Promotional products and your online community

There’s a very real challenge for businesses and organisations to meet the fast pace of digital media marketing in a substantive way. Just posting and moving through the motions of engagement on Facebook may get you a lot of followers, but are they a part of your brand’s community?

The difference between a community and an audience is obvious, a community participates and an audience spectates.  Promotional products, by and large, are participatory items, we believe they are the perfect, often missed element to marketing strategy that can turn your audience into a community.

Content is king

We all know how challenging it can be to maintain a constant stream of content and video is the crown jewel in all marketing campaigns. You can use promotional products to turn your digital engagement into a community building event by encouraging or rewarding the sharing of images or video of your promotional products in a unique way. People care about content they create, and they’re invested in their success.  This makes community driven content that is relevant, authentic and well thought out – and about you.

Sharing and caring matters.

Online communities grow stronger and faster when there is a feeling of mutual sharing and caring.  Digital communities are merciless and can easily tell when you’re faking it, or when you’re just going through the motions.  Community’s are made up of more than just clients, there are other organisations, peers, businesses and competitors.  Use a promotional product to be participatory in how your community engages, or to thank a community for an action, or even for no reason at all but to say hi. These are all ways for you to demonstrate an authentic investment in your community that are likely to be shared online.

Be Sentimental

Promotional products that drive nostalgia are more likely to be shared.  People love items that bring back memories and feelings. The best part is they like to share those feelings on digital media.  This is where the more quirky or unique promotional products will come into play.  Deliver a promotional product that is a toy from childhood, or a well known character in a book or movie and there’s no end to the content your audience will create on your behalf.

Think Snapchat filters for a new car dealership where new car owners take a Snap with their new car before they leave.  That’s great engagement.  But by giving a gift pack or premium keychain the dealership created an experience and a conversation the client will want to share past that farewell Snap at the yard.  At Point7, we believe combining promotional products with a digital campaign, opens a world of opportunities and ideas, to turn your online audience into a brand community.