subject: 4 Clever Ways to Give Away Promotional Products [print this page] 4 Clever Ways to Give Away Promotional Products
Giving away promotional products is a time-honored way of marketing your business. For every dollar you spend on promo items, you're getting back advertising, visibility and goodwill. Still, there are only so many ways that you can hand out a printed pen bearing your company name before it gets a bit old and tired. Sometimes getting noticed calls for a bit of cleverness to get your ad specialties into the right hands-those would be the ones who use the product and get your name noticed in the community. Here are four clever ways to give away promotional products without looking like you're advertising.
Forget Your Pen
Printed pens may be the single biggest money maker in the promotional products market. There are literally hundreds of styles and designs of pens that can be printed with your company name. Companies buy cheap printed pens and leave them in buckets at the front register or hand them out at conventions and trade shows and public events. Try a different tactic to put your company name out there-and associate it with quality. Choose high-end printed pens rather than cheap stick pens and encourage your salespeople to "forget" them when they call on clients. Or use the tactic that one top salesman uses to hand out promotional pens to his prospects - he uses it in front of them, then shows it off with a casual comment that the company just bought these for its salesman. "You like it?" he'll add. "Here, try it out... keep it. I'll steal another one from the stock room." His conspiratorial wink and "doing-you-a-favor" attitude sticks in customers' minds and they always come back to him when it's time to place an order.
Hand Over the Keys - On an Engraved Key Chain
A local car dealer stocks up on high-end key chains engraved with the dealer name and telephone number. Whenever he hands over the keys to a new car, they're hanging from one of his key chains. He notes that when the customers return for service over the months that most of them are still carrying their car keys on the key chain that bears his dealership name and number.
Include a Printed Calendar With Every Order Leading up to the Holidays
Order your promotional calendars early so that you have them in house before Thanksgiving. Include a free printed calendar with every order that goes out of your shop between Thanksgiving and mid-January. You'll be providing your customers with something they need and will use all year just at the time that they need it the most.
Let Your Kids Give Them Out
If your product or service is one that appeals to parents, let the kids do the marketing for you. Pick a promotional product that kids will love-printed novelty pens are a good one. Choose funky colors or unusual shapes that will make them especially appealing to pre-teens and teenagers who love trendy, quirky items. Hand them out to your kids and their friends, and let it be known that you have plenty to spare. Encourage them to give them away to friends and classmates, and come back for more.
