With all of the promotional items on the market, it is no small wonder that business owners or organizations wanting to have some freebies to give-away get a little overwhelmed. Not only are there hundreds of different kinds and types of promotional items, there are almost limitless varieties of choices you have to make when you do decide on a promotional item.

Take for instance promotional t-shirts. The kinds of choices you have to consider with them are the color, sizes, material, graphics, long-sleeve or short-sleeve or no sleeve, crew neck, round neck, v-neck, collar, banded sleeve, hemmed sleeve, pocket or no pocket, the information you want to have printed, color of the printing, size of the printing, font of the lettering, kind of printing ink etc., etc. etc Can you imagine how hard it is if your company wants you to select several promotional items for their marketing events? Yikes!

There are a few guidelines for helping you makes these decisions that can make your promotional item campaign very successful.

1. Always think about quality. The quality of the promotional items you give-away can either positively or negatively reflect upon your business. Many people will feel that if you give-away low quality items that you do not value quality and your business and services will be of poor quality.

In general, people do not expect to receive high-end free promotional items but they do expect that the freebie you give them will be of at least average quality. So, as you think about what promotional items you are going to use, be sure that you have the budget to purchase a middle of the range item for distribution.

2. Another aspect of promotional items to consider, when selecting those for your distribution, is what they can be used for or their functionality. People today have so many things in their homes, offices and cars that many of them have had to begin to rent storage units. This is somewhat of a sad characterization of the materialism of today but none-the-less it is a fact – we have a lot of stuff. Keeping this in mind when selecting promotional items will help your marketing efforts.

Buying promotional items that have a function that can be called upon on a daily basis raises the marketing value of that promotional item by leaps and bounds. Some promotional items that fit the bill for functionality are mugs, pens, t-shirts, caps, notepads, umbrellas, flashlights or torches etc. The more you can align your promotional items to everyday needs the more successful your marketing campaign is going to be.

3. A third recommendation for selecting promotional items is to keep the items you buy closely aligned to the purpose of your business. If you sell car parts, you might want to give away promotional window scrapers or car maintenance journals for the glove box etc. There are some promotional items that seem to be universal and can be used no matter what the business such as t-shirts, pens, caps etc. These are universal because they can be printed up with your name and logo and advertise your business every time they are worn or used.

Making your mark with promotional items takes some thinking and planning but when you figure out what will work for you, you are on your way to quality advertising.