Giving Something Away Is Always AppreciatedIt has been said over and over again, if you give you will receive.
Using promotional gifts to boost business can be effective, but needs to be done in the right way.
Although this needs to be read in context, giving out promotional gifts can really help in boosting your brand’s viability.
You may not see a direct result on the sales, however promotional gifts are a great way to remind people who you are and what your company offers.
The normal use of promotional items is at events and exhibitions along with product launches; however you can do them as part of a mailing.
There is nothing wrong with just sending a quick message to your clients/prospects asking how things are and if you can help with anything (with a nice gift included).
So what are branded products or branded gifts?
OK, let’s start at the beginning. Branded products are all around us. It could be your Volvo car sat in your driveway. It could be the Ralph Lauren jumper you are wearing as your read this. It could be the Sports Direct cup you are drinking your tea out of.
These are examples of branded products, they are products that have a company name or logo on.
Every industry is different and certain branded gifts work better for certain industries than others. For example, builders are outside people so promotional gifts for construction companies and builders could include mugs for their tea, or anything for outside work.
The difference between branded gifts and branded products is that you buy branded products.
Branded gifts are really no different, other than you pay to get your company name or logo onto a branded gift, and then give them away either to the public, or prospective clients.
Below are a few examples of promotional gifts/branded gifts that you can use to promote your business.
A great idea is sending promotional chocolate to people. It is inexpensive and has a high impact (as long as you have a branded packaging design around the chocolate. But who does not enjoy a chocolate now and again?
Using promotional gifts to boost business can certainly be achieved using chocolate.
One thing to avoid however is sending chocolates in the summer (as they may well melt en-route); which could have a negative effect.
To give you an idea, a box of around 3,000 promotional chocolates can cost around £100. So factoring in the mailing, postage you could be looking at 3,000 of your prospects seeing your name and smiling for around £500.
Do this as a regular mailing once a month, and you have quite a powerful way of reinforcing your brand.
Branded umbrellas are a great idea for a branded gift.
Particularly the big golf style umbrellas as these will be used during the year when it rains.
People do not thrown out umbrellas, and they last for years (as long as they do not break).
Pretty much every household in the UK would have a branded cup in the cupboard.
The best kind of branded cups would be the very large mugs, the Sports Direct mugs spring to mind!
USB sticks were popular in the early 2000’s as a branded gift, however these days, how many of us use a USB stick.
There are however other electronics items that can be used as promotional or branded gifts. Mobile phone remote charging is the new product in the tech industry. However this could be expensive, so maybe looking at other options.
This leads on to our next point.
Every company receives the normal promotional gifts through the post (post it’s, pens etc.) from recruitment companies which normally get filled under ‘B.I.N’. So try to be inventive in the gifts that are selected.
It is good to try and choose a promotional gift that has some relevance to your business/product, as this will carry more weight.
If you can, find out who the point of contact will be at the company you are going to be mailing; otherwise the chocolate/gift will be swallowed up by reception. Even if the prospect passes it to reception after it was received – the job has been done and they have seen your brand/company name.
If needs be, use a telemarketing company to do a quick call around of prospects to get some names to get names – which will increase the hit rate of your responses.
Branded gift costs vary from agency to agency.
Lots of companies are now offering branded gifts, Amazon are also now competing in the branded gift industry.
It is wise to shop around and compare quotes. With branded gifts you do need to be creative. Have a think about what people would want to hold on to. We have given a couple of examples of branded gifts that could be a good investment, but there will be others.
Rather than spending time going through companies on Google and contacting promotional gift agencies one at a time, let us help you get quotes.
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