Marketing Tactics You Can Apply to Your Packaging

Packaging is one of the most important aspects of any shipping strategy. Choosing the right package for your products, and the materials it’s made from, is key to keeping products safe during transit. For years, plain brown boxes and packing peanuts were about all customers could expect when receiving an item shipped to their door. But packaging has come such a long way since then. 

Nowadays, the appearance of your package is almost just as important as its protective abilities. As manufacturing and design processes have become more advanced, ordinary brown boxes are giving way to a sea of colors, logos, and graphics. This shift to custom packaging has created great marketing opportunities for businesses who want to take that next step in drawing new customers with eye-catching designs and presentations.

Here are 5 marketing strategies that you can use to create custom packaging for your business:

5 Marketing Tactics You Can Incorporate Into Your Packaging

1. Stand Out with A Unique Unboxing Experience

One of the best ways to market your products is to create a memorable unboxing experience for your customers. Instead of having them simply cut open a box and dig through some air pillows or packing peanuts, try to create a gift for them to open. There’s no feeling quite like the joy and excitement of opening a present; create a package that makes your customers eager to get at what’s inside. 

You could go for a fancy presentation, or something more minimalistic, or packaging meant for your customers to engage with in opening, like a puzzle of sorts. Just remember to not make your packaging too challenging or frustrating to open, which can have the opposite effect. Even a simple “thank you” card inside the package can go a long way to help your business stand out from your competitors.

2. Promote Your Social Media Presence

Another marketing tactic that your packaging can assist in is promoting your business social media accounts. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest; all of your social handles and hashtags can easily be incorporated into your packaging to help your customers connect with you.

An organic way to promote your company on social media is to encourage your customers to share pics and videos of your products on their social accounts. Likes, shares, and retweets will all help to spread your company’s visibility on the internet and bring in potential customers.

3. Add Promotional Elements and Gifts

Promotional elements and gift codes are another marketing tactic that can help to engage with customers and build better relationships with them. You could add a note or pamphlet inside your package that informs customers about similar products you offer to what they purchased or add coupon or QR codes inside to give a discount on future purchases.

Interactive packaging is another way to promote your business and drive customer engagement. Games and hidden URLs are a great way to get customers to interact with your packaging and keep your business on their mind. You could even create contest elements in your packaging, where the first person to find a hidden URL, or one lucky package has a specific QR code, which gives the winner a prize of some sort.

4. Incorporate “Green” Materials and Concepts

A 2020 survey by Trivium Packaging found that nearly 3/4 of consumers (74%) are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging. Consumers are more eco-conscious than ever these days, driven by increased media coverage of the environmental impacts of pollution and material waste. Sustainability is a key factor in consumer spending these days, so incorporating green materials and concepts into your packaging is another way to sway potential customers.

Renewable or recyclable materials are quickly becoming the standard for many packaging products, including cornstarch filler materials, green foam (aka bio-foam) and even mushroom-based packaging materials. Another “green” aspect of packaging is the reusability of those materials or the package itself. Pasta sauce sold in glass jars is a great example of this; it’s almost a given that a customer has a few glass jars in their kitchen that they kept to use for other purposes instead of tossing it out.

5. Create Themed Packaging for Holidays and Special Events

What better way to celebrate the holiday or special events than to create custom packaging that will be festive and eye-catching? Some great ideas include:

  • Seasonal Color Schemes: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
  • Holidays: Christmas, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, etc.
  • Customer-Related Celebrations: Birthdays, Anniversaries, Graduations, etc.
  • Company Milestones: 5 Year Anniversary, 1K Orders Fulfilled, etc.

Changing things up with your packaging is a great way to retain customer attention and spice things up for special times of the year. Special packaging related to customers’ lives – birthdays, anniversaries, etc. – are especially great at showing customers you care about more than just their business, and are a surefire way to build better relationships with them.


Looking For Custom Packaging For Your Products?

Preferred Packaging Is Here for You

Since our founding in 1985, we have been the preferred packaging solution for hundreds of businesses along the Front Range. We specialize in developing custom packaging that will both ensure that your products are protected during shipping and help your brand stand out. We also offer a wide selection of generic packaging products and materials to suit all your packaging and shipping needs.

Our warehouse, distribution, and logistics services can help you to streamline your packaging process and better utilize your warehouse space and better support your order fulfillment process. Our kitting and assembly services can take a load off your employees and help your business focus on other tasks, while our packaging equipment automation and installation services can further increase your packaging efficiency and aid in the transition to a more hands-off packaging process.

To see what Preferred Packaging Products can do for your business, give us a call at (303) 444-4774 or get in touch with us online to get started.

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