Do businesses still buy promotional items? Printed mugs etc....

[HeadTurtle]

I'm good at what I do and I know I can offer a quality product, but is there much of a market for promotional items?

My business sells gifts online through Etsy and has been gradually declining over the past two to three years. I'm looking for ways to pivot to reach a different audience and sell my items in larger volumes.
At present, we can produce items like coffee mugs and coasters etc (sublimated products) and also some printed products. We could provide a lot more products should the need arise and the demand is there.

What I'd like to know is if there is a good market out there still? I thought this would be the best place to ask seeing as you are mostly business owners. Do many of you use promotional items as thank you gifts? Or gift to potential customers / clients? I have had to take a second job so currently working 70+ hours per week. I want to gauge the demand before I commit what little spare time I have, so any advice would be genuinely so appreciated.

 

[NickZ]

Etsy is not that bad as a starter.

Now open a freestanding independent shop, a kind of a second track approach. Cost you around 350 to €400.

Attending etsy is now less time consuming, make best use of that extra time.

Building that up takes time, but you can do email marketing and have a more professional approach than over etsy. Like a domain based E-mail.

 

[fisicx]

There is still a sizeable market for promotional items with a number of companies providing such services. A Google search will give you many examples. What they don’t do is sell through Etsy. They have comprehensive e-commerce websites.

If you want to enter this market you will need considerable investment to develop a similar business model.

I fear you will be working many more hours for little return.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Pens everybody needs a pen
I have pens made

 

[Mark T Jones]

The market s both lively and mature

As with anything, it's really a question of who you are targeting and why will they come to you?

My choice of supplier was simple- their parent company was a customer of mine.

 

[Ozzy]

I'm good at what I do and I know I can offer a quality product, but is there much of a market for promotional items?

My personal advice, and this is pure gut feel and no industry-specific knowledge to fall back on, is that you're at a crossroads in your business
You can either remain the size of business you are and continue to trade through sites such as Etsy but I would suggest looking at the domestic market for novelty/custom gifts for consumers. You're unlikely to reach many businesses through Etsy.
Alternatively if you wish to move into the B2B space then as the others have said above, you need to change your approach to market to reach that audience where they are likely to see your products. This will involve bigger budgets on marketing and upscaling your production.

Both options are just as viable and depends on what you want, personally for you.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

We still buy stuff here and there, both my current job and in my previous one. The problem is it tends to be a race to the bottom on price because it's cheap stuff given away willy nilly at trade shows or perhaps sometimes shoved into orders or something, or visiting a retail store. A store manager or mechanic (we're in the auto game) inexplicably will love being handed a bag of "stuff" - even if it's just a bag full of pens and air fresheners! I found that even though we wanted to continue using some of the businesses that had supplied us for years, they just couldn't compete with some of the online sellers who can knock 5000 pens out for £700 within a couple of days.

My advise if you do do it would be to avoid being a busy idiot and chasing that low margin, low value business. Try and find a niche market or speciality product. Do any of your existing products complement each other? Where we did find value in using some of our older suppliers was that they could consolidate different items for us into kits. So for example a couple of years ago we launched a new product and wanted to get it in front of potential customers. So we sent 50 samples to our supplier, they created 50 kits with a sample product and then a selection nice stuff (I think it was a travel mug, hat and gloves and a notepad, but something actually decent quality not a 15p pen and £1.99 travel mug) and all packaged into a branded box. They sorted the lot for us and including the different sample products and the printing of the boxes etc and I didn't mind paying a premium for that.

Another slightly different approach - a friend of mine was doing branded clothes and merchandise for all industries, but he got a couple of decent customers within the automotive industry. He decided to reposition himself as the "automotive clothing expert". In reality, he doesn't really do anything different to the products he always did! But he focuses purely on that sector now, he spends his time networking within that area and focusing on that and he said he's now getting longer term customers, turning over less but making more money and with less hassle.

 

[PentechMoulding]

I'm good at what I do and I know I can offer a quality product, but is there much of a market for promotional items?

My business sells gifts online through Etsy and has been gradually declining over the past two to three years. I'm looking for ways to pivot to reach a different audience and sell my items in larger volumes.
At present, we can produce items like coffee mugs and coasters etc (sublimated products) and also some printed products. We could provide a lot more products should the need arise and the demand is there.

What I'd like to know is if there is a good market out there still? I thought this would be the best place to ask seeing as you are mostly business owners. Do many of you use promotional items as thank you gifts? Or gift to potential customers / clients? I have had to take a second job so currently working 70+ hours per week. I want to gauge the demand before I commit what little spare time I have, so any advice would be genuinely so appreciated.

I have been in plastic manufacturing since 1989 in London UK and up to 2006 we were the 4th largest company in terms of volume manufacturing Ball and Marker Pens turning around 2 million pens per month supplied through distributors to many large outlets in the UK and Europe and we were the first to introduce forgery note detector markers in the UK plus we did a lot of other plastic injection moulded promotional products for a lot UK companies.

However, in 2007 we had to diversify our manufacturing due to cheap imports flooded the market, i sold my pen assembly lines and multi impression moulds to customer in Pakistan.

We still manufacture plastic injection moulded products in UK some bespoke promotional items and therefore we are always looking to subcontract our printing and decoration of plastic items, Can you let me know where you based and what equipments you have so i can put you on our subcontracting suppliers list.

Kind Regards

Aslam

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

We were putting Pens, Placemats, Keyrings etc., in with every order and have given away thousands. Of several hundred customers I'd be over egging the pie if I said 6 of them said thankyou

We do find that face to face customers appreciate the gesture and frequently give away token items with our name and number on, mainly pens and keyrings.

 

[WaveJumper]

I prefer the bag of Haribo sweats that some include in my purchase's

 

[Chris Ashdown]

The big players in that game supply you with massive sales books showing hundreds of lines. and very competitive prices. That's what you are competing against. Type "Promotional items" into google
I would suggest getting some good quality leaflets printed and walk around the local area, advertise in local press, there are probably thousands of businesses both large and small within a few miles of you, just a small % of them will keep you busy
Set up a simple web site
Far more productive of your time than Etsy

 

[Fagin2021]

I prefer the bag of Haribo sweats that some include in my purchase's

I really resented it when one supplier stopped including a delicious chocolate mint with the order.

Haribo sweats sound disgusting, (still got keyboard problems ?)

 

[fantheflames]

Promotional items can be a lucrative market with a wide range of potential customers. As others have mentioned, it's very competitive and you might need a website - not just selling on Etsy (nothing wrong with selling on Etsy). I'd suggest that you need to be different and add as much value as possible, without breaking the bank. When I've ordered stationary, I always ordered more because I had that 25% discount code I could use or pass on to my clients. I've ordered customised mugs in the past, but as a remote business myself, I only order this for a birthday gift. Perhaps some market research is needed OP!

 

[HeadTurtle]

I hadn't realised there had been so many responses! So thank you everyone that has replied.

I can build a Shopify store no problem (I have one for my Etsy business). I wouldn't be trying to sell these products on Etsy. If anything, I want to get some of my eggs out of the Etsy basket as that's been half the problem the past couple of years.

What I was thinking is that I don't want to sell the same crap everyone else does, and if I did go down this route, I'd want to create a nicer product than you could get from Vistaprint for example... I'm thinking magnetic gift boxes with higher quality items, bespoke to the customer to suit their end goal. Rather than just spamming businesses saying 'buy some pens and give them to your customers' I'd rather ask 'what do your customers like? And what do you want to achieve by gifting them these items?' So in essence I'd want to ensure that my customers would benefit rather than just trying to sell them product.

Would this be worth pursuing in your opinions? And would there be a market? As the products obviously wouldn't be at the lower prices that so many others offer...

 

[fisicx]

Yes there is a market for such items.

But there are already loads of suppliers. Your problems is not the products you wish to sell, it how to market those products.

You need a big budget and lots of contacts. You need to be better at marketing than everyone else selling a the same products.

Unless you go very niche.

I’ve got a crystal tankard issued by Rick Wakeman on his 70th birthday. Really nice presentation box and given to ViP guests at one of his shows. Maybe you could get the tankards, engraving and boxes. But how would RIck’s marketing team know you even exist?

It’s all about marketing.

 

[Mark T Jones]

It’s all about marketing.

This 100%

Google exclusive business gifts - there is no shortage of suppliers. How will you stand out?

 

[fantheflames]

I hadn't realised there had been so many responses! So thank you everyone that has replied.

I can build a Shopify store no problem (I have one for my Etsy business). I wouldn't be trying to sell these products on Etsy. If anything, I want to get some of my eggs out of the Etsy basket as that's been half the problem the past couple of years.

What I was thinking is that I don't want to sell the same crap everyone else does, and if I did go down this route, I'd want to create a nicer product than you could get from Vistaprint for example... I'm thinking magnetic gift boxes with higher quality items, bespoke to the customer to suit their end goal. Rather than just spamming businesses saying 'buy some pens and give them to your customers' I'd rather ask 'what do your customers like? And what do you want to achieve by gifting them these items?' So in essence I'd want to ensure that my customers would benefit rather than just trying to sell them product.

Would this be worth pursuing in your opinions? And would there be a market? As the products obviously wouldn't be at the lower prices that so many others offer...

That's a great attitude to have (not wanting to sell the same 'crap' haha). I do think pursuing a more personalised/bespoke approach sounds promising! I think going niche would be your best bet as marketing would be more attainable! It sets you apart from the generic offerings in the market and adds value for your customers. With a Shopify store and a focus on high-quality, tailored products, you could definitely tap into a niche market.