The promotional products industry is so attractive because there are just so many possible clients. Until you’ve really been a part of the industry, though, you might not notice it.
It’s a bit like in “The Matrix,” where a character points out to Keanu Reeves that while he might just see an endless sea of 1’s and 0’s, he sees everything those
numbers create.
Once you’ve been in a position where you have to notice just how abundant promotional products are, you’ll see just how many potential buyers there are.
Some of the biggest verticals in the industry are things like health care, finance, nonprofits, and education. These are industries that need to do more than just reach out to potential clients or buyers. They need to engage with existing partners, they need to provide products for their own staff to keep them happy and looking professional, and they need to appeal to potential donors. The list goes on and on and on.
So how do you, a distributor who maybe hasn’t worked with these vertical markets — or perhaps a distributor who is brand new to the industry — not only land a deal within these verticals, but maintain a relationship and become a reliable source going forward?
Read on for tips from distributors who count these particular verticals among their most successful, and see how they got involved in the first place, what sorts of products work for them, what unique challenges each customer vertical creates, and more.
Education
Remember when you were in high school and you started visiting colleges you were thinking of applying to? Those campus visits made a big difference, as it allowed you to picture yourself walking to class, living in the dorms, having a cold that didn’t go away for four years, and eventually graduating.
Conner West, account manager for HF Custom Solutions, Fort Worth, Texas, says that some of her first customers in the education space were universities, and campus visits were crucial for meeting with the decision-makers who would ultimately buy the products.
“When I first started in promo, I was an account coordinator, and I started working on university accounts that my outside sales rep already had,” West says. “From there, I began building relationships with these clients by visiting them on campus and just keeping up with their real lives, too. Once I had a couple of strong relationships, they started introducing me to their friends in different departments, and we continue to grow still.”
It’s almost like you’re a collegiate athlete that could play for as many schools as you want. You want to meet the coaching staff (the end-buyer), and you want them to show your highlight reels (case studies) to other schools.
“Referrals are huge in the university space, and the best way to gain loyal clients,” West says. “I have grown my university business mainly by referrals. I’ve found that a warm introduction is the best way to start a relationship with a potential new client and gain their trust.”
West says that her job still requires the occasional cold call or email, but having a foot in the door and the ability to reference a project you’ve done that the prospect is familiar with makes it much easier.
In education, it’s logical to first think of products that would fall under the “school supply” umbrella. You wouldn’t be wrong to pitch things like notebooks, backpacks, writing instruments, and things of that nature. Schools need those on a consistent basis. That said, education promos can exist outside of the classroom, too. After all, teachers don’t actually cease to exist once the bell rings and we all go home.
“Something that was huge for us at one of our campuses was a sock campaign we did in my first year,” West says. “We did a spec run with the university’s branding, and delivered some on campus and sent some out in the mail. I still get asked if we make those socks by people on campus.”
Apparel for the school you attend or work at can become a precious keepsake. How many of us still have T-shirts from high school clubs, or the first hoodie we bought during our freshman year at college? I’m speaking from experience, as I still have both of those things. I’ll hold onto them until they disintegrate into nothing but a collection of thread and dust. Go Owls!
West also says mailing kits have become big post-COVID, ever since students began taking their classes remotely.
What can make education challenging, according to West, is the rigid budget. Many schools, public schools especially, just don’t have money to burn on anything, so each decision requires a lot of care and discretion.
“It’s typical of corporate clients to have more wiggle room and flexibility, while most education clients have really strict budgets,” West says. “We have to be conscious of that to make sure we give them the most out of their budget.”
Distributors need to use that same level of care for branding consistency, like using the correct color scheme, or making sure the ideas fit within the appropriate usage of the school’s branding.
Ready to start? West recommends that, if you can, find one “warm connection,” whether it be a referral from a current customer or maybe someone you know who is in the education space, and just build that relationship to the point where you’re comfortable working together.
Finance
Let’s talk dollars and cents, shall we?
Like education, the financial vertical presents a lot of opportunities for things like pens or notebooks, along with more finance-specific items like checkbooks, piggy banks, etc.
Tim Dust, managing director of Go2Partners, Des Plaines, Illinois, says that a lot of his business in the finance world comes from print products, specifically for sides of the financial markets that most people don’t know exist. That said, there are opportunities for things like apparel, too — increasingly so, in Dust’s opinion.
Dust has a background in offset digital printing, and in that role he worked with a lot of credit unions that needed print products for their operations, as well as for their marketing.
“The traditional breakdown of a financial account would have been operations … those are all the printed documents that they use to conduct business,” Dust says. “Everything from ATM receipts to letterhead envelopes, micro-documents, cash-in-cash-out transit slips, all of the paper documents and forms that are used to manage and run a branch operation.”
The other side, he says, entails what the bank or credit union does to market itself to new customers, which often includes direct mail.
Within the bank itself, Dust says that his clients often buy corporate apparel like uniforms for employees, as well as promotional items to give away to people who bank with that company. That’s something he’s seen a lot of growth in over the 40 years he’s been in this world.
Like so many other verticals right now, banks and credit unions are also using e-commerce platforms to provide branded products to employees and customers.
“If you’re selling a program, you’re typically selling an e-commerce platform for automated ordering,” Dust says. “At Go2Partners, we call that our Managed Services program. So we use technology, which is e-commerce technology [and] online stores, and then we create storefronts for the bank or credit union to house all of their documents, collateral materials, and then it was an easy extension just to add corporate apparel and promotional items, and have it be sort of a one-stop-shop.”
Who doesn’t love the convenience of a one-stop-shop?
Dust does warn, though, that sometimes it can be a little more difficult to get a client in the finance vertical if a competitor already does banking business with them, and that’s sort of a unique challenge specific to the finance vertical. “Sometimes you don’t get an opportunity because of the banking relationship that exists,” he says. “I had one bank in Chicago where we do everything but corporate apparel. And the reason we don’t do corporate apparel is the corporate apparel provider has a banking relationship with the bank. It’s a customer, so they’re kind of looking at it and saying, ‘We’re going to support them, too.’”
Finance doesn’t just have unique challenges, though. It also has unique opportunities. Unless you’re well-versed in the operations of a bank or credit union, you might not be aware of just how many items they might need.
Dust points to something called statement processing as something print distributors especially should look into.
“Some of the bigger players, Citibank and places like that, they have their own processing centers, so we would provide them the raw materials that they use for image statements,” Dust says. “But most banks and credit unions are outsourcing that service. So that’s a real opportunity to provide not only the printed statements, but the e-statements and offer a solution as part of your program.”
Health Care
Over the last few years, we’ve all been paying a lot more attention to ways that we can help health care workers feel more valued. During the lockdowns of 2020, we found ways to show our appreciation to the frontline workers from afar.
Now that the world has opened up, health care systems are still looking for ways to not only show their employees that they’re valued, but to keep them looking professional (and comfortable), as well as providing marketing and educational materials to patients.
While Kelsey Jones, account manger for City Apparel + Merch, Findlay, Ohio, comes from the world of digital marketing, she’s honed her craft through tactile products, especially in the health care world. In fact, in her past role in the digital marketing space, she worked for a health care facility, so she knows both the purchasing and distributor sides of the vertical.
As a distributor, one of her biggest clients is a health care system in Ohio, which her company has been working with basically since its inception. Right now, she says that a lot of her repeat orders are onboarding kits.
“On a bi-weekly basis, we’re kitting about 50 boxes,” she says. “It’s a completely branded box. Every panel of the box has custom messaging, that type of thing.
Everything within the box is branded hard goods — water bottle, notebook, wallets, things like that.”
While her business with this health care system goes back years, the onboarding kits really took off over the last year, along with webstore management.
If you’re selling apparel, you might think the health care market would rely heavily on scrubs. Jones, however, found that a lot of her customers are looking for ways to not only be more comfortable, but more stylish on the job, too. Scrubs themselves have evolved over recent years to match streetwear fashion, with jogger style pants and more flattering cuts.
“I would say comfort is key with the health care vertical, whereas other verticals may be focused on the manufacturing side,” Jones says. “When it comes to health care, people are on their feet all day taking care of patients, so obviously comfort is key when we’re offering different apparel options to them.”
The apparel deals can extend beyond the nurses and doctors on the hospital floor, too.
“We did some apparel items for [the health care system’s] team and their board members,” Jones says. “And what I’ve noticed is that they’re willing to hear about the next apparel trend and what’s cool, what’s hip, what’s comfortable. What are people wearing now? We’re a distributor for Marine Layer, which is a brand that is pretty exclusive, I would say. I don’t hear a lot of distributors selling Marine Layer. We actually sold them quarter-zip reversible sweaters. And their board members loved it. They’re all different ages. I just thought it was unique that they were open to the next trendy apparel piece, as opposed to just a quarter-zip that everybody has.”
After the pandemic, when a lot of us had something of a wake-up call about health care and the challenges they face, the hospital systems also tried their best to show their appreciation for the employees working long, difficult hours. That’s meant that they have to be more thoughtful with their gifts for employees, rather than just giving them a slice or two of pizza or a branded item they’d never use.
“We were very specific with the items we chose for these new hire boxes, for example,” Jones says. “I gave them a couple options for pens, and they were like, ‘No, we want a pen that has a flashlight on one side and a highlighter on the other,’ because people are working on the floors, sometimes it’s darker in the patient rooms, it’d be nice to have a flashlight on the pens so they can see what they’re writing. That’s a great point. But somebody working at an office desk might not need an item like that. And it’s something as granular as a specific pen style for that industry, which I thought was kind of interesting. They’ll actually use it.”
Like education, a lot of hospitals and health care systems have very limited budgets, so they can’t go at their promo spending with a shotgun approach, throwing all sorts of products at the wall to see what sticks. They need to know their employees’ needs and wants, and get them something they’ll use.
“I visited the hospital while I was in town, and it’s so cool to see that the stuff we’re doing and the products that we’re offering are being used,” Jones says.
Nonprofit
Ashley Novak, account specialist at 1338Tryon, made contact with her first nonprofit client on LinkedIn. She heard of the organization, Women in Tech, through another client that supported them, and was interested in what they do to foster inclusion in the male-dominated tech space.
Rather than just send the message and call it a day, though, Novak attended the nonprofit’s events to get face-to-face time with team members and show that not only did she want their business, she wanted to be a part of what they were doing.
“Nonprofit organizations want a partner that is looking out for them, not trying to take over their spotlight,” Novak says. “Get to know their membership by attending their events and getting to know their community.”
From there, she got her first campaign with them: a full refresh of their branded materials during COVID.
“They had stopped in-person events, and needed a partner that could help them connect with what became a remote audience,” Novak says. “As their leadership turned over and they transitioned back to in-person events, we provided a value of continuity, and offered ideas on how to push them to grow and better service their existing members.”
Approaching a nonprofit client means not only understanding their mission, but also the audience for the promotional items they sell. Rather than trying to gain clients and drive revenue, a nonprofit works more for engagement and trying to appeal to potential donors or partners.
“Sponsorship and monetary support are important, but the primary focus is to help within their group,” Novak says. “They are not as focused on the promotional product itself, but on using it as a vehicle to further their program development goals and create opportunities for their community.”
What that means is that the products don’t advertise so much as they “build an identity,” according to Novak.
“Most of the time this is on a limited budget, which takes more creativity,” Novak says. “Even nonprofits with big budgets need to be spending it on supporting their communities. They must continue to earn the community trust, and often on a shoestring basis.”
Just like Novak heard about Women in Tech through another customer, a lot of business in the nonprofit sector come from an organization you might have worked with before recommending your services to another.
“For 1338Tryon, word of mouth has been huge,” Novak says. “We have approached nonprofits from a space of education on how to best reach their growth, communication, and service goals. Rather than hard sales, I see my role as the opportunity to provide my nonprofit clients with products and services they’re excited about, that drive membership goals, as well as a home base that allows them to transition through board members smoothly. If we are continually providing value, they tell others who we are and what we did for them. The referrals originate from casual conversations that benefit both their organization and 1338Tryon.”
Those nonprofits, too, might talk to their for-profit partners, leading to more success outside of the nonprofit space. By this point, having worked with a nonprofit long enough, you’ve established that you’re a true team player and trying to do more than just make a buck: You use your promotional products ability to drive brand engagement for a good cause.
“These talking points also translate over to our B2B clients that are involved with these organizations from a space they are passionate about, whch provides growth outside the nonprofit community,” Novak says.
The Conclusion
No matter what vertical market you want to approach, there are lessons from each expert you can apply to your business.
Take a real interest in what your clients do beyond just make money. How do they engage with their customers or members? How do they want the people within the organizational structure to feel valued and appreciated?
How can your products make things easier for everyone involved? What can you do to provide new ideas and change instead of offering the “same old” things the competition has been providing? Once your foot is in the door — whether it’s with a university, a hospital, a nonprofit, or a credit union — you have a real chance at repeat orders. From there, you also have a chance to work with their peers in that space if you have a proven track record of keeping your finger on the pulse and giving them a creative solution to meet their needs.
