The Ultimate Guide to Promotional Products Software

Researching promotional products software can be overwhelming; what do I need in promotional products software? What are the benefits? How much should I be paying? 

The fact is, that promotional products software is an incredible tool that you should be using, but there are many different offerings to consider and evaluate along your journey. 

You may just be getting into the promo industry and researching tools, or you might already have a software solution and are investigating new ones. Either way, this guide will be a comprehensive resource for you to reference along the way, and cover everything you need to know about promotional products software.

What is Promotional Products Software?

Promotional products software is a cloud-based platform that handles everything in your business from client communications, to order management and e-commerce shops. It is customizable, easy to use and learn, and streamlines your operations, becoming the hub of your business.

There are many softwares on the market that can do one or two of those things, but in order to be a lasting solution for you and your business,  promotional products software should do all three.

An effective promotional products software should hold all of your communications with clients and allow you to easily configure orders, rather than having hundreds of emails back and forth. It should allow you to place an order with a supplier, and track the status of that order all the way to delivery. Finally, it should have options for e-commerce shops, where clients can have a self-serve and convenient ordering experience. 

For example - Shopify allows you to build shops, and even manage your website, but it doesn't allow for clear client communication, or manage all of your orders. If you use Shopify, chances are you need to use an additional solution to suit all your business needs.

Why You need Promotional Products Software

The promotional products industry is complex. You have suppliers and orders to manage and customer relationships to maintain. On top of those core operational pieces of your business are the backend aspects. Taxes, credit card payments, online stores, and human resources all become additional administrative pieces for you to manage.

On a small scale, all of these aspects can be managed by you and your team. But if you want your business to grow, you need to find ways to make it all easier. The minute you have complexity, software becomes a necessity. 

Promotional products software streamlines your operations. A great software will manage your entire business in one sophisticated hub, simplify your operations, enable collaboration across your team, and make your data actionable.

For a detailed breakdown of what your promotional products software should do, check out this article.

At the end of the day, not all companies will need promotional products software. Many small companies can work without one. But for companies that want to improve, grow, and streamline their business, promotional products software is essential.

Does Promotional Products Software Work?

When you are ready to start growing, promotional products software is like rocket fuel for your business. It provides your team with the tools they need to win more business and support clients like never before.

It is a complete level up - you go from creating PowerPoint presentations and manual order entries to customized, branded presentations and shops that convert to ePOs with a click of a button. When you are ready to invest, there isn't an aspect of your business that won't improve with sophisticated promotional products software!

Want a few real-life examples? Here are three companies that have seen incredible success within their first year after adopting promo software:

1. How Outreach Promotional Solutions grew their sales by 25% with commonsku

2. How BrandFuel left their legacy ERP software and saved thousands of dollars

3. How Williams Advertising WOW’s their clients with promotional software

Key Features Needed in Promo Software

There are several key features that a promotional products software needs to be a worthwhile investment. If the software possesses all of these features, then not only will it streamline your workflow, but it will make your business stand out. 

The best way to think about the features of a potential software is how they will directly affect your business on a day-to-day basis. So you should categorize these features based on a typical promotional product distributor’s workflow.

Order Creation Tools

Product Search

Efficient product search functionality is essential for navigating through extensive catalogs and finding the most outstanding products for your clients. They should provide options to search multiple catalogs, like ESP, SAGE, SAGE CONNECT, and DistributorCentral. 

For extra points, the product search should be integrated into other tools in the software, like presentations & online shops to make your process even more efficient! 

Product Mock-ups

The ability to create realistic product mock-ups is crucial for visualizing promotional items before they go into production. A promotional software equipped with advanced product mock-up tools empowers distributors to showcase customized designs to clients, enhancing the overall customer experience and increasing order accuracy.

Online Shops

The platform should be able to create customizable, user-friendly shops for clients to browse products and place orders. These shops should be able to take orders, take payments, and record your transaction history. Effectively, they must provide a frictionless experience for your clients.

Selling Tools

Presentations

Dynamic and visually appealing presentations are powerful selling tools. This tool should replace your current PowerPoint presentations, and be integrated straight into the product search features for easy-to-create presentations. Supplier pricing should be automatically updated, and there should be no rekeying information as it's all automatic.

CRM Tools

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools are integral to maintaining strong client relationships. Promotional software with CRM integration enables distributors to manage client interactions, track communication histories, and tailor promotional strategies based on individual client preferences, fostering long-term partnerships.

The CRM system should replace email, allowing your entire team (based on roles) to view communications, be in sync, and live completely in the software. 

Order Management

Client Portals

Client portals provide a centralized hub for clients to track all their orders, view order history, quickly submit reorders, and communicate with distributors. Software with robust client portal capabilities ensures transparency, customer satisfaction, and efficient order management.

Project Portals

Project portals serve as a comprehensive location for all communication related to a particular project. Integration of project portals in promotional software enables distributors to maintain a clear history of communications, emails, comments, and updates, facilitating effective collaboration and minimizing errors.

Role-Based Dashboards

Role-based dashboards create a watchtower for each role within the distributor's team and tailor information to what is most important to that role. This ensures that each team member has access to the information relevant to their responsibilities, focuses their tasks, and improves overall productivity. It’s an often overlooked, but critical component of a user-friendly & secure system.

Production Management

Production Dashboards

Production dashboards provide real-time visibility into the status of all projects that are in production. A promotional software equipped with production dashboards enables distributors to monitor production timelines, identify potential bottlenecks, and proactively address issues, ensuring timely completion and delivery of orders.

Production Reports

Comprehensive production reports offer detailed insights into key performance metrics. Promotional software with robust reporting capabilities empowers distributors to analyze production efficiency, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions to optimize their operations.

PromoStandards Integration

PromoStandards ensures your team has direct access to your vendor's databases, and is working with the most up-to-date information on product inventory and pricing. This integration is critical as your orders progress through your workflow, allowing you to submit electronic purchase orders directly to suppliers, and access order status and shipment notifications.  With this standardization, you’ll experience fewer errors and admin follow-ups, front-of-the-line inventory, and order transparency with your suppliers.

Invoicing & Payments

Accounting Integrations

A smooth integration with accounting systems is essential for accurate and efficient financial management. A promotional products software with accounting integrations automates invoicing, reduces errors, and ensures that financial data is seamlessly synchronized across all relevant platforms.

Payment Integrations

Secure and efficient payment processing is critical for successful transactions. Promotional software with integrated payment gateways simplifies the payment process, providing clients with diverse payment options while ensuring that distributors receive payments promptly and securely.

How to Choose the Right Software

Choosing the right software can be a daunting task. You want to make sure that the software you choose is the right fit for you, your clients, and your supplier partners! It needs to be a software that is user-friendly, has all the features you need, and a community that supports you.

In general, there are 6 steps that you need to consider when choosing the right software for you and your team:

1. Map Your Current Process

How do you currently get new business? Take & place orders? Communicate with your clients? It’s critical to map out your current process before diving into a new one, to identify points of improvement and areas that you don't want to change.

2. Determine Your Needs

Once you know your process, you should write out a list of your needs. Do you need an inventory system or online shops? How about accounting - do you have an existing system? Figure out your needs so you can accurately evaluate your options.

3. Prioritize Your Needs

Now that you know all your needs in an ideal software, it’s time to rank them. Everyone has different priorities, and chances are there is no software that does everything exactly the way you want it. By ranking your needs, you’ll know what features you have to have, and ones you can live without.

4. Demo Softwares

It’s time to start looking! There are quite a few software options, like commonsku, Facilisgroup, and Anterra that offer a variety of features. Schedule a demo to see how user-friendly the software is, what features they offer, and how their community is.

Ps. You can schedule a demo with commonsku by clicking below!

5. Check references

You should always ask for advice from real users before signing up for a new service. The same should be done for your software. Ask the companies for references, and ask other people in the industry to see what their experiences are like with each company.

6. Sign Up

Demo, check your list, ask for references, and then sign up! The faster you start onboarding, the faster your business will grow.

Need even more resources? Here is a 5-point checklist that you can use to evaluate a promotional product software.

Does Your Software Support You?

Your softwares commitment goes beyond providing an incredible product. A stellar software provider creates a holistic support system that addresses your needs at every stage of your journey.

What is the onboarding process like? What level of customer support do you have? Do they have resources to help you keep learning? 

A software company's dedication to user support significantly contributes to your success when using their product. 

Customer Support Team

Navigating the complexities of software can be challenging, so a customer support team is your lifeline. A software company that values its users has an excellent customer support team that is not only responsive, but also knowledgeable. They care about your problems, and fix them quickly.

You’ll always encounter problems no matter what software you choose. But you want those problems solved fast. So the level of support you get is incredibly important.

Onboarding Process

The initial stages of adopting new software are crucial, and a robust onboarding process sets the tone for a smooth transition. A supportive software company understands the importance of onboarding and offers comprehensive training sessions to familiarize users with the platform. 

The company you are going with should have a robust onboarding process like this one from commonsku. The process shouldn’t be a mystery, because the company has done it hundreds of times. It should be transparent, easy to understand, and easy to follow. 

Resource Library

Some people prefer to learn on their own vs talking to a support team. For those people, knowing about the resource library is important. A software company that prioritizes user support provides a rich resource library that empowers users to explore features at their own pace. 

Whether you're a beginner looking for basic functionalities or an advanced user seeking optimization tips, a well-curated resource library is an invaluable knowledge hub. This also helps with any new users you bring onboard, as they can learn free of charge!

Webinars & Podcasts

Learning from experts and connecting with fellow users enhances your software experience. A forward-thinking software company organizes webinars & podcasts that delve into both the intricacies of the system and the broader user community. 

Looking for a great podcast to get started with? Take a look at skucast, promo’s #1 podcast with over 300 episodes! 

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Subscribing to software shouldn't be taken lightly, and changing software shouldn’t be done often. When you switch software providers, you risk losing client data, order history, and a disruption in your business.

So you need to make the right decision the first time. Here are four of the most common pitfalls we see when people are considering a software for promotional products:

Short Term Thinking

Sure, the software can work for you right now, but what about in 5 years? Businesses often focus on immediate needs without considering future growth. A software solution should be scalable to accommodate increased data, users, and functionalities over time. Ignoring scalability can lead to costly and disruptive migrations down the line.

Ensure your chosen software aligns with your long-term business goals to avoid hindrances in future expansions. Are there costs for adding users? Adding clients? Do you believe that the owners of the company have your best interest in mind? What features might you need in a few years, that you don’t need now?

Think about the company, and imagine your company in 3, 5 and 10 years to visualize what you’ll need in the future. That’s how you’ll be able to scale your business, and have success. 

Training: A Cornerstone of Successful Software Implementation

The first step to software is implementation. If you don't get off on the right foot, and have support after your setup, you won't want to stay with or use the software.

Underestimating the training needs of your team is a critical pitfall. There is a learning curve when transitioning to new software, and insufficient training can result in productivity losses and frustration among users. There must be an onboarding process, customer support, and a resource library for you to learn off of.

Integration Compatibility

You must prioritize software solutions that offer robust integration capabilities that work with your workflow. It's great if a company has a marketing or accounting integration, but if you are unable to use it, or it doesn't work as intended, you’ll be left frustrated. 

What about your product search tool? If you sign up with a company that only has access to SAGE, you’ll be frustrated and ultimately won't adopt the software for the long term. 

Talk to people in the industry, and get references who use integrations you are looking for to make sure they work as intended. 

Considering Long-Term Costs

Failing to consider long-term costs can have significant financial implications. While the initial investment may seem reasonable, ongoing expenses such as credit card transactions, additional users, and support-per-case can add up. 

Don’t get lost in cheap upfront costs when they are paired with high transaction fees. It is almost always worth it to pay $100 more a month then an extra +3% on credit card transactions!

Conduct a thorough analysis of the total cost of ownership over the software's lifecycle, and talk to the sales team to fully understand the price of the software. 

Understanding the long-term costs helps in making informed decisions and prevents unexpected financial burdens down the road.

Future Trends in Promo and Their Impact on Your Decision

Anticipating and embracing future trends is essential for businesses aiming to stay ahead. When investing in an enterprise software, you should make the decision to go with a software that is ahead of the curve and actively pushing you forward - not an outdated software with out of date offers! You need to make sure that your software is adopting new trends. 

Here are three important factors to consider when making sure your software is future proof:

Embracing Technological Advancements

As the industry evolves, so should your software solutions. Staying ahead in the software landscape requires a keen eye on technological advancements. Basically, is this software company embracing technological advancements? Are they talking about it, and implementing it into the software - or are they behind the eight ball.

A good way to figure this out is to look at their feature set and see if any have AI incorporated, like the product mock up feature from commonsku, which uses AI to create beautiful product mock ups. 

Integrating with Emerging Platforms

The future of software adoption lies in seamless integration with emerging platforms. This integration not only enhances functionality but also positions your business at the forefront of innovation. 

It’s important to consider if your promo software of choice regularly engages with other companies, and has integrations. That's how you’ll be able to predict if they are open to collaboration in the future! 

AI and Automation

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation are shaping the future of software. From predictive analytics to automated workflows, incorporating AI-driven features can significantly enhance efficiency and decision-making. 

The real question that you’ll want to answer is how is your software using AI to make your job easier? Are they adapting it and incorporating it into their feature set? Or do they think AI is a trend that will fall to the wayside (it wont!). 

The fact is, AI is here to stay, and it should automate your processes to make it easier. The first company that should be adapting those AI processes will be the most successful. 

Need some more explanation about AI in promo? Here is an incredible article that outlines 5 tips on the AI boom for Promo.

Importance of Community

In software, a robust community is usually overlooked… but it shouldn't be. The fact is, in the realm of promotional products, you need to have a strong community to serve as not only a support system, but also a catalyst for innovation and shared success.

When you have a question, it's always best to ask people who have the same process as you. It makes it easier for people to give useful feedback because they understand what you’re going through. Having a similar promo software gives you that similar workflow.

Events, whether virtual or in-person, provide opportunities for users to connect, share insights, and learn from one another. They provide areas for candid feedback and learning opportunities around shared softwares and workflows. When selecting a software, you want to make sure they have a clearly laid out events page.

Ultimate Guide to Promotional Products Software Conclusion

A robust promotional products software is a pillar to a successful promotional products company. You’ll use it everyday to review orders, create presentations, and keep track of client communications, and its community will lift you up, present new ideas, and provide ways to connect. 

So given how much you’ll use the software, the decision shouldn’t be made lightly. Hopefully this guide has helped, and if you are interested in learning more about how commonsku can help as your promotional products software, click here to chat with our team.