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?

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.