There are almost 30 million small businesses<\/a> in the United States. That number balloons every year thanks to a strong economy and low unemployment rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While low unemployment means more consumer spending, more businesses in the marketplace trying to take advantage of opportunity means a lower chance of being able to court new customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, there are ways to stand out amongst the clutter. Our favorite way is to invest in branded merchandise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Branded merchandise is a fun way to provide current and prospective customers with keepsakes that are useful and remind them of your brand. Below, we share our top 5 branded merchandise ideas that we think you should be looking into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n An increasing number of counties across the United States are banning the use of single-use plastics. One of the main items that are in the crosshairs of these environmental bills is grocery bags.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the outright use of grocery bags isn’t going away any time soon, many stores are now having to charge 10 cents per bag. Therein lies an opportunity for your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By giving out promotional tote bags, you’ll be giving your consumers something valuable and something that’ll save them money!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most people get outside from time to time. With weather starting to heat up as we move towards summer, more of those people are going to be heading outside with water bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s why we love promotional merchandise ideas that revolve around water bottles, sports bottles, or similar liquid containers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They’re cheap to produce, extremely useful and do exceptionally well .<\/p>\n\n\n\n Key rings are par for the course when it comes to promotional merchandise. Most people always find a use for a key ring at some point and buying them in bulk to hand out to customers can be done on even the smallest of marketing budgets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make sure that your target demographic is likely to have keys before making this investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another low-cost promotional item favorite is buttons. Buttons come in all sizes, are cheap, and with the right design could end up on a customer’s backpack, jacket or purse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n1. Tote Bags<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2. Water Bottles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3. Key Rings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. Buttons<\/h2>\n\n\n\n