The prospect of a downturn in the economy can have a major impact on business. With the UK having such close ties to the U.S. market many businesses have gone into panic mode due to the financial crisis currently affecting the U.S. economy. Whenever there are changes in the U.S. markets, people assume that it will have an impact on the UK market as well and more often than not, it does. Many companies try to prepare the company for a slow-down in sales and the number one direction taken is to cut-costs. Unfortunately the general trend seems to be that the Marketing departments are the first to have budgets slashed.

While there may be some merit in this strategy of cost-cutting what if we look at the other end of the spectrum which involves being proactive to counteract the negative effects of the market drop. Instead of cost cutting why not focus on increasing the effectives of your promotional marketing in order to achieve a greater return on investment. .

Choose Products that reach the largest amount of people in the least budget

It is generally assumed that if you give a cheap product that people won't keep it however that is not the case; the reality is that if you give a product that is not useful it will get thrown out. You could give your customer a beautiful nut-cracker and bowl set but the fact is that it is not an every-day product there will be less opportunities for the product to reinforce your brand with your customer. Try and pick an item that is an every-day necessity like a pen or a mug but invest in a quality item so that it will last a number of years.

Focus on the printed message

Product selection is important but the message is where the marketing begins. Sometimes it is not enough to brand the product with just a logo, with a message or call to action you can run a promotion. If you build a viral campaign in behind your promotional products it is an effective way of rewarding your customers for their involvement with your brand. For example you could build a branded giveaway kit to thank your customer for participating in the promotion. It is important to remember that it is not always the quantity of products that determine the success of the campaign. If you give-away 20 items in a targeted promotion that generates 3 quality leads, there is a greater chance of success than if you give away 100 items at random.

Measure the success of your campaign

How can you improve your campaign in the future if you do not know what you did wrong in the past? There are a few simple ways that you can measure a campaign; why not ask people when they enquire how they heard about your company, print a unique phone number or URL printed on the item so that you know when people ring that number of visit that site the lead was generate from the promotional item.

Lastly, it is crucial to track the campaign. While measuring the performance at the end is important to improve the campaign for the future it is also important to measure performance as you go. A campaign may go for days, weeks or months and if you measure the performance of the campaign from day to day it enables you to make changes as you go. You may start with one idea for a promotion but end somewhere different from where you started. Try not to set your promotions in concrete you should leave some flexibility so that you can make changes in order to get the most impact out of your promotional marketing.