October is Financial Planning Month: Are You Ready for Next Year's Marketing?

1. The benefits of planning your promotional activities in advance

While you may not have heard of it, it’s Financial Planning Month during October – and that’s the perfect time to reassess your financial situation. As we approach the holiday season when spending in the US begins to increase, there is no better time to ensure you have a financial strategy in place. This is especially important if you’re a business owner, as careful planning and a well thought out marketing strategy will enable you to reduce bills and promote financial growth. It’s a good idea to designate around 6 to 12% of your marketing budget to merchandizing. If you’re an up-and-coming small business, you may want to spend as much as 20%.

When utilized effectively, promotional products can be a crucial part of any merchandizing strategy. Whether you wish to reward customer loyalty or promote brand retention, among other things, having a plan in place when using customized merchandise can be extremely beneficial. We’re here to show why financial planning can be so important when it comes to merchandizing.

2. Ensures appreciation

One of the main benefits of merchandizing is that it allows customers not only to appreciate your product but also to feel appreciated themselves. This leads to greater brand awareness, which promotes future sales. To ensure maximum appreciation, it’s always best to plan ahead. Firstly, you want to make sure that the promotional products you choose are those which are going to facilitate the greatest brand exposure. Pens, mugs, bags and notebooks, for example, are likely to be used on a daily basis, which means that recipients are much more likely to remember your brand and shop with you in the future. Dedicating a good portion of your marketing budget to these types of promotional items in particular is sure to generate higher sales and customer loyalty. Planning ahead and knowing exactly what to spend your money on is essential.

3. Make your budget go further

By prioritizing high-retention items such as pens and mugs, you’ll also be making your budget stretch further. Not only will these products generate higher sales in the long run, but they are often cheaper per unit to purchase from us here at EverythingBranded. The humble pen, for example, comes in as one of the cheapest ways to make a real, long-lasting impression among customers.

4. Target your desired audience

Careful planning also allows you to appeal your target audience. A key part of doing this is to utilize personalized items for events or conferences relevant to your industry. Are you an athleisure brand? Then you may want to attend a sports fair ready to hand out your promotional items. Are you a cafe or bakery? You may want to attend a local food festival. You get the idea… It’s very unlikely that setting up a stall space at an event is free, so it's important to ensure that you designate sufficient funds for doing so. In this way, you’ll be able to hand out promotional products directly to people already somewhat interested in your product or industry. Merchandise is also a great way of making sure you stand out from the competition. Is it more likely that a customer will choose you over others if you offer them a free gift? They sure will! Getting you to the fair and promoting your brand’s message directly to your target audience can only be achieved following careful financial planning.

5. Measure customer sentiment

Planning ahead also allows you to measure customer sentiment (which is essentially customer attitudes and feelings towards your brand). This can be extremely helpful to gauge attitudes towards your current promotional strategy. By utilizing direct customer feedback, social media, and the Net Promoter Score (calculated by subtracting the number of detractors from the number of promoters and dividing by the total number of customers asked), you are able to assess whether your current technique is effective. Financial planning is also an important part of this because it’s likely you’ll need to hire people with marketing experience. Likewise, some marketing tools used to determine customer sentiment require payment to use them so ensuring you have sufficient funds to these utilize tools and experience will be extremely beneficial to your business.