If your team has been forced to work remotely as a result of events like COVID-19, you know connecting with customers in times of crisis is challenging. The same can be said of engaging remote employees.
That’s why creating virtual brand experiences is more important than ever. Using custom apparel to connect with clients during a lockdown and excite remote employees can positively impact your relationship-building efforts. Let’s take a closer look at the ways branded apparel can complement your digital outreach.
1. Foster Goodwill While Connecting with Remote Clients and Employees
How do you connect with customers virtually? What can you do to keep remote employees engaged? The answer lies within a careful execution of branding during a crisis. By focusing on your branding, you can continue fostering meaningful relationships, even if they aren’t face-to-face.
One way to achieve branding during a crisis is to consider offering custom apparel you know your team members and clients would enjoy. Even better, if you work with an apparel company that can build a branded online ordering store, your program stakeholders can easily order the apparel they want right from their home.
Additionally, if you choose to gift apparel to your clients, you may find it ends up helping your remote sales team. One study found that giving a small gift was likely to generate twice as much revenue when given at the start of negotiating. That’s the power of using a gift to create a sense of goodwill among your clients.
2. Keep Your Brand Top-of-Mind During Remote Work
Custom apparel is a great way to offer items that people will enjoy using and give your logo better visibility. When someone wears your apparel, they’re also taking your brand outside of the office and doing word-of-mouth advertising for you, whether they’re talking to colleagues or friends.
Additionally, if your team is wearing branded apparel during virtual sales meetings, your clients aren’t just talking to your brand – they’re seeing it. The sharp professional look of your branded logo on well-made apparel stands out and keeps clients focused on the relationship they’re building with your brand.
3. Build Excitement & Incentivize People
If you’re truly looking to excite employees or connect with clients during lockdown, custom clothing can also be a great tool in incentivizing people to work for or with your brand. Consider creating a contest or giveaway for participants to enter for a chance to win a popular name-brand custom apparel item or vouchers they can use to order from your online store.
The idea of getting something for “free” in a contest or giveaway is a powerful emotional trigger for your team or clients. A reward with zero-risk involved is what attracts people to a giveaway, and offering a high-quality prize they value ensures you’ll get more engagement in your apparel program. They’re also more likely to be excited and talk about your brand among their circles of influence.
4. Help Maintain a Professional, Unified Appearance
Above all else, working remotely doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice that sense of professionalism. Apparel can be a helpful tool to actually maintain it for virtual videoconferencing in particular.
Maybe you want to brand your virtual event and have your team present while wearing matching business polos. Or perhaps you simply want to make sure your reps look professional while hosting virtual sales meetings. Either way, branded apparel can help embody your values on a remote call, so you’re presenting a unified front to clients and prospective business.
Additionally, while there are lots of benefits to having employees wear uniform apparel, the best one is that it makes wardrobe decisions easy for your employees. They don’t have to try to decipher what clothing is appropriate for virtual calls. Plus, you can rest assured knowing that your team will maintain a professional appearance without any embarrassing work from home wardrobe fails.
5. Meet Them Where They Are
The pandemic is pushing brands to connect digitally and get creative in ways they’ve never had to previously. The key part of making sure you’re successful doing this with your team and clients is to make your brand easily accessible and meet everyone right where they are.
When you opt to set up a custom apparel program as part of your outreach efforts, pick a provider like Custom Threads who goes beyond just embellishing apparel. Custom Threads can help support your entire virtual branded apparel program from design through delivery, without missing a beat.
During a lockdown, you can’t sort through a box of clothing and hand out apparel directly to individuals. It was already a lot of work beforehand for you to act as the middleman and have to waste time and marketing dollars on inventory, but depending on the current climate, your team may also be uncomfortable with being in close contact.
Instead, enjoy the perks of a provider who not only builds an online ordering site, but also delivers the apparel directly to the doorsteps of your program stakeholders. You’ll appreciate having less work coordinating the program, while your participants will be happy with the ease of ordering and receiving their branded clothing.