Whether it’s a pen, travel coffee mug, insulated lunch tote, stress ball, smartphone case or a T-shirt imprinted with your business name or logo, promotional products can help you market your business – and your clients’ companies as well.

That’s because people keep and use functional, good-quality promo products for a long time – yes, your business name (plus, maybe even your logo, website or phone number) gets seen over and over. Consider how long you’d use and look at a wall calendar with great beach scenes or a comfy neoprene mouse pad.

Plus, cool promo products often get passed along from one recipient to the next, earning you additional impressions. Even more compelling, 52% of people gifted with a promo item ultimately did business with that company, according to a study conducted by L.J. Market Research (for B-to-B, it’s about 55%). Whether you use promo products to promote your own business or your clients’ companies, here are six ways to benefit from promo products, right now.

1. Every business (including yours) needs promo products.

With so much cyber and brick-and-mortar competition, it’s a must to help people remember your brand, not to mention planting the seed of goodwill with a gift. Build a small collection of logoed promo products (the more functional the better) that includes pens, drinkware, T-shirts, headwear and tote bags, for example, that you hand out to prospects and customers.

If you’re starting to sell promo products to help your clients with their marketing efforts, welcome to endless possibilities for putting together just the right mix of products so each type of business can stand out. A pizza chain? Try giving away a logoed pizza cutter. A landscaper? Imprinted gardening shovels and seed packets.

2. Choose the right products.

When you choose the right promo products for your business or your client’s firm, it’s really not true that any old product will do. For example, even though imprinted LED-lit fidget spinners, handsocks, matchbooks or sneakers might be the next hot thing, they just might not appeal to your target audience. That’s why it makes sense to survey or focus group with members of the group you want to appeal to – that way, the products you invest in or sell will hit the right note every time. Customer loyalty for life? Check.

3. Promo items can jazz up corporate programs.

Think: employee motivation, sales incentive, wellness, and safety and education programs, just for starters. For example, on a new employee’s first day, she’d probably love to receive a logoed tote with a mug, pen and journal. For a corporate wellness program, an imprinted water bottle, a self-massage tool or a stress ball could be great incentives for participating in daily walks or weekly meditation classes. By choosing just the right promo items, you can get employees excited to come to work every day and excel. You can also use promotional products or awards for milestones, anniversaries and recognition programs. Plus, when you’re recruiting, you can use unique promo products to generate interest.

4. Promo items supersize your brand awareness.

Gift promo products to business partners, suppliers and customers, whether for seasonal gifts or simply thank yous. You can also use promo items to tell prospects and customers about new services, improvements you’ve made or your updated mission statement.

5. People will buy merch or swag.

Whether you’re a destination restaurant in a resort town, an up-and-coming band on tour or an event coordinator for a local Oktoberfest, patrons, fans and attendees will clamor to buy your branded merchandise. They’ll be willing to wear your name on their trucker cap, T-shirt or hoodie. They’ll want to buy your logoed magnets, guitar key-chains and beer steins. And if you’ve got clients whose brand carries cachet, pitch all the logoed apparel and fun take-home items to them.

6. Dare to be different.

If you have a message you want to get out there or an action you want your target customers to take, a tangible promo product creates an experience that the person can see or touch, for example. Returning to the example of the pizza chain, if you sent out personal pizza boxes to locals with a logoed pizza cutter inside with the message, “Come in for a slice and take home a pie,” what do you think their reaction would be? If you took it one step further and asked them to snap a selfie holding the pizza cutter and then upload it to your Facebook page (and follow the page) for a chance to win a free pie, how many would do it? Including a fun call to action helps you get something back in return.

With more than 800,000 hard goods products and apparel available for you to imprint, now’s an excellent time to see how promo products can help you grow your business.