Advertising is a costly affair, and getting consumer engagement on a ground level is actually tricky. Anybody can shell out money and gain attention, but there is a fair chance that consumer engagement may only last for a short time. That's why most businesses turn to innovative loyalty strategies that help them connect with their target audiences more realistically, so much so that their target audience itself becomes their brand advocate. There are many ways to convert a consumer into your brand advocate, like getting them enrolled in referral programs, offering up top-quality products (the best option), giving them unique discounts and offers, personalized engagement, and offering swag merchandise. However, in this blog, the focus will be on the benefits of using swag shops. Using swag products, many businesses attract consumers, showing their product quality, and get word-of-mouth advertising worth thousands of dollars. According to a Statista study, in 2020, 21.6% of marketers used online swag bags as a marketing tool to engage virtual event attendees. It’s magical (once you see the results, you’ll actually feel like it’s magic). Let’s learn about the advantages of giving swag products to your consumers! Affordable Cost-Per-Impression Advertising Specialty Institute (ASI), which has conducted a study to demonstrate the impact of promotional/swag products on consumers and how they behave globally, proves that the swag products yield desired results in a much more cost-effective manner as compared to other forms of advertising. Offering swag items for free as a promotional product or in return for reward points/tokens helps establish a meaningful connection between a brand and their consumers. It's a chance for the brand to get into the top-of-mind awareness of customers. Once you've achieved top-of-mind awareness, you can quickly get word-of-mouth publicity from your customers, which ultimately makes your consumers your brand advocate. Once your consumers become your brand advocate, you start getting genuine walk-ins/website impressions, even if you spend less on advertising. Helps Burn Reward Tokens/Point Swag shops, mainly Loyal-n-Save's, empower consumers to get more than one swag item from your store through reward tokens they've accumulated by shopping at your store or online website. Swag merchandising not only helps in getting good word-of-mouth publicity, but it also enables you to burn reward tokens of consumers and keeps them excited & motivated about earning more tokens to acquire more products. It's the best way to keep your customers returning to your store for shopping. Get Social Media Mentions It’s super easy to get social media shoutouts, mentions, or referrals through your swag merchandise if your customers like your products. Moreover, you can tell them to post an image with your swag on social media and get some great deals or discounts. It’s another way that a swag shop helps your customers become your brand advocates for much less investment. Engage with the Audience for a Longer period When your consumers get swag merchandise, there’s a fair chance that the merchandise stays with them for a much-longer portion of time. This allows your brand to engage with your customer entirely differently. It can become an integral part of their life or something that they use on a regular basis. According to ASI, if you consider the facts about the promotional products, swag shirts are kept for an average of 14 months by the consumers. Every time the user wears the brand’s t-shirt and looks into the mirror, they see its name, tagline, or logo. It’s as if they see your promotional posts almost every day, except this time, you didn’t pay for them. Make Your Brand Famous for Gifting Through Loyal-n-Save Swag Shop, you can actually give your customers the option to deliver your merchandise to their friends and family on their birthdays and other occasions. Consumers can buy merchandise using their reward tokens to gift the Swag to their friends. It’s another form of indirect advertisement or a referral. What is Loyal-n-Save Swag Shop? Loyal-n-Save Swag Shop is a portal where stores/brands can offer their Swag products for customers to purchase with their reward tokens. You offer t-shirts, pens, coffee mugs, and many other products that have your brand name/tagline, or even just a logo in that portal. There are a lot of things your consumers can do. They can gift their Swag to their friends, convert reward tokens into shopping coupons, and even set a goal to earn their favorite product. To Conclude You want your target audience to interact with your product—touch it, feel it, and use it. Offering swag products is the perfect way to achieve that because you can reach people who don’t even know your brand or have just heard about it. You don’t even have to run marketing campaigns or spend a whole lot of money to acquire new customers because if the customers like your product, they’ll come voluntarily to your store. This article was written by Loyal-n-Save, an omni-channel customer loyalty solution for retailers looking to increase customer retention and new customer acquisition.
