years on end, and involve an entire swatch of promotional items that customers can earn, win or purchase when they qualify.

How to Choose a Series of Promotional Items

One popular way of using a variety of promotional items is with limited release series of promotional items. Your company chooses a type of product that can be customized in various ways, and releases a different edition for various events or during succeeding time periods. Many companies do this unconsciously when they put out an annual promotional calendar, which sometimes become collectors’ items. You can set out to consciously create a collectors’ series for your product though. Some of the most popular items that can be used as collectors’ series promotional items include:

1.coffee mugs with different sayings, pictures or logos each year or season

2.collectors’ tins to hold your product, especially popular for candy, mints, coffee and biscuits

3.stress toys in different shapes related to your business

Don’t forget to send out an inaugural announcement with the first item in the series of promotional items, letting customers know that it’s only the first of a series. If you’ve designed in advance, your inaugural announcement can even show photos of the rest of the series of items.

Offering Promotional Items through a loyalty or members catalog

Popular brands of just about anything can take advantage of their popularity by allowing customers to “earn" promotional items bearing the company logo. These loyalty items are given out when customers return a specified number of proofs of purchase, and are often ordered from a catalog of promotional items. Some popular items given away this way are:

1.items of apparel like t-shirts, hats and jackets

2.coffee mugs, travel mugs and coffee makers

3.leisure and sports items like picnic baskets, wine coolers and sports bottles

4.health and activity items like pedometers, jump ropes and hand weights

The loyalty items that you choose should range from inexpensive trinkets with your company name on them to high end products like CD players, good quality sports wear and laptop or travel bags so that you have a wide selection of promotional items at different levels. Be flexible in your redemption policy for best results. In most cases, many customers will be thrilled to have the option to buy products rather than spend months saving proofs of purchase to earn them. Give them an option, and maybe even let them combine the two methods to earn the promotional items at the highest levels.

A coordinated promotional campaign using a series of promotional items is an excellent way to extend the life of your promotional budget. You’ll find that your customers will line up for the chance to earn and buy products promotional your company, and wear them (or use them) with pride!