Whether you’ve been tasked with finding a gift for your company party or you’re an experienced promotional product shopper, there’s always a few things to keep in mind while shopping around. Getting the right promotional products should be easy – if it’s something you’re dreading, you’ve been using the wrong types of suppliers for too long.
1. Ease of Use
When you open up a website for the company you’ve chosen, how does it look? Is it confusing, hard to navigate, hiding unexpected fees? You want the buying process to be simple – find the product, decide on color/s, input your quantity, and keep the process rolling. If the website you’ve stumbled across is making you hate the buying process, move onto a different site.
2. Design Services
Who’s doing the heavy lifting when it comes to the design of your promotional products? If you’re an experienced buyer, you probably won’t require as much help as someone who’s buying for the first time. Sometimes you need something more than just your logo slapped onto a product – you need additional pieces like event or sponsor info, variable data (putting individual names on products), and so on. How flexible is their design process, do they tailor their design services to your needs, is their design process confusing or stressful? If are you settling for anything less than your vision throughout the design process it’s a sign to move onto a different company.
3. Quality of Products
Take a careful look at the products being offered on the site, does it look like something you’d be proud to present as a representation of your company? Are there any household names on their site that you know consistently put out desirable, quality product? It’s important to choose a company that will deliver on quality. Get the most out of you promotional product marketing investment you should look for products that will stand the test of time, that your customers or employees will truly love and use, and that your brand can proudly shine on.
4. Post-Purchase Care
Does this company keep in touch throughout the whole process? Do they check in after your purchase and maintain communication to ensure you receive the product you’ve envisioned? Post-purchase care is a crucial part of the industry and if a company isn’t following up to ensure your satisfaction with the product and offer solutions if there are issues then it’s time to look elsewhere for your promotional gear.
The Takeaway
Choosing a trustworthy promotional products company can seem daunting at first but you can streamline the process by keeping four things in mind:
- Their website and its ease of use
- What if any design services they offer
- Whether or not they offer quality products you’d be proud to display your brand on
- Post-purchase care – do they follow up and truly care about delivering on your expectations.