Why your company should be making merchandise worth sharing
If you want to increase your brand awareness, you probably know that one of the best ways is through merchandising. Better than giving generic accessories to target and loyal customers, think about an original way to get their attention with valuable promotional items. It shows you care and want to offer them the best possible experience through excellently designed, useful products. You want to give them something that they'll be happy to post on their social media pages.
Many people still don't know how powerful merchandised products can be when they're shared online – so take a moment to familiarise yourself with it, and see why it's something that can boost your business.
The Importance of Social Merchandising
Media outreach strategies awaken the desire of customers to buy products or consume services. Custom merchandising for companies is an accessible and high-impact way that helps promote a business, converting fans and followers to new customers. Through one or more personalised promotional products, you will not only improve the branding and image of your company in the online and offline world, but it will also help you to promote your core products and services. Ensure you cover merchandising in your employee onboarding to make sure everyone's up-to-speed with what's on offer–the merchandise list can truly get long! Additionally, don't forget to reward your employees with good paystubs to make them feel motivated.
During 2020 we saw all kinds of brands go digital as many changes in the sales and marketing strategies were taking place. Customers have become more demanding over the past few years, and to succeed in the online world, and we can not just create a website and an Instagram account and leave it there. You need to invest in people who know how to manage it, post good quality pictures and videos that communicate with your online community (and if you haven't already, make sure you build an online community!), which would increase your engagement and brand awareness.
Most important tools to make your products shareable on Social Media
To succeed on social media and get people to share your posts, there are certain things you will need to bring to your account in order to get your followers' attention. With that in mind, we prepared a shortlist of the most important things you should be doing on your social media:
Storytelling
In order to create a real connection with your community and stay front of mind, it's important to give them good content. If, for example, you have an eCommerce store, make sure to create a blog section and share informative content on it. Additionally, you should also focus on good WooCommerce hosting and creative UI/UX design to make your user experience even better. One idea is to bring your products and campaigns to real-life situations in a natural way. It can be someone using your stationery items, or a nice picture of an object with a cool background. Don't forget to write a nice message in the caption. The most important thing about storytelling is not simply doing it because someone else does. Do it with a purpose. Create valuable content with themes that respond to the problems or situations that your ideal client is experiencing. Make sure to get a heads up when competitors publish new content so that you can share something better. A well-structured photoshoot can involve your audience, make them feel like a friend, encourage them to ask for more, and emotionally create new connections.
Instagramable products
To catch your audience's attention, it's essential to invest in outstanding and creative pictures of your products. If you organise them on your feed by colour, you can create greater visual impact and guide your consumer's attention, making them spend a lot of time looking at your profile and increase the chances of buying something.
Pay attention to detail and be strict with the pictures you upload. Besides being beautiful, photos need to have good lighting, be high-quality (don't use a picture that looks a bit blurry or pixelated), and have some photo production invested as well. Styling the shots well is sure to get people's attention. Have you ever seen a brand selling stationery products, for example? They always create a pleasant environment by putting notebooks and personalised pens together.
About your company
Social media has become one of the most powerful tools to promote a brand name and image. From Messenger chatbots and Instagram shops, it allows brands to connect and engage their audiences successfully. It's also interesting to show your community about your new products, who you are, what you do, how people can benefit from your products, and maybe some open positions in your company. With all this information on the internet, your brand attracts the attention of new followers and customers, allowing you to increase your brand awareness, shares, build a positive image of your business, and raise sales. (It's also worth looking into boosting revenue through psychology sales!)
Think about the different reasons we have to share a picture of a product. Maybe it's for the design? Our experience with the company? Because we trust the brand? Their values? Discount code, possibly?
Besides that, you can also support local events in your city or country, depending on the size of your business, and give promotional gifts for the ones participating or send them to influencers on social media. You can share the pictures of your event on your profile but also the ones who received your gift will be sharing pictures of the event, and through your merchandising strategy, many others can get to know you. Think about it, how much would it cost for you to give out personalised pens to the attendees, or a tote bag with your logo on it? Close to nothing. But this simple gesture could produce a domino effect leading to organic and unpaid content from your guests, turning them into brand ambassadors willingly sharing photos of your products on social media. This will unequivocally boost your event, your reach, and your engagement.
But now let us know what would attract you? Put yourself in the consumer position and try to see your strategy from a different point of view.
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