Happy New Year

New Year's Eve today - so a happy New Year to everyone and on Wednesday I'll start again with promotional ideas for the New Year. A little too late now for calendars.... But I'll look at what's been popular in searches over the last few days and let you know more about the popular products.

Christmas Just Around The Corner

Christmas is just around the corner and people are still shopping for promotional gifts! At this time of year, items that are printed in house are about the only ones that should arrive with you on time. So, for a last minute Christmas Promotional Gift, enquire about the Promotional Golf Balls.

Even if you just have a name printed onto the balls, they can look really good. Any make of ball can be used (providing it can be got hold of in time...).

Promotional World Calendars

Looking for world pictures on your calendar - then look no further than these two. There's the choice between the 6 page two month to view Small World Calendar and the Large World Calendar.

The calendars cost £2.61 and £6.73 repectively for orders of 250 plus and just £4.06 or £10.67 respectively for small orders (50 plus). Both have sufficient room for your promotional messages and ar ebound to be noticed. Order yours now, before it's too late!

Promotional Wildlife Calendars

Want a promotional wildlife calendar? The Small Wildlife Calendar is only £2.61 each for orders of 250 plus, increasing to £4.06 for small orders (50 plus). With 6 pages, two months per view, it's 30cm by 44 cm size also allows about 6.5cm for your own promotional text.

If you want something bigger and more eye catching, then the Large Wildlife Calendar at £5.79 for large orders could be for you. It's large size of almost 50cm by 34cm allows plenty of eye catching space and it is a 13 page month to view calendar.

Light and Shade Calendar

With the small Light and Shade Calendar weighing in at around 30cm by 44cm and having 6 pages with two months per view, it's excellent value for orders of 50 for only £203 (£4.06 each). Larger orders can be cheaper - 100 costs £291 and 250 costs £652.50 (£2.61 each).

If you want bigger, the Light Inspirations Wall Calendar is almost 50cm by 34cm and contains 13 pages, month per view. It starts at only £6.14 per calendar for large orders (250 plus) or £9.76 for small orders (50 plus). 100 can be bought for just £790

Highlands and Islands Promotional Calendar

The Highlands and Islands Promotional Calendar is a 6 page, two month to view, calendar. At around 30cm by 44cm tall, it includes a space of about 6.5cm deep at the top for your logo or message.

Its excellent value at only £4.06 per calendar for small orders (50 calendar) and even better value for orders of 150 (£2.91) and 250 calendars (£2.61) means it is bound to be a sure fire winner. Gets yours now whilst there is still sufficient stocks!

World In View Wall Calendar

For those looking for a really impressive calendar - you have found it!!! The World In View Wall Calendar has 13 pages of month per view, with a selection of excellent world photography. It's almost an enourmous 50cm wide by 35cm tall - plenty of eye grabbing space to capture people's attention.

At £6.73 for orders of 250 and £10.67 for orders of 50 plus, it's not an item that you will be seeing everywhere. So impress your customers with this one and make sure it's your calendar they have on display!

Fine Art Calendar

Yet another budget calendar, this time the Fine Art Calendar. Again, it's available at only £2.61 per calendar for orders of 250 calendars and only £4.06 for small orders (50 calendars). It contains 6 pages of fine art in a calendar that is roughly 30cm wide by 44 cm tall, with a 6.5 cm band for printing your message across the top.

Well worth getting in your orders for this one asap!

Promotional Wildlife Calendar

This is another great low cost Promotional Wildlife Calendar. At only £2.61 per calendar for orders of 250 calendars and only £4.06 for small orders (50 calendars), this wildlife calendar celebrates wildlife photography at its best, brought together in a stylish memo format. Now with a subtly enhanced layout and plenty of room for your promotional text.

It contains 6 pages, each with 2 months to view. It's size is approximately 30cm wide by 44cm tall, with an area available of 27cm by 6.5cm high for your logo and message.

Well worth the investment in this bound to be popular calendar.

Around The World Promotional Calendar

The Around The World Promotional Calendar is a large 6 page calendar. With 2 months per page, this promotional calendar is approximately 30cm wide by 44cm tall. There's plenty of room for a logo, contact details or any artwork you wish.

Along with some impressive photographs, you can really impress your customers by giving them this calendar. At only £2.61 per calendar for orders of 250 calendars and only £4.06 for small orders (50 calendars), it's not a huge outlay even for the most price conscious calendar hunter.

Don't worry if you aren't sure about 'artwork' and 'file formats' - that's what we're here for. Just tell us what you have and want to be included and we'll see what can be done.

Beauty of Britain Wall Calendar

The Beauty of Britain Wall Calendar is an impressive 13 page calendar weighing in at around 50cm by 35cm. Large enough to catch eyes, with impressive photographs of Britain.

Starting at £4.93 if you order 250 calendars and only going up to £6.29 for orders of 50, this is a really affordable promotional wall calendar. There's space for your promotional artwork. Don't worry if you have no idea about what your artwork will be, just get in touch and we can have something put together for you, with minimal help for you.

Animal Antics Calendar

The Animal Antics Calendar is a cute promotional wall calendar. With 13 pages and some excellent photography, this calendar is almost 50cm by 35cm and is sure to be eye catching.

At the minimum order quantity of 50, it is £9.46 per calendar, but as you order more the price does come down to only £5.79 each for 250 calendars. With space for your company logo, slogan or contact details, don't worry if you don't have 'artwork' etc available. Our experts can help you put together everything that is needed, or recommend a graphic designer that is local to us who can put together some really great artwork for you.

Promotional Torches

Here's an idea that combines 2 promotional gifts in one. It's a Promotional Keyring Torch.

It's a mini torch that can be attached to a keyring, or to one or two loose keys. A reasonable area for printing and a choice of eye catching colours. Ideal for children as well. The colours will grab their attention and for these prices well worth giving away in bulk. Especially good for children who like a light at hand at night...

Personalised Golf Balls

We're well into December now and soon we'll have the shortest day - and finally the days will get longer and then golf will become a possibility for more people. Combine that with people buying Christmas gifts for golfers, you may be wanting an idea or two.

If the loved one in your life is a keen (or not so keen) golfer, then personalised golf balls might be a good idea. Almost any make and brand you can name can be printed onto, even lake balls if the person isn't that careful with them (like me!!!).

Most people think of printed golf balls as having corporate logos on them - and this is probably the case. But why not print someones name, or even a small photograph, onto a golf ball? Give Jon a call and he can sort it out, usually for orders as small as just a couple of dozen.

Free Gifts...

Jon at Logogogo has taken delivery of a range of his own branded products, such as umbrellas.

Not only is this an excellent example of leading the way and practicing what he preaches, depending on the amount of free space when your order is packed, you might be lucky enough to be handed a freebie.

There are also Logogogo mousemats, caps and t-shirts. Who knows what you might get!

Christmas Printed Gift Pens

At this time of year a lot of people are preparing their Christmas promotional gifts and pens are an easy option. Rather than going for a cheap option, with a gift go for a mid range option such as the Printed Parker Jotter Pens or even a high end pen.

Why? Well if you are gifting the pens to existing customers, staff, contacts etc, then it can luck a bit strange giving them a gift that's only cost a few pence. It doesn't look generous! The cheap end pens are great for mass giveaways - leaving in hotel rooms, giving out at conferences, including in mailshots etc. But if you are wanting to give someone a gift then the Parker Jotter pen is a great idea. Everyone recognises the Parker range as quality pens, so printed with your logo or website they really are a good gift.

Promotional Bottle Openers - Day 5

Our last look at my ideas for promotional bottle openers today, just a quick one!

If all else fails stand in the street outside of your shop and hand the bottle openers out to passing potential customers. Aim to give them to the sort of people you usually see walking into your shop - whether that target audience is middle aged men or your ladies.

Or when you are attending trade fairs put a box on your stall and watch for them to go. A well designed and eye catching bottle opener won't stay in the box for long and you'll soon be getting your name known.

Promotional Bottle Openers - Day 4

We've almost reached the end of this series of posts about how to use promotional bottle openers...

Are you supplying a party with food or drink? Better still, are you actually taking the food or drink to the actual venue? Maybe one in a private building where there isn't a bar?

Well why not leave a few of promotional bottle openers at strategic positions? They will be picked up by people needing to open their bottles and because of their small, compact size a few will fall into people's pockets and be taken home. When it comes to their turn to host a party, hopefully the reminder (and the guilt!!!) will encourage them towards you.

Promotional Bottle Openers - Day 3

Here's my third idea for using promotional Bottle Openers. They are nifty & versatile little items and very useful. Just because you aren't involved in the drinks industry doesn't mean they aren't useful to you, but withing that industry they are very appropriate!

Combine add on sales that we talked about yesterday with trying to increase sales. Getting your gifts out and more sales in. Isn't that an excellent double whammy!

Display a sign (in your shop or website) offering the bottle openers with orders over a certain amount or with certain products. Choose a target basket amount that is more than an average order or items that you make a high profit on.

If your average order is a £70 case of wine, offer the bottle openers free with orders over £75 or whatever. Keep it within reach of the existing basket, just stretch a little. Or choose a product or products that have a good profit margin but aren't usually top sellers. See if a bit of cross promotion will help you to move some of them. You never know, customers might become hooked on them!

Try the trick again of using different styles to keep the customers coming back and buying more, as we talked about yesterday.

Promotional Bottle Openers - Day 2

Continuing the festive look at bottle openers, here's idea 2 for their distribution.

You can use them as an add on sale.

Just leave a tub of bottle openers by the till and price them up well. Remember that the point is to get the items out to the public, not make a huge profit. So price them accordingly.

Better still, make the shape & design unique, eye catching and maybe even a bit of a gimic. Sell these designs for a week or a month with a sign and the picture of another design.

You are advertising a collection of bottle openers. Then sell the next design, then the next design.... You are encouraging your customers to return to buy again and again.

It's like fast food chains advertising ranges of free toys. Get the customer buying this weeks and encourage them back to buy another one. On the way they might buy something else.

Promotional Bottle Openers - Day 1

It's almost the festive season, so I thought I'd take a closer look at the power of bottle openers. You don't have to be a big player with the power of companies such as Majestic Wine to take advantage of today's idea. Everyone from corner shops to nationwide distributers can do with a little more promotion!

If you are a mail order drinks seller then drop a bottle opener into every order. The danger of mail order selling is not getting the repeat business. Someone finds your site, places and receives their order, drinks it and then wants some more.

Where are they going to order from now? Can they remember where they ordered from last time? If they have a promotional bottle opener in their cutlery drawer then with every bottle they have opened they will have been reminded of your name.

Promotional Wildlife Calendars

If you are looking to give your customers something to remember you by next year then a Promotional Wildlife Calendar with photography as good as this is well worth considering.

A batch of 50 wildlife calendars will only cost you £203 and when ordering larger amounts the calendars can cost as little as £2.61 each. With plenty of space for your company details, these are sure to be a hit with your customers and will keep you in the forefront of their mind for the entire year!

Promotional Bottle Openers

If your are dealing with the public and selling bottled drinks, then it's likely that your customers would find a promotional bottle opener to be a handy tool.

If the gift they receive is useful, they are more likely to keep it at hand. And if that gift has your logo on it, then they will remember you for a long time.

Promotional bottle openers can be very useful tools for many industries. As an off-license you might want to give bottle openers away as a sales incentive. For mail order firms, throw in a bottle opener to ensure your customer remembers where they shopped from. And if you are a part supplier, just leave a few bottle openers around the party for guests to pickup and use and then take home and hopefully book their party with you.

From only £1.23 each, promotional bottle openers are easy for people to pickup and use. Get them at the forefront of your marketing campaign!

Promotional Parker Jotter Pens

Just wanted to remind you that there is currently a special offer running on Promotional Parker Jotter Pens ready for Christmas.

The pens now come with a free gift case and they truly are a stylish gift that are sure to impress your customers. From only £2.15 per pen, they might not be the first pen that springs to mind if you are distributing thousands in bulk mailing, but if you are handing out pens to customers or staff as a Christmas thank you then you really should start looking at these pens first.

You can choose a barrel colour to compliment or match your logo, so why not give them a go?

Promotional Calendars - Get Your Quick!

Time is fast running out as the end of the year approaches if you are looking at ordering 2008 Calendars.

Calendars, especially those with attractive pictures, are likely to be placed in an easy to see place and referred to for the entire year. From only £2.61 per calendar, you have an item that will be in front of your customer for an entire year, with your logo beaming back down upon them.

There are a good variety of themes to choose from for your 2008 calendars, from wildlife to scenery to nature. Some are month to view whilst others are two month to view. Either way, they are stunning and bound to catch attention and leave your logo well placed to catch eyes.

Parker Jotter Pens

There's a special offer on at the moment with the Parker Jotter Pens ready for Christmas.

These excellent stylish pens start at only £2.15 each. Even if you only want the minimum order, 100 parker pens will only cost £235 and the special offer for Christmas is that they include a free case.

These are a classic style of pen that everyone will recognise and appreciate the quality of the gift and there's a good choice of barrel colour to compliment your chosen printing.

At this quality and these prices with a free case thrown in - how an you go wrong?

Gifting To Customers

I was speaking to an IT support guy who wanted to increase his business.

His plan was to print and post a load of leaflets. He expected at best 1% response rate. At 32 pence for a stamp, plus leaflet printing, packing etc, he could be looking at £40 per response.

His leaflet was getting an absolute hammering for style, impact etc. So I suggested how about targeting existing customers - making sure they come back and aiming for them to pass on referrals - which is my own business model.

My suggestion was a cheap promotional mousemat. Every time he works on a computer leave a mouse mat or two behind. The one I suggested costs from only 55p. So for about the price of 150 leaflets - enough maybe to get one phone call in, he could have 100 mouse mats. No distribution costs, just leave one with every customer.

What are the benefits? Well, for a start, you are giving the customer something extra. Don't free gifts always go down a treat?

When in a few weeks or months the computers need a bit of TLC - where's your number? Right under their hand. Who are they likely to call? And what when a friend, colleague or associate asks who to recommend? Well your number has been on their desk under their hand.

Maybe distributing 100 mouse mats to existing customers won't bring in the business as fast as sending thousands of leaflets out, but in a few weeks the leaflets are probably recycled. But hopefully the mouse mats are still sitting on the desks. Which is going to bring in most business - 100 mousemats or 1 or 2 phone calls from leaflets?

Promotional Ski Pass Holders

I mentioned a few days back about a shop I'd seen selling plain ski pass holders and suggested that promotional ski pass holders could have taken their place.

Well I've not got my hands on a few samples and they are excellent little products.

A touch smaller than what the shop was selling, but individually wrapped with a strong clip for the ski pass (or any other pass) and a firm metallic belt hook. The lanyard is on a strong spring - the ski pass will simply zip back into position once through the barriers and there's no risk of the wind grabbing the ski pass and the lanyard running out, even on the quickest descent.

In my opinion, for only 59 pence (on minimum order - cheaper on large orders!) these are a great little buy. Suitable for add on sales (as the ski shop had them - in a tub by the till) or give them away as a sales incentive - "Free Ski Pass Holder With Every New Ski Jacket" or whatever.

Either way, I doubt the shop is getting it's current stock much cheaper, so it's a good example of how to use promotional goods as every day goods.

Using Your Promotional Keyrings

So you are buying a batch of Promotional Key Rings, but how exactly can you get them to your public quickly and easily???

Hand Out Key Rings At Exhibitions
They can be small and colourful and great to catch people's eyes quickly and easily (see above!!!). Hand them out, get talking to the public and hopefully make a few new customers!

Include in Business Meeting Packages
Are you arranging packs for training events, seminars, conferences, user groups etc? If so, see what your budget has available and look at some of the more stylish key rings available. Really impress the delegate with this idea!

Key Rings to Staff
The sales force out on the road can have key rings for car keys. Those visiting locations or otherwise using keys can use key rings on company business. Use it as a small token of appreciation and they will be flashing your logo to their contacts.

Key Rings To Existing Customers
If they are being given out to existing customers then impress them - make them stylish & expensive feeling. Give your customers the feeling that you really care about them - not that you are handing out something cheap and nasty.

Key Rings As Sales Add Ons
Offer key rings as an incentive to buy more - offer them free with certain goods or get a range of different key rings made and hand out a different type every week - this encourages the customers to return the following week.

Using Promotional Pens

So you have decided on the product, you have worked out how many you can get printed for your budget, but just how can you get the best out of your shiny new Promotional Pens quickly and easily?

For a start, why not partner the pen with something to use it with? Post it notes come in a variety of shapes & sizes and some can be extremely colourful and eye catching. Why not give them out together to try to capture customer's interest?

If you are giving the pens to golfers, then consider instead a pen on a lanyard. This clips to the side of the bag and is really great - no more lost pencils around the course. No more trying to dig to the bottom of the bag for a pen. It's the sort of gift that when a golfer receives it they wonder why they haven't had one before. If could be in place a long time!

To make it more impressive, order a customised presentation box. Sounds fancy and expensive? Right - it's fancy. Wrong - it's cheap, from only 25p per box! This can really make a pen look and feel more expensive - and more likely to be kept.

Promotional pens are a great tool - but with a little thought they become even more fantastic!

Promotional Items

What are probably the most used promotional item? Look around your house or office or even your car? What promotional items allways crop up?

Promotional Pens. Everyone uses them! From charities wanting donations and companies wanting surveys, both of these add small, cheap promotional pens to the envelopes to encourage you to open the envelope and fill in their survey or donation form.

Go to a hotel and the room is usually littered with pens with their name and contact details. You pick them up, take them home and remember later which hotel you stayed in. Hopefully with postive memories and book their or another hotel in the chain.

Or if you are visiting clients and potential clients, as you visit each person you can leave a pen or two behind so that they instantly remember your visit and your offers. They are more likely to keep a pen to hand than a business card - maybe even leave it on the counter and then their customers see your messages too.

The most basic kind of modern pen is the stick ballpoint, which usually has a cap and is disposable. From the sales representatives who hand out pens at each call or the meeting managers who put out the pens and notepads at customer service programs and seminars, these pens provide an inexpensive way to get the message out. Slogans can be imprinted on thousands of pens for very little individual cost, working for your needs in a very cost effective manner.

Or if you want to reward someone spend a bit more than just a few pence and move up the scale. At the top end promotional pen sets can cost around £40 a time and arrive in presentation cases. These are really stylich gifts that can be given out at those special occasions such as long service rewards etc.

Not all pen sets are that expensive! The Dallas Pen Setis under £7 a time yet still looks stylish and would be welcomed as a reward.

Promotional Pens are well used - and they deserve to be as they are highly versatile coming in many different styles and costs. Have a look now and see what your customers could be keeping handy.

Promotional Items Don't Have To Be Gifts

Whilst paying for some hats and gloves yesterday in a ski wear shop I saw their tub of ski pass holders. £2.50 each for a ski pass holder. Had I been going skiing and not had a couple at home, it was a well placed advert and I might have bought one each.

But it was missing something essential! The ski pass holder was totally blank – neither side was printed. It could so easily have had at least one side printed with their logo, website address or phone number. It wouldn't stop people buying them, in fact one or two might actually want them as they are printed with a logo and not plain.

For only 59 pence each on a minimum order they could have an excellent marketing tool. Customer buy ski lift pass holders and carry with them on holiday an advert of where they bought their ski gear from. Even be cheeky – there's 2 sides to a ski pass holder so get someone else to pay for the printing in return for an advert on the other side!

For an order of 500 holders they would have plenty of adverts being taken out onto the slopes and there's enough cash left there to make a fair profit. Next time I'm near there I'll be armed with a couple of samples!

Choosing Promotional Products

Rather than blurt on with ideas of what to use, here's some thought processes you might like to apply yourself when choosing promotional products.

First, what are you trying to achieve by using promotional products?

Brand Awareness - select a useful product that will be kept by the recipient and used frequently

Setting an Impression - if you want to impress people then instead of function choose items that look good and maybe used infrequently. Top end pens, trophies etc.

Next, who is your audience? Are you giving to staff, customers, potential customers or media? What demographic group do they fall into - high paid executives or hard working employees??? Male, female or mixed? What one group finds useful another group might not. Sending purses to a men's football team won't be any good. Likewise water bottles to a hair dresses probably isn't the best idea!

When are you giving them out? Again, at awards ceremonies you should probably go for less items, each with a high price tag. Choose large items that will allow your logo to be displayed well and come out in photographs. If you are standing in a trade show giving promotional products to passers by then choose something cheap & cheerful that they will retain.

What is your budget - work out what you want to buy and how much you can spend and then see how many your budget allows for. Don't just by the maximum number of pens for your budget - unless pens is what is called for cheap items could just be seen as insulting and give you a bad name!

Getting Best Printing From Mousemats

If you have decided to invest in a set of promotional mouse mats then it's best if you are prepared when it comes to designing the layout. Here's some tips to help you get the best out of them.

1 – Ask what the printable area is. Just drop us an email and we'll be able to tell you what sizes are available for the shape that you want. Do you want standard rectangular, circular or shaped?

2 – Choose a colour that goes well with your company logo. Remember that there can be a slight extra charge for additional colours – prices quoted are usually based just on a single colour print run.

3 – Choose fonts that will display well at the chosen size and will be clear to read and are eye catching. If your company logo already uses an easy to read font then you can use that, else you might need to choose something else.

4 – Show your design to people and ask for constructive criticism. Tell them someone has designed the mat for you (unless they have seen you preparing it!!!) and they might be more open to telling you the truth. Be prepared for their honesty!

5 – Don't brain dump – you don't need your company's history on the mouse mat, just your contact details, name and something to catch their interest.

6 – Add value to the mouse mat – what's going to make them use & keep your mouse mat? Add a calendar; a conversion chart; useful phone numbers or some other useful information that will make them want to keep the mat and use it – they are probably having to replace an existing mat with yours – so make sure they do. If you represent celebrities have their pictures & signatures printed. Anything you can think of to make them prefer your mouse mat over their existing one!

Why Should You Use a Promotional Mouse Mat?

There are many reasons why a promotional mouse mat can be an excellent tool. First, what other promotional material has so much printing space? Umbrellas maybe, but you don't get to see them up close. There's a huge print area, which you see in details.

You can also choose a wide variety of shapes. Rectangular and circular might be standard, but there are other shapes you can play with.

They are a useful tool. If you give someone a reason to replace their existing mat with your mat (a calendar, useful information etc) then they will appreciate the mat and keep it to hand – possibly all day long!

Mouse Mats such as the Brite Mat (as above) are also thin, very light and easily posted or given out at trade exhibitions or conferences. I was recently given 2 stuck together by mistake they are that thin.

They can also be incredibly inexpensive. Even on orders of only 100 you can still pick up certain mats for under 90 pence each – down to 55p each on orders of 500. At these prices you can have loads ready to give out.

Ways to Use Promotional Umbrellas

Thinking of buying a promotional item and not sure of how to use it? Looking out of the window and seeing the storm clouds gathering, maybe today I should look at using Promotional Umbrellas!

Give Promotional Umbrellas To Your Clients

An umbrella is a great promotional gift quite simply because everyone finds them useful, regardless of their age, sex or profession. You can give a promotional umbrella to any client and they'll appreciate the gift and use it as often as necessary. Not only do they see your logo whenever they shelter from the rain (or sun???), but they are also showing other people your logo at the same time.

Give You Employees Promotional Umbrellas

Welcome new employees and thank long standing and hard working employees with an umbrella. Doesn't cost much, they will appreciate the gift and again they are a walking advertisement.

Distribute Promotional Umbrellas at Trade Shows

Large and colorful items are ideal to use when you need your promotional items to stand out. If you expect your stall to have a lot of footfall traffic it may be too expensive to give them to everyone, but as a decoration and gifts to organisers and good leads they are great. Keep the umbrellas focused on the theme - telescopic umbrellas for professional events, golf for beach and golf events etc.

Promotional Umbrellas at the Golf Course

Give golf umbrellas to people you play golf with or do business with on the golf course. They then become a walking advert around the golf course! Or donate some umbrellas as prizes in a local golf tournament.

Give Promotional Umbrellas with Purchases

Increase the value of orders bu offering a free umbrella on certain orders. Pick an item that is high profit but not selling as well as the rest of the range and offer a free umbrella. Or work out the average shopping basket amount, add an amount onto that and offer a free umbrella for purchases over that amount. See if you can persuade people to buy more, whilst becoming your walking advert.

Reasons To Use Promotional Products

Here are 4 reasons why promotional products can make valuable additions to your marketing campaign:

1. Image-building: Any campaign should include creating and maintaining a positive public image. Sponsoring local events (I've already mentioned Golf Event Prizes and running event prizes) is a great way to get your name noticed and show your community spirit at the same time. Get yourself noticed by handing out useful promotional products like branded bottled water, umbrellas and key rings.

2. Prolong the Lifespan of Your Campaign: If you think a campaign that runs for months or even years is too expensive then think again. By using well-made promotional products that will be seen daily and kept for months or years, your campaign will have real staying power.

3. Loyalty-building: What's the difference between you and your competitor? Why should a customer buy your brand and not switch? Keep your customers by giving them gifts. Customers receiving a thoughtful gift are more likely to continue buying from you because:
i) they are looking at your brand name all day so it's on their minds all the time
ii)they know you appreciate their business.

4. They Create Brand Awareness: If the objective of any marketing campaign is to publicise your brand and get your product known to as many customers as possible then promotional products can do this by taking your brand to the workplace or home where they are noticed by many more people than advertising alone may reach.

Promoting Via Schools

It's World Book Day next March, so if your target audience includes school children (uniform suppliers, book shops, toy retailers etc) why not use this opportunity?

Have a look at the Bug Bookmarks or the Character Bookmarks. Either is available for about £250 for 1000 units, less if you buy 2000 or even 5000 units. Get your name printed onto the bookmark and then a couple of weeks before World Book Day (remember that schools will tend to distribute the literature in advance of the day as there is a voucher to spend) drop off batches of the bookmarks at your local schools.

The kids should love the items and take them home for their reading books. And that way they are reminded of you every day.

Being Remembered

I was talking to another parent in the playground yesterday about converting possible leads. His wife sends out written quotes for work, probably competing against a few other quotes. Most of the quotes are going to be around the same price, so who wins the work?

Answer - the person who is most remembered. Especially when the potential customer receives the quotes, 'files' them and then waits. Suddenly time is up and a decision has to be made.

Well his idea is to include a cheap promotional pen with every quote. The idea being that the potential customer keeps the pen handy. They keep seeing the name and when it's time to make a choice your name is already in their mind.

Keyrings, But Not As We Know Them!

I was asked last Friday to think of something new that we could use to tell a shop's customers about their new website. The main aim is not necessarily to get people online and buying, but to get them browsing and back to the shop.

The request was to think of something that could be attached to handbags. Ideally something trendy, shaped and iconic for the shop.

Well anything is possible, but not on a limited budget for a 2 store small outlet. So we're stuck to finding something we can use off the shelf. Finally, after much brain aching, I realised that shaped key rings were the answer.

Two jump to mind straight away. Cheapest is the Adloop Key Ring - a printed band attached to the metal key loop. Failing that, at twice the price there's the Shaped Plastic Key Rings. I bet I know which the shop is more likely to go for!

Getting Your Brand Into The Home

If you are a brand that schools would be happy to be associated with, for example I've seen this sort of thing done locally by Gyms then giving out freebies via the school may often be beneficial.

You can be quite extravagant and give out water bottles or similar, but for mass distribution for a school, something like Bug Bookmarks is a good idea. Not only are these useful for the children, they are fun as well.

Even if you target a school with 1000 children, your order is only going to cost about £250 and most of the children will take the bookmarks home with them, maybe to use in their homework reading. This way, parents will be seeing your advert daily for the life of the bookmark.

They are fun and a lot should be left around homes for quite some time. Give them a go before your competitors get in there!

Promotional Golf Balls

I'm not a very good golfer and often go around the local muni losing a significant number of balls. There can be the odd day when I get around 9 or even 18 holes and not lose any. Last week the tally was 4 balls in 5 holes. Then I gave up.

Why do I tell you this? Well consider this. Quite often there are people searching the rough for lost golf balls. They collect huge bags of balls and these are then sold as 'pick ups' to the players.

How many of these balls go to people who could be targets of one of my websites?

Being a 'careless' player, I only play with cheap balls. But even lake balls can be printed onto, if the quantity is right. So if I had a few dozen Promotional Golf Balls Printed (like the one above) then on every round of golf the more balls I lost the more marketing I'm doing.

Why not give out a few dozen golf balls to employees, friends etc. As they slowly lose them on golf courses your marketing is being done for you!

Promotional Clocks

I'm not sure what inspired this, but yesterday there was a run of people interested in promotional clocks. From wall clocks, to desk clocks to translucent clocks etc. Maybe the hour change last weekend has made people think of clocks!

There is an excellent range of clocks available. The Promotional Travel Clocks do start from £1.20 each. A batch of 200 would only cost you around £270 and are ideal for loads of circumstances. If you are attending a travel show, ski show etc then hand these out if you want to be remembered!

If you want a stylish clock then look at the huge range of Promotional Metal Clocks. From £4.49 each up to quite a lot more. The typical minimum order for these is 25 units, sometimes 50 units.

An example here is the Pebble Clock. From £7.45 each, these would grace any stylish home or office. Well worth the cost as these are sure to go down a treat with their recipients.

Whatever your budget there's probably a clock for you. It's a unique gift that people are likely to keep and put on display. If you blend your design in with the clock then it's likely that it will be kept on display for many years.

Promotional Stress!

Are you feeling stressed by your promotional plans? Then look at the Promotional Stress Shapes. And what could be more topical at the moment then the Stress Wheelie Bin???

Well OK, there are probably plenty of things, it just depends which newspaper you read. But these novel little items are a great tool - especially if you are leading a campaign against wheelie bins (or for them???). From only 83p each, they are a great way to get noticed.

And that's not all there is, why not look at:
- promotional stress hard hats.
- stress football - especially when England are playing! Give them out in pubs showing the latest games.
- stress houses - maybe for those moving house or mortgaging???
- stress widescreen TV - been in that position this week, could have done with one of these the way my TV has been behaving!
- stress computer mouse - for those bad days in the office

And tons more shapes. Have a look at the Stress Shapes pages for more details. Minimum order throughout is 250 units, which means the minimum order for likes of the stress hearts is only around £185.

Busy Season Starting...

The traffic to our website is increasing day on day, which is great. But it reminds me that it is approaching not only a very busy season, but also a season when the post could be going a bit slower.

Most items can take 3 weeks lead time to produce. There are one or two exceptions, which can be rushed through in days, but on the whole most items can take a few weeks. Add to this time for you to send us and agree to artwork layouts and the post going a bit slower around Christmas (and maybe people not being in offices for parties....) and if you are wanting to run a promotion for Christmas, then please get in contact very quickly!

Most orders placed over the next week, up to the end of next week, should be with you by the end of November, but wouldn't want you to be disappointed if your promotional ideas don't work because we can't get your items to you on time.

Getting Noticed

Getting your products out to your public and getting them noticed requires a few clever ideas. But it all depends on who your audience is.

If you are after the public, rather than businesses, then you have an excellent opportunity coming up! Shortly the Christmas season arrives and with it Christmas Fairs, Christmas Parades and the likes.

So here's what you do. Get a load of cheap products ready made. The Promotional Bug from 17p each or Promotional Fridge Magnets from only 26p each are a couple of good ideas. Then go to the fairs or mingle in the crowds at the parades or Christmas Light switch on and just distribute your gifts to the children.

They'll take your products home with them and their parents are sure to see whatever they were given.

A sure fire way of distributing your promotional gifts - and making the kids happy!

Promotional Cameras

Another popular item for this time of year are the Promotional Cameras. If you are organising a Christmas party or other event, then sort out a batch of cameras and leave them on the tables for your guests to use.

If you are getting married, have at least enough cameras for one camera per table and ask your guests to take photos throughout the reception. Gather up the cameras at the end and then you have a memento of what the day was like from your guests' point of view. Not being official photos, these can be a lot more relaxed and playful!

A good choice of camera is the 35mm Promotional Camera. All the features of a basic camera, including lens cover, from only £2.55 per unit. An order of 100 would only be around £275.

Promotional Ice Scrapers

Promotional pens and diaries seem to be the thing of the moment, but whereas both are useful promotional tools, don't forget that there is also a huge range of other gifts to suit all price ranges.

Very seasonal at the moment - or at least will be by the time orders are through in a few weeks, are Promotional Ice Scrapers.

Cheapest for small quantities is the Billboard Ice Scrapper, with it's huge printing area and around £150 for 250 units. A massive area for printing allows for any logo or picture you want to be added to the unit, along with phone numbers etc. Just look at the sample on the page.

The basic Ice Scrapper also features a rubber squeegee - ideal for the perfectionist. It's flat and can be printed both sides - a massive area for your messages! We also have the Elite Ice Scrapper - your traditionally shaped ice scrapper for those cold winter mornings!

Designing To Suit Your Promotional Materials

Your promotional message or logo might not be the first thing on your mind when you are deciding what products to use. You might already have decided that just putting your logo onto the items with a quick line or two is enough. But stop right there.

Consider the printable shape of the item. What's going to work best on it? Is it square, rectangular or circular?


A promotional golf ball, for example, is best printed with a circular pattern. It could be printed with a square print, but the proportions would be wrong.

Take care when planning your promotional ideas and make sure that you get the best results every time.

Using Your Items

What's the best way to use your investment of promotional gifts?

No matter what you buy to give away, you must first think about what sort of people are likely to be receiving the items and how you are distribution them.

A friend is buying a load of pens to send out with quotations. A little bit of a gimmick, but they won't add anything to the cost of the postage and are quite cheap to buy anyway.

Consider what happens when a quote is sent out. It probably ends up in a pile of other quotes ready to be compared. At the last minute, the potential customer realises they still haven't looked through the quotes and decides quickly on one of them. Maybe not looking at the best service or best cost, maybe more just a random gut feeling on the service provider.

Now if she is the one that provided the pen that the potential customer has carried about and used, that pen has made the name become more familiar. That could be what caused the gut instinct.

Give a little extra - you might be surprised at the results!

Promoting For Bridal Suppliers

If you work serving in a distinct market, such as bridal supplies, then it’s likely that there are a group of local retailers that could work together to promote each other.

One idea that I've knocked about with, but not yet put into action, is to get 9 or 12 bridal suppliers together for 1 promotional item. These would all be offering different services, e.g. Wedding Dresses, Ladies' Wear, Gents' Wear, cake suppliers, photographers, wedding cars, florist, beauty, reception venue, stationary etc.

Find a group of 12 different suppliers, including yourself, get a logo and contact details off each of them and put together a promotional item. For example, a Promotional Mouse Mat, or a Promotional Puzzle Tray, or a Promotional Pen And Paper Set.

Have 100 of these printed for each of you in the group – with each on having all of the logos on it. If there are 12 of you working together, (that's only about £55 - £88 each for the range listed above), yet your items along with your contact details will be distributed to 1200 potential customers.

If all of you are passing the items to every potential new customer that visits your shop of you meet at bridal fairs, then you are going to get a very good coverage in the local area. And with these sorts of items people aren't going to continue to take them once they already have one, so you can be fairly certain that your name will be spread far and wide, for under £90!

More Ideas For Distributing Promotional Items

Another time a lot of people will gather is for races – both running and bike races. A lot of races like to provide souvenirs, but it's usually down to sponsors to provide these items to protect the cost of the entry fees.

A popular item with running is always the Promotional Cotton T-Shirt. From £1.20 each, these can easily be distributed to all finishers, with marshals and helpers being given the surplus.

Put the name of the race, the date and your logo onto the t-shirt and pass to the organisers to distribute at the finish. Being a runner, I can recommend SMALL logos rather than the typical huge logo on a t-shirt. These are more likely to be kept and worn. Coloured t-shirts go down even better.

One local race likes to give the children in their race Promotional Badges instead of t-shirts. I know my daughter has kept her collection of these, so they can be kept for ages.

Another local race gives out Promotional Mugs and these are really popular with the runners. They usually get a mention on the forums after the race as they are so much more popular then t-shirts. But for a small race (under 500) they can be a lot more expensive than t-shirts.

Using Your Promotional Items

So you want to encourage more customers your way, you've decided to run a campaign of promotional items, but what are you going to do to get them noticed?

There are many ideas and ways to distribute your gifts to people and make sure that they are noticed. It all comes down to 1 basic question – “Where are my target audience today?”

If there is a trade show coming up then the answer is simply at least a month before the trade show, get a load of gifts printed up and pass them out there. But what if this is not the case or you want more exposure?

Consider when and where your customers are likely to meet up. For example, are your customers likely to play golf? There’s lot of different demographic groups that meet up on the golf course – young professionals out to do business to early retired gentlemen. From youths hitting their first few balls to the not so early retired in their golf buggies, if you get my meaning!!!

A little research and you can easily find out which sort of people are playing at local clubs. Find one that has plenty of players in your target audience and then find out when the club next has a match on. Offer to provide some gifts for the match, say provide a few dozen Promotional Golf Balls to the players, or try a couple of thousand Promotional Golf Tees and arrange for all players in the competition to receive some when they pick up their score-card. 2,500 tees would only cost around £125 – and that would last quite a few matches!

If you are feeling more adventurous, for a cost of around £150 you could offer to provide a gift of 50 Promotional Golf Sets. These could be used as prizes over several competitions and in this way hopefully the clubs would leave the items on display before the matches started.

Promotional Post-It Note Paper

Promotional Post-It Note Paper seems a very popular item - there are always a lot of searches for this kind of item.

There's a good range to choose from, starting with the Basic Promotional Post-It Note Paper, which starts at only 57p per pad of 50 sheets. These have plenty of space for a logo or message, and customers will always keep them somewhere handy to use.

If you prefer something more eye catching, then look at the range of shaped promotional post-it notes from only 72p for a block of 50 sheets. There's a choice of shapes and colours for your logo to be printed onto.

Or if you want to look really fancy, go for the top of the range Promotional Post-It Note Organiser. 75 post-it markers and 25 post-it notes in a card cover. Follow the link for more details, but this fantastic item starts at only 83p each.

There's also a good range of other post-it note products available. From design your own shape to interlocking pades.

Promotional Stopwatches

Here's an interesting item that we've had some interest in overnight, a Promotional Stopwatch.

A nifty little gift, from only £4.60 each, with clock and alarm in built and neck strap.

Slightly cheaper is the Promotional Stopwatch and Step Counter, which (as it says on the 'tin'), also counts steps and has a lap timer, from only £3.45.

Either of these gadgets would be great if you are promoting to or within sports clubs. Give them to swimming coaches, running coaches, football coaches, school sports teacher etc and your logo is always around their neck.

If you are a fitness club trying to encourage your members to walk more, then just he basic Promotional Pedometer from £1.59 each would provide an incentive to get out and walk, whilst reminding them of you!

Promotional Pen Torches

Another sign that the nights are drawing in as people as searching for Promotional Pen Torches! There's a few great little tools on offer if you are in that situation.

First, there's the Pen Torch. From only 99p each, and still only £1.10 if you only want the minimum order, an excellent little tool.

This one is popular in Pharmaceutical industries, but we've also seen enquiries for youth clubs.

The Roll Top Promotional Torch is cheaper still, from only 89p each. It has a good rectangular printing area and with a keyring attachment makes it excellent for many uses.

Promotional Printed Diaries

We're obviously fast approaching the end of the year as people are searching for Promotional Diaries.

A standard little promotional tool, which if you get in quickly before other people have handed out diaries can be quite useful. Your recipients will soon add their list of contacts and future appointments to the diary and then it's carried around all year, along with your message.

There is quite a range in prices on Printed Diaries. The Strata Week To View Diary costs from £1.15 each for orders of 250 and even if you only want 50 they are £2.09 each.

At the other end of the range is the really impressive Sorento Quarto Desk Diary. This excellent desk diary, with cream pages world maps and a ribbon marker, starts out at £5.82 per unit, but is a really impressive gift that your recipients will want to leave on show all year.

Promotional Lanyards

With the winter fast approaching the skiing season is about to start and customers have started to look for Promotional Skiing Lanyards. If you are going to a trade exhibition where your customers could be passing you by without looking, these can be a great giveaway at this time of year to make them stop and pick up a gift.

Even if they walk straight away from you they will have your name and logo around their neck for their annual skiing holiday. And broken bones aside what better time to be associated with someone - on an annual holiday!

The ski pass holders start from only 44p per unit and even if you only need 500, they are still only 59p each.

Order yours now - Ski Pass Lanyard have a standard 3 week lead time, so don't leave it to late!

Encouraging Customers To Look At Your Gift Items

What else can be done to ensure that potential customers pick up & take home you promotional items? You want them to - that's why you have had them printed. It's no good spending hundreds of pounds on promotional material if the target audience aren't interested in the items.

With the Printed Mouse Mats what I suggested to the customer is that he passed me pictures of several of his main speakers along with their signatures and we'd have a grid of speakers printed.

This would be an excellent souvenir of the night out and I can easily imagine plenty of people picking them up and taking them home. It's not hard to imagine several of them taking the mouse mats into work the next day to use there - to show off about the speakers they saw the night before.

In this case there's a good chance that work colleagues will also see the promotional goods - and there's a chance that at some point in the future one of them would want to arrange a night and remember the mouse mat.

That's the way these goods can work. Sounds a bit if and maybe, but when you are talking about thousands of mouse mats being sent out, there's a good chance of many things happening.

Selecting Your Printing

You've got a few ideas about what sort of promotional gifts you are going to use, but what are you going to print on them?

Your logo is the obvious answer, or a corporate message. But is that best?

It depends how you are distributing the gift items and what message you want to get across.

One customer of mine wants to buy 1000 promotional items that he will leave on tables at dinners he arranges using sporting celebrity speakers. He knows that a pen with his logo on is not an encouragement enough for the attendees to pick up his gift - most would be ignored.

Instead, I've suggested that he buys Promotional Mouse Mats or Promotional Puzzle Trays. Neither is that expensive - from 54p each for the Puzzle Trays. And what I've suggested he does is to print onto whichever he chooses to use a picture of the speaker and a signature and just leave a small space for his logo / website address.

This means that the puzzle becomes a souvenir of the evening, instead of a promotional piece, and it has far more value to the people attending. Even if it's only to take home for the kids when he's feeling guilty about going home worse for drink!

Promotional Keyrings

I like to base these entries on what people are currently searching for on our site. It ensures that the posts are current - and helps me to quickly find relevant items!!! Yes, I'm very lazy.

Most recently (6 minutes ago) was metal bottle opener promotional keyrings. An interesting little search!

No doubt they will have found items such as the Keyring Bottle Opener. From £2.10 for 500, not the cheapest. But for £230 for 100, a good gift.

Of course, the important thing is getting the audience right. Give them to a bunch of people who will find them useful and they might well just carry them with them all of the time, spreading the word of your business. Give them to people who never have cause to open a bottle, and they will be finding themselves heading towards the bin.

Targeting is important - but so is the graphic. In a day or two I'll talk about that.

Promotional Games

If you are looking for something different, take a look at the range of Promotional Games on offer.

Some of these are very cheap - under 50p per unit, even on small orders. For example there's the Glossy Yo Yo at 49p each for orders of 500, reducing to 43p each as order sizes increase.

Remember the old number squares puzzles where you move the numbers 1 to 8 around a grid to get them back in order? Well now you can have your logo printed onto one of those toys and customers can concentrate on your logo as they rearrange the pieces. What a great way of getting people studying your logo!

Or how about a frisbee, whistle or rattle? Again, these toys are all very cheap and suitable for mass distribution.

For even more toy ideas, see our Printed Toys page.

Promotional Mugs

Promotional Mugs are a great way to get a message across. It doesn't even need to be your corporate logo.

If you are introducing a company saying, ethos or way of thinking and want to remind your staff of this on a regular basis, get it printed onto some Cambridge Promotional Mugs. These start off from only £1.41 each (when ordering 504) and you can then fill your canteen with them.

Every cup of coffee your staff drink reminds them of your corporate way of thinking!

Promotional Umbrellas

Unfortunately, with a summer like the one that's just been, Promotional Umbrellas have probably been well in use and possibly wearing out!

If you want your Umbrellas Printed with your company logo, message or id, then take a look at the vast range available. From massive golf umbrellas to tiny fold away telescopic umbrellas that fit in a bag.

And how to use them? Well, if you have a sales force on the road then provide them each with a brolly to keep them dry between car and customer.

If your customers are visiting you and there is an outdoor area, have a stock of umbrellas positioned so that they can find them.

If you are arranging a day at the races or a Christmas event, then your staff would appreciate brollies if the day is wet.

Let your imagination fly!

Flamenco Promotional Pens

Buying a printed pen is always a good start for a promotional idea, but which one should you choose?

Well the Flamenco Ball Pen is always a popular choice, with a lot of people searching for it. From only 11p each for 5000+ units, it really is suitable for mass distribution (and even 1000+ units cost only 14p each). With these prices you really can have a load printed and distribute them freely to your target audience.

They are a simple traditional shaped ball pen and can be left where your potential audience may pick them up. Or if you are running a mass mailing, these could be just what you need to insert into the envelope to ensure the recipient opens it and reads what is inside.

Give us a call or visit our website and we'll see what we can do for you.

Promotional Printed Mousemats

A Promotional Mousemat is an excellent tool with many marketing uses. The Brite Mat is cheap and excellent for use with an optical mouse.

From only 88p per unit, when ordering 500 or more, it's well worth looking at what else you can use it for.

The most obvious use would be just to get a batch printed and hand them out to customers. But here's a lot better way to use some Printed Mousemats.

Simply get together with a few similar businesses - but not any that compete with you. Say 8 or 10, including yourself, but from 4 will easily do. Then design a mousemat that includes all of your logos and get 100 printed each.

Now, every time that you or one of the other businesses hands out a mat, it becomes a potential advert for all of you.