Using Smartphones To Promote Your Business

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. In today’s digital world, smartphones and wireless technology have become valuable tools, especially in the area of promoting your business. The following contributed post is entitled, Using Smartphones To Promote Your Business.

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Smartphones are, well, smart! They have so many different uses that make them highly beneficial in the modern age. Ironically, a lot of people claim smartphones are dangerous as we spend too much time on them, yet this is precisely why they are such a useful tool for businesses.

People use smartphones almost every minute of every day. Therefore, they present some serious advertising possibilities for a savvy business owner. The trick is learning how to use smartphones to promote your business and find lots of new customers. It’s a lot easier than you might expect!

SMS Marketing

Firstly, we can go down one of the more traditional routes. This was one of the first ways in which people used mobile devices for marketing purposes. If you’re wondering, what is SMS marketing, the short explanation is that it uses text messaging to market your business. You gain contact details of leads, then send promotional texts now and then. When done correctly, it can yield a high ROI. The benefit of this is obviously that you can directly get marketing material to your leads. Plus, the fact that you have their contact details means you’re using targeted leads as well. If they gave you this information, they must be interested in what you have to offer, right?

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Mobile Apps

Developing a mobile app is almost seen as a rite of passage for modern businesses. It can be a great way to grow your business and find lots of new customers. There are many ways you can develop a mobile app, and many purposes it might bring. Some companies use apps as an extension of their online store. In effect, consumers download the app and make purchases on it. Others will develop apps that serve as more of a tool for customers. For example, you run a financial services business and create an app that lets people track their expenses. Either way, the benefit of an app is that you are literally in the palm of the hand of your target market. From here, you can use the app to create exclusive promotions. As such, it encourages more people to download the app. Furthermore, using push notifications via the app also allows you to promote new things direct to your audience via their smartphones.

Social Media

That’s right, this counts as using your smartphone to promote your business. Why? Because most social media users are using mobile devices. Plus, you can easily use your phone to compose social media posts on the go. Take pictures or videos using the camera, then upload them to Instagram or Facebook. It’s almost like on-the-go marketing in the sense that you can promote your business wherever you are, whenever you like. Also, encourage your followers to turn notifications on for your posts. As a result, they will always know when you’ve updated your profile, even if they’re not using the social media app at that specific time.

Essentially, you have to appreciate that you’ve got a very powerful device in your hands. All of your customers will use smartphones every single day. It makes sense to take advantage of this by utilizing smartphones as best as you can.

4 Key Steps To Streamline Your Business and Save Time

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Your most valuable asset is your time and thus as a business owner, you have to think about how to optimize your operations so they can be as efficient as possible. The following contributed post is entitled, 4 Key Steps To Streamline Your Business and Save Time.

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Time is money in business and every penny saved is a penny earned. Being able to streamline your business and cut down on wasted time helps massively in your quest for business success. However, if you are new to running or owning a business it can be a bit confusing, or even overwhelming, wondering what areas of your business that you can save time in or even eliminate altogether. Here are 4 key steps you can take to better streamline your business and maximize your time.

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Standard Operating Procedures

Standard operating procedures, or SOPs for some, are a method of operating that lays out clear guidelines and procedures for performing certain tasks. They should be clearly written down and accessible, especially if you plan on bringing new hires into the company. What these procedures do is help you set up new hires and existing staff with the tools they need to complete tasks quickly and efficiently. By ensuring that all parts of any given task are laid out clearly and with attention to detail, there should be no excuses when it comes to performing tasks correctly and with speed.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is a great way to take some of the stress of running a business away from yourself, so that you may focus on other more important areas, such as customer acquisition and actual work. Anything can be outsourced these days, including your HR, payroll, and general administration. Finding a company that provides all of these services in one place is a huge benefit as you don’t then have to deal with multiple agencies who provide your services. For time and cost-saving, it is worth looking into what companies are out there and how they can help, such as the company at the next link (https://employeradvantage.com/payroll-service-management-and-the-latest-software-solutions/)

Automation

Automating certain parts of your business allows you to save time on smaller tasks that would normally take up your day. You can automate most things from email responses to invoice generation. Remember though that just because you can automate something doesn’t mean you should. Some tasks still require a human touch so if you are going to set up automation make sure that you can keep an eye on it. Some software can be found for free or some can be paid for so If you do end up paying, make sure you are considering how much you are paying to how much time you are saving. Make sure it’s worth it.

Reduce Paper Usage

Reducing your paper waste is a great way to streamline your operations. By removing paper usage you can remove the time that it takes to process and digitize. Doing this will save a number of hours in the long run which will again save you money as well. However, there are some documents that just cannot be eliminated no matter how hard you try. For these documents, it is recommended that you implement a solid and function paper filing and documenting system. It isn’t enough to just put them in a folder and hide them in a drawer somewhere. You must be able to access them as and when you need them, and to be able to do so quickly and efficiently.

What’s Your Flavor: 5 Reasons To Set Up A New Beverage Brand

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A potentially lucrative industry to do business in is the beverage industry. It’s an industry that’s all about creating a unique beverage product with a unique flavor. Once you create a created brand. The following contributed post is entitled, What’s Your Flavor: 5 Reasons To Set Up A New Beverage Brand.

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Some people might tell you that the beverage industry is teeming with all kinds of weird and wonderful drinks. But, there’s always room for improvement. And for unique fusions of flavors that many consumers are bound to love!

Have you created a drink that tastes divine and is unlike any other flavor you, your relatives, or your friends have ever tried before? If so, and the general consensus is that all those people would willingly buy it, you’re likely wanting to bring your beverage to market.

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The thing is, how on earth do you start a business and set up a new beverage brand? After all, isn’t that what only the big well-known brands can do? It might surprise you to learn that many individuals – not large corporations – set up beverage brands each year.

You’re doubtless reading this article because you want to learn more about how to turn your idea into a successful business. You want to share the delights of your flavors with other people, and show the world what they’ve been missing!

Of course, you might be thinking that doing something so ambitious is risky and even scary for one person. The good news is the pros outweigh the cons on this occasion. Here are five reasons why you need to set up a new beverage brand today!

1. You’ll never know if you don’t try

Fear of the unknown shouldn’t be the reason that stops you from pursuing your dreams and goals. You already know there’s a market for your drink, so you shouldn’t be worried that people aren’t likely to buy your beverages. That’s why you should just go for it!

2. You get to enjoy the fruits of your labor

Crafting your unique beverage doubtless took you a lot of time, money, and experimentation. It would be a shame if all that didn’t count for anything when deciding whether to set up a new beverage brand or not. That’s why it makes sense to share your drink with the world.

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3. You can quit your day job

Are you doing something that isn’t particularly rewarding but pays the bills? If the answer’s yes, and you know your drink will be a success, now’s the time to quit your day job and follow your dreams. It’s a leap of faith, but one that will take you to a more rewarding career.

4. You’ll be selling something unique

You’ve done your homework and checked the latest beverage industry statistics. You know that there isn’t a drink on the market even vaguely similar to yours. Use those facts to your advantage and you can introduce a product that people will keep wanting to buy!

5. You’ll unleash your hidden entrepreneurial talents

Last but not least, setting up a new beverage brand will also showcase to the world your hidden entrepreneurial spirit. You may not realize it, but much of the country’s economy is built on the products and services of entrepreneurs like yourself.

Problem Solving Tips For Business

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key aspect of all successful business owners is problem solving. If you don’t have this skill set, there are some key aspects to acquiring it. The following contributed post is entitled, Problem Solving Tips For Business.

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Running a business is one of the biggest challenges you will ever face, and with the current state of the world; this has become even more of an elite skill.

When it comes to running your business, there are a lot of problems that can occur for different reasons, and you may need an rca incident investigation now and again to work out what has caused your business to fail.

Before you throw in the towel and give up on your business it is important for you to assess and solve problems and learn how to improve in the future. Today we are taking a look at problem solving in business and how you can ensure the success of your venture.

Define the problem

The logical thing to do when a problem arises in the business is to identify it. If you don’t know the source of your problem, how could you possibly solve it and move on? Make sure that you sit down and consider every possible scenario and understand what your business has done to cause an issue.

Let’s say for example a marketing campaign has failed. The first thing you must do is look at the data and assess why the campaign failed. Are the demographics right for your target audience? Was the budget big enough to gain traction? Did you run the campaign for long enough?

Once you identify the source of the issue you can move onto the next stage.

Identify possible solutions

Once you have worked out the source of an issue you need to sit down with a team of others and explore possible solutions. Taking the example above, if we say the cause of failure is the demographics, the task now is to explore the target audience and drill down demographics to create new filters. If you have a pool of existing customers for a service and you want to create a social media campaign on this, a heat map can be created and the locations of these people can be targeted. You may want to target people by age, social class, interests… and create a few scenarios that could solve the issue.

Test your solution

When you come to solve an issue there may be some trial and error. It is only natural that you might make more than one and need to adjust it until you get it right. Take the possible solutions you have and test them with a lower budget or a low intensity. This will allow you to test the water and decide which of the solutions fits your needs.

Use the solution

Once you have tested your solutions and got results back it is time for you to choose a solution and run with it. It is important for you now to record the process you have taken and use your solution to better the business.

This is a simple process for solving problems in the business and it will allow you to solve any issue you have within your business.

Four Benefits Of Improving Your Website

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. I today’s digital age, having a website is critical whether you are in business or blogging as a passion for example. Updating your website and making sure it pops is critical on several fronts. The following contributed post is entitled, Four Benefits Of Improving Your Website.

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Improving a website is more important than ever when it comes to this modern-day and age. So much of business can rely on the online world, and so it’s essential that your business is doing everything it can to reach new audiences and generate profits through the website. The website is also the online face of the company, so it needs to be good. Here are four benefits of improving your website.

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More Traffic

There are so many individuals online that you might be hard-pressed to find someone who isn’t. They’re more the minority now when it comes to those who have no digital footprint whatsoever. Having a great looking website is an advantage for any company that is looking to build more traffic. When your website doesn’t look fantastic, it’s likely to put people off from even navigating on your site, let alone purchase anything or follow through with an action. When it comes to gaining more traffic, having a website that not only looks good but is churning out plenty of content is going to help boost it. Content is very beneficial nowadays, and if your traffic is engaging with that content, you’re likely to get even more popular as a result.

Access To A Global Market

When it comes to owning a website, the global market is available to you when it comes to the online world. Having a website that looks good and functions well is going to do wonders for your traffic. Not only that, but you open yourself to opportunities on a much wider scale. The market you’re currently hitting now is only a fraction of what you could potentially achieve. Have you always wanted to take your business global? Well, now is the right time to be able to do it, as long as you’re choosing a business like Rsmconnect.com to do your website designs.

Increased Sales

Increased sales are certainly something you want for the business, and when you’re increasing your sales, it gives you more opportunities to grow and thrive. When a customer is looking on your website and potentially wanting to buy something, the design and functionality of the website can be an influence on whether they go ahead with the purchase or not. Improving web designs and making them more professional in appearance can lead to more sales.

Builds Relationships With Customers

And finally, websites are a great way to help build relationships with your customers. Your customers are important to business, and you want to create a relationship beyond that initial transaction. The more time you spend on your customers, the more you can help grow the community you’re creating as a business. You want to return customers and helping grow your communications through the website, and your social media handles can make that so.

Improving your website has a lot of benefits, so if your website is in need of an update, do it. Don’t let it become outdated and irrelevant to the changing online world.

How to Grow your Business Fast and Without Compromise

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Once you start a business and are running it successfully, you will probably start think about growing and scaling it up which is a very important step. The following contributed post is entitled, How to Grow your Business Fast and Without Compromise.

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Scaling your business can be difficult. It takes a lot of effort, and if you want to be successful, then you need to make sure that you do everything you can to take the right steps and at the right time.

Build a Sales Funnel

The best way for you to grow your company quickly would be for you to get a sales funnel. If you do not have a sales funnel, then you could be making a huge mistake. Sales funnels are ideal because they help you to automate your business and they also help you to grow quickly. Sure, there is some degree of back-end work involved but at the end of the day, when the process is in place, it is smooth sailing from there. Every sales funnel needs to be conceptualised before it is ultimately created. Think about the different funnels first, whether it is a free-shipping offer or whether it is a high-ticket coaching funnel. It’s vital that you choose the right one as this will help you to grow your company overall.

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Use a Customer Management System

Manually tracking all of your transactions can be a very slow and difficult process. It’s one that nobody wants to do either. It’s far too cumbersome and as your business grows, you may struggle to stay on top of everything. If you want to help yourself then you need to try and use a customer management system if you can. There are so many out there for you to choose from but the one you choose will ultimately depend on your line of work. It’s important that you have a good internet connection if you want to make the most out of your software, so look up some internet providers before you make your decision.

Research your Competition

When you go to market and you finally get the chance to get your offer out there and to the masses, you have to make sure that you research the competition. There are so many options available if you want to go ahead with this, and when you utilise them you will soon find that it is easier than ever for you to capitalise on your online marketing strategy.

Create a Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs are one of the best ways for you to increase your sales. It costs three times more for you to acquire new customers when compared to selling something to customers who you already have. If you want to try and get the best loyalty program, then you need to offer things that would interest your target audience. This could mean offering a free holiday bonus package if you sell vacations, or even giving a money-off voucher if you sell music records.

Identify any New Opportunities

It’s vital that you do everything you can to analyse any new opportunities that might come your way. You need to understand everything from distribution channels to your direct competitors and more. You also need to do an analysis of the foreign market too. This will help you to pinpoint any potential issues while also helping you to come across new and exciting opportunities.

Changing Brand Perception With The Right Story

Two focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A critical piece of any business is its branding. Interestingly branding isn’t something that’s entirely static. There are some elements of branding that are fluid which must evolve over time. The following contributed post is entitled, Changing Brand Perception With The Right Story.

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Brand perception goes a long way in business. If people have a general mistrust or misliking of a company, their reputation can start to permeate all of their dealings, making it harder to keep customers loyal and to make the right first impressions. However, stories can change over time, and there are ways that your business can help them change sooner.

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Respond to the perception
If there has been a negative reaction to some part of the business, whether it’s how it handled some marketing or support issue, or a misconception around an aspect of the product or service you provide, ignoring it only works sometimes. If that perception is too widespread, it’s best to know how to get ahead of it and to respond appropriately to criticism. The best way in the majority of cases is to welcome it and accept it with humility. If you can end up entirely solving a customer concern and publish the results of how you did that, it can win your business a much better reputation.

Do some good
There are some elements of your business you can’t change. For instance, some industries and products have a reputational bias they have to fight, often due to people simply misunderstanding how they work. For an example of how to handle that, look at how charitable CBD companies use cause marketing to not only do good and live up to their brand values but to shine a spotlight on aspects of their industry that customers might understand. Don’t try to use social corporate responsibility to distract from criticism, but rather to keep a platform that allows you to better inform and assuage customer concerns.

Make sure your selling point gets through
Sometimes, the “bad” parts of your company’s reputation and the audience’s perception of the brand isn’t all that damaging, but you simply haven’t provided enough of the good to balance it out. Make sure that you’re using brand messaging to your advantage by investing more in your online marketing campaigns. By making sure that customers are hearing the right message about your business, not only the wrong message, you can slowly shift perceptions in your favor.

Be authentic and consistent
If you want to boost another message about your business, whether it’s the good your products and services do, the way you handle negative criticism, or the good that your company does, you have to make sure it stands up to scrutiny. Do what you can to keep your branding consistent by, for instance, publishing the story you want to tell as part of the company’s core values. This is more than public signaling, this also helps the team ingest and integrate those values by acting as a constant reminder of the ideal they’re supposed to aim for.

If you’re finding that the perception and reputation of your brand have been taking a hit as of late, then consider ways that you change the story that’s told about it. Consider the tips above and put a genuine effort into showing the good side of your business.

Run Your Own Profitable Handyman Business In 3 Steps

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. There is a lot of power in learning the skill trades. Not only are they profitable skills on an individual level as a singular ‘handyman’, but they can be powerful once harnessed into a business. The following contributed post is entitled, Run Your Own Profitable Handyman Business In 3 Steps.

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If you would like to start up your own small business and you know exactly what you would like to do with it, then that is something that you will want to think about long and hard before taking the necessary steps. One of the small businesses that many people think of turning to when they want to just help people out in their local area is the handyman business. This is where you are essentially a general handyman for the people in your area, and help them out with whatever home problems they might have. It’s a great career choice if you have always thought of yourself as a handy person to have around, and you will find that it is varied enough that it remains interesting, while ensuring that you get plenty of custom. Let’s see how to make it profitable.

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Know How To Market Yourself

First of all you have to make sure that people are actually going to hear about your services, which is not necessarily something that will always come easily. Marketing yourself as a one-person small business means that you want to focus on making yourself the brand image and vice versa. As long as you do that, you will find that you are going to get many interested people wanting your services. It’s a simple matter of advertising yourself in the local paper, on local radio, and simply by talking about your services with as many people as possible too. If you do all that, you are going to find that you are getting many more customers in no time.

Schedule Yourself Properly

It’s important to ensure that you tread the line between having no customers and being far too busy. That means that you need to learn how to properly schedule yourself, which is something that anyone can easily learn – but it does take some patience and practice to do so. One of the best ways to make this easier for yourself is to get hold of some decent handyman software, scheduling software which can help you with every aspect of running your business – from planning out your days and weeks to chasing up invoices and everything in between. By scheduling yourself properly, you show yourself respect and you ensure that you are operating in a profitable manner.

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Define Your Ideal Customers

It’s important to know who your ideal target customers are going to be, as that will inform the way in which you market your services and you will find that you are going to be much more likely to have a lot of them flooding in at any one time. This is likely going to be based on research you have carried out in your local area, and that requires that you have a good understanding of the people that you live and work amongst. That is vital in making yourself a part of the local community in a strong way, and therefore building trust with people as you would hope to.

Building A Business From Your Passion

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. One of the best businesses you can start is a business built on your passion. You have to be smart about it though. The following contributed post is entitled, Building A Business From Your Passion.

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Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

There is a saying that if you love what you do, then you will never work another day in your life. Those that say that, probably haven’t ever run their own business, the truth is, if you love what you do, you will work harder, lose all your boundaries and take everything quite personally. You will, however, enjoy every part of it.

Starting a business is simple; anyone can do it. You don’t even need to have a particularly good idea. Sustaining a company and making it work is different. This is much harder to achieve but, if what you do is what you love then you’ll make it happen. If you don’t love what you do, then all of your stakeholders will feel that. When you are genuinely passionate about your work, everyone will see it and your enthusiasm will become infectious.

You must know enough about the industry you love before you embark on starting a business. If you are a jewellery maker, then you need to know what is the material that everyone wants to buy right now. You might be creating stunning pieces that are gold plated, but if the market prefers 925 sterling silver, you might need to adapt your work. You also need to know all of the best places to source equipment and materials. If you don’t have any experience, you might make some simple mistakes. This could lead to overspending or under budgeting.

Talk to other people in the industry. Check on LinkedIn or Facebook to see if there are any networking events in your area. This is a great place to pick up vital tips from people who have shared a similar journey to the one you are about to start.

Don’t sit still. You haven’t got to throw the towel in at your current job and go head first into business. Take some time to create a strong business plan and an economic forecast. You need to understand what money and time you need to make this work. It’s a good idea to speak to a financial advisor to help you work through all the figures and make sure you haven’t missed anything. This will also help you understand any tax obligations that you may not have known about.

When you do take the plunge, you need to surround yourself with positive people. However, you also need at least one friend to help keep you grounded. If no one in your circle challenges your decisions, then you might not make the right decisions. We need people to cheer us on but guide us too, as sometimes we can be blinded by our passion.

Whatever you choose to do, if you have the passion, then you will find the dedication, and this will help lead you to success. Prepare to work harder than you have in your life and understand you will need to make sacrifices, the journey is a long one, but you will have a future enjoying every moment of what you do.

Inspired Merchandise Ideas For Any Event

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Depending upon the type of business you’re running, the need may arise to host special events. As such, lots of thought must go into event planning. Events can be made more memorable and successful just using the right merchandise. The following contributed post is entitled, Inspired Merchandise Ideas For Any Event.

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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Everyone loves collecting merchandise when they attend trade shows or events. It’s one of the perks. Company’s go to great lengths to attract people to their stands, so having a few lonely branded pens and note pads aren’t going to cut it in today’s competitive market.

You don’t have to break the bank, but you do need to get creative if you want to compete for people’s attention.

ID Lanyards & Holders

Many companies issue employees with cards that allow them to swipe in and out fo the office. Why not hand out branded lanyard that can go around the next, or connect via reels to a person’s clothing?

It’s a super useful piece of kit that might not seem very exciting but it’s something that a lot of people need, and will use multiple times per day.

Power Banks

Who doesn’t have a smartphone these days? A portable power bank that lets you recharge your phone, tablet, or even laptop on the move. Produced in your company color, with your logo, it’s a great way to position yourself as invaluable to your target audience.

You can choose from a smaller unit, that is good for phones, through to a more expensive, larger one that will easily charge a laptop. This is an item that is likely to be kept for a long period of time.

Desktop charger/dock

Many people like to keep their phone on charge when they’re working at their desks, that way they know that if they have to leave the office, they’re taking a phone with a full charge.

A desktop charger will let them just place their phone in the dock, upright, so that they can still see notifications when it is being charged.

Mini Bamboo Speaker

Good quality, portable speakers are priceless. People love taking them on holiday or using them in places around the house where they don’t have another way to listen to the audio. A speaker can usually last for around 8 hours on a single battery charge.

A bamboo speaker is a great option for those people looking to lessen their impact on the environment by reducing the amount of plastic.

Go for the best quality you can afford.

Umbrellas

If you live somewhere with a less than perfect climate. An umbrella is a good idea. Large golf umbrellas are popular but if you want more people to carry around your branding, go for the smaller, telescopic umbrellas that can fit into a bag or briefcase.

If you’re really looking to up your umbrella game, there are even such things as smart umbrellas that can track the weather and have a built-in tracking device so you can find it if you lose it.

Wireless Mouse

Laptops are great, but if you’re using one for a long period of time, the trackpad can become a bit irritating to use all of the time.

A compact wireless mouse that connects to their laptop via Bluetooth will come in handy and light up your logo when in use.

Smart Backpack

Briefcases and old-fashioned work bags are becoming a thing of the past in a lot of industries. To take advantage of this, a smart backpack can hold your phone in its strap, so that you can use it hands-free if you need to. It also has a charging cable that can recharge your phone or any USB device directly from your bag.

RFID Card Holder

Contactless payments are great. They are so convenient but one of the downsides to this contactless technology, is the opportunity for people to steal your money with wireless payment readers. An RFID protector is a sleeve designed to hold your credit or debit card and block anyone from being able to read your card details. It fits inside a wallet or purse like a standard credit card.

Bamboo Coffee Cup

Even though it’s reported that younger generations just aren’t drinking coffee anymore, it’s still a multibillion-dollar industry. Why not give your customers a beautiful, reusable, and eco-friendly travel mug in which to have their favorite drink. You’ll also be saving them money too as many places offer discounts for people who bring their own cups.

Ice Scraper Glove

Another product to file under the boring but useful category. If you’re in the right industry and the right location, then an ice scraper glove is a perfect piece of equipment, which will likely remain with someone for years. If, on the other hand, you live in a place that hasn’t seen snow for 50 years, you might want to reconsider your choice.

Webcam Cover

The world seems to conduct it’s meeting on Zoom at the moment and we’ve all heard the horror stories about people accessing our webcams without our knowledge. A webcam cover is a small, branded sticker which sticks over your webcam that you can slide back when you need to use it, and close again when you want to be sure you have absolute privacy.

Jute Bag

Another chance to show off your green credentials by providing an eco-friendly and useful item. A well designed, reusable just bag is a huge attraction at events. Choose a size that people can fit a lot into but is easy to store away.

If you want maximum longevity out of it, be creative with your design and branding. No one wants to be a walking advert, so think about clever ways to weave your branding into an attractive design.

Key takeaways

Everyone loves merch but you have to put effort into thinking about what is useful and what is gimmicky and will be thrown away. The best items are good quality, well designed, and have a practical purpose which will see them used over and over again, ensuring that your brand is getting the maximum value of its promotional spend. That’s not to say that pens and notebooks don’t have their place, everyone loves a good quality pen, but you need to look beyond that if you’re going to keep up with the competition.