2010 Reasons to Buy Promotional Items
Okay, so I’m not really going to list 2010 reasons, but I will list several VERY important reasons why promotional items should be used to market your business in this new year and decade.
We are coming out of the worst economic times since the Great Depression. Although economic recovery is not predicted to come back with a boom, it will likely be a slow steady growth. It is extremely important for your business to get visibility now, even if your clients aren’t buying right now. There will come a day soon that they will be buying and if they do not see your business name in front of them often, they will see your competitor. It’s very easy to get comfortable in your day to day job and fail to market your business. This is a pitfall for disaster. Promotional items are excellent items to market your budget and get the best cost per impression. So you may ask, “What is cost per impression?” That is simply defined as how much it costs you for each person to see your advertisement, whether it is on a television, radio, newspaper, or magazine ad or on a promotional item. The cost per impression for a promotional item is just pennies compared to other forms of advertising and much more effective. Everyone loves to get something free if it is useful, unique, or has value. You sometimes have to think outside of the box and veer away from pens or koozies and think of a more unique item for your business. The sky is the limit.
More often than not when times get tough, business begin to trim the fat to help sustain themselves. However, many businesses actually trim the lean muscle (the marketing budget) without thinking of the consequences. Effective marketing is what drives sales. If you track your marketing and are smart with your advertising, you should see a direct correlation between sales and marketing. Promotional items can be very effective if used properly. Make sure and utilize a knowlegeable promotional products consultant for creative ideas for your industry.
A typical promotional product is kept for 7 months. How long does a customer hold on to a newspaper ad or a radio or tv ad? I haven’t heard of many people TIVOing commercials so they can watch them later (Super Bowl commercials of course may be an exception).
Direct mailing to customers may not have a high response rate; however, add something lumpy in that evelope and that will be the first piece of mail they open. Curisosity is a great human emotion to utilize. Of course you want the lump in the envelope to be something with your company name and something that would be useful for that customer. The more useful an item is the more exposure that product will create for you.
Make sure and start the new year out right and use effective marketing techniques to give you business the edge over your competitors. Promotional giveaways are excellent resources to help your brand and company recognition. The earlier you start, the sooner you will benefit. Good luck with 2010.
Marketing Your Business in 2010 with Promotional Products
Marketing in 2010 will be much different than in past years. At the height of a recession with some small (really small) signs of economic turnaround, all buyers will be very cautious. Buyers are looking for sales and coupons more than ever now. Buyers are also looking for FREE gifts that are offered with their purchases. Giving away free marketing gifts is a great way to drive in more sales, and I don’t mean giving away a cheap koozie or some other type of inexpensive giveaway. You should giveaway items of value such as promotional tote bags, custom calendars with your personalized coupons for each month, or maybe even a nice promotional mug. The possibilities are endless; however, you just want to make sure and giveaway something of value or something of perceived value. The more useful the item, the more perceived value the particular item will have. Promotional giveaways have been used successfully for years and there is no better time than right now to use them to increase sales for your business.
Coupons Can Bring in Sales
Is your business currently using coupons to draw new customers? There are many ways you can use coupons to help your business increase sales. There is always the traditional way of newspaper advertising and include a coupon in your ad. However, paper coupons are easily misplaced and fogotten about. A more effective way of using coupons is to use promotional products and corporate gifts with a coupon or discount code on the product. As long as you use relevant and useful products, the recipients will be sure to keep these promotional items and refer back to the promotion that you have printed on their free gift. Just as you should use a unique promotional code on a paper coupon, you should also use one on promotional products. By doing this, you can track your return on investment (ROI). If you haven’t tried this method of marketing your business, you are missing out on a golden opportunity. Never has coupon marketing been more successful, than in our current down economic times. Everybody is looking for ways to save money, so why not take advantage of that fact and make some more sales. Contact a reputable promotional products distributor to get started with your campaign.
What’s Your Calling Card?
What type of calling card do you leave behind when you meet with a potential client? Is it just a business card or is it even better than that? A business card can be very powerful if designed properly, but let’s go beyond that. If you left a promotional item behind along with your business card, you can greatly increase the chances that the recipient will remember you. Chances are, you are not the only one in your industry trying to sell to that person. You need to stand out among your competition. Using promotional products can make you stand out in a big way. You don’t have to choose the typical promotional items anymore such as pens, mugs, or koozies, because there are over 1,000,000 different promotional products. Creativity is key for this process. For example, if you are a high energy marketing firm, you may want to leave behind a custom imprinted energy drink which can imply that you are definitely high energy. Leave behind an item that is useful and relevant to your products or services. Enlist the help of an experienced promotional products distributor to assist you and make recommendations.
The Power of the Simple Business Card
You probably handout hundreds or thousands of business cards each year, but do you generate a lot of sales from your business card? If not, you may want to reconsider the design and style of your business card. You should be able to generate leads from your business card without ever speaking to the recipients. Here are a few ideas for a revamped business card that can be a powerful sales tool.
- The business cards with the raised blue or black ink are old and outdated. The newer full color business cards that are vibrant in color have a much bigger impression on the recipients. With full color business cards, you can get much more creative with your design and even include full color images of your most popular sellers. However, you don’t want to have a design that is so busy that it takes away from the information on the cards.
- Stay away from the flimsy business cards. They can give the appearance your company is cheap and potential clients may associate that same cheap quality with your products or service. 10 pt and 12 pt cards are very thin and the thickness of most business cards. I recommend 16 pt thickness (or even 14 pt). The thicker business cards grab the attention of the recipient’s attention much more than the thin flimsy business cards.
- Don’t just include your contact information on the business cards. You want to captivate each person who receives your card so they will actually look at your card. The longer they look at your card, the more likely they will remember you when they need your service. Think about how many times someone hands you a card and you just barely glance at it and throw it in a pile of a hundred other business cards. You should think about having an ad on the back of your card promoting a product or service. For instance my business cards advertise 1000 16 pt (really thick) full color business cards printed on both sides for $89.Not only do you want to leave your business card with contact information with potential clients, but you should also leave behind an opportunity for the sale of a potential product or service. Don’t miss out on an easy and inexpensive opportunity to use your business cards more effectively. Using a promotional products distributor with an experienced graphic artist can help assist you in creating an effective and professional business card layout that can help generate more sales for you.
Do You Market Your Business to Your Employees?
Many business get caught up in marketing only to customers or potential customers. But what about marketing to your own employees? Did you know your employees can be your single most valuable marketers for your company? That’s right. If you keep them happy, they will happily promote your business. However, if they are not happy, they will have no problem speaking negatively about your business. So what are some ways to make them happy besides a raise in salary, which is not always feasible? Why not give them premium corporate gifts for their loyal service with your company name printed on the gifts. The more employees that you have, the more important this becomes because they can be walking ads who encounter hundreds or thousands of people daily. Everyone loves free stuff, so give promotional products generously to your employees (just make sure the promotional items are useful and worthy of the service your employees do for you). Don’t underestimate the power of your own employees as a means of advertising.
The Best Marketing Advice for Recessions
“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.”
What a great quote this was from Thomas Jefferson. There does seem to be some debate whether or not this was indeed, Thomas Jefferson, or Henry Ford who first said this quote, but that is neither here nor there. The point is that this is brilliant advice especially for today’s time. People are spending money right now; they are just being more cautious about where they spend it. There is still plenty of impulse spending, so why would you stop marketing? In fact, marketing is one of those spending areas that many businesses cut first when looking to save a few dollars in their budget. Knowing that your competitors will likely cut their marketing budget, wouldn’t it be great to get in some extra marketing exposure? You can draw their potential and current customers to you with some creative marketing strategies during a time that they may have reduced their advertising budget. Every marketing campaign can be more successful in conjunction with promotional products. Contact a promotional products distributor who is experienced and well-established to help guide you with the right promotional items or corporate gifts for your next campaign.
Just How Bad Are Plastic Grocery Bags?
Plastic grocery bags have become mainstays in our society because they are easy and cheap to produce. The estimated consumption rate of these plastic bags is about 500 billion per year, which equates to around 1 million bags per minute. What is so bad is that these bags hang around for up to 1000 years and they cause many marine animal deaths each year when the animals mistake the bags for food. While you may not care about the sea turtles or other marine life, you must understand than any disruption in nature’s food chain will eventually reach us in some negative way. I believe the bags should be banned because of the devastating results they contribute to our Earth. Many other countries have already banned the use of these bags that are made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) because of the negative and long-lasting effects on the environment. Reusable bags should be used whenever possible. These non-woven polypropylene bags are becoming more popular with grocery stores and even other retail stores. When buying these in bulk, retailers can actually sell these bags for around $1 and still make a profit. This is a small price to pay for something that can really help our environment. I believe even small retail shops should jump on board and get reusable shopping bags printed with their business name and logo on them. These bags will save your business hundreds or thousands of dollars a year because you will be able to drastically cut back on purchases of plastic shopping bags. Anytime you can save a buck, you should jump on it.
Corporate Gifts - Are your customers worth $10…or $20…or $30?
Do you have some large clients that bring in thousands of dollars a year for you? If your answer is yes, you should ask yourself the question, “How much is the customer worth to me?” Can you afford $10 or $20 or $30 or $100 to purchase a useful premium corporate gift for these top clients? Premium corporate gifts show your clients that you do appreciate their business and is the best way to thank them. After all, everyone loves free stuff, so take advantage of that notion. There are many great premium gifts to choose from such as electronics, golf items, or office and desktop promotional items. You should tailor your corporate gift purchases for your specific clients and thank them properly because these clients are stolen away from you by your competitors. From experience, I know this can happen. However, by developing a relationship with your clients and letting know you care and appreciate their business, you will help develop loyalty and that client will tell your competitors, “No thank you, I have a supplier.” Don’t wait until it’s too late. In this economy, we all need all the clients we can get, and most importantly, we need to keep the clients we have happy.
Are you still cold calling?
Here is an idea to prevent yourself from having to do cold calls. Try sending your prospects a promotional item a week or so before you call them. By doing this, you will introduce yourself to that person in a non-intrusive way and increase the chances of a warm call rather than a cold call. With the promotional item that you include in the mailing, you can also state in your letter that you will be calling them within a certain time frame. The call will be more well-received because they will be expecting your call. You will still get some “No Thank You” and “Not interested” responses, but you will most likely see a much higher conversion rate. Think of a creative and useful promotional item that is relevant to what you are selling or promoting and send those to your prospects. In your letter that you also mail, you can detail some of the facts so you can pre-educate the recipients which will make it much easier to reinforce what you are selling. Good luck with your selling and of course contact a promotional product distributor for assistance or for ideas.