What Promotional Items Should You Give Away?
Give adcentives your clients will treasure.
Give a client a pen with your logo on it, and it might end up inthe trash. Stick your logo on a stainless steel commuter cup or astress ball, and you can bet your client won't let it get lostin the shuffle.
The point? "By making your advertising specialty different,you get clients' attention," says Rick Crandall, author ofeight marketing books and owner of Select Press, a Corte Madera,California, publisher of marketing books and newsletters. "Ifyou give away something clever and interesting, they'llremember you and tell others about you."
That means staying power that could lead to loyal customers, oldand new. "It's best to give clients something that'llsit on their desks-not in it-so that your name is always right infront of them," says Crandall.
The most common adcentives are calendars, T-shirts, mouse pads,refrigerator magnets and key chains. All good choices--but how canyou be more original?
Add your logo to diskette carrying cases, ID holders for use atconferences, letter openers, license plate frames, calculators,memo holders or cellular phone carriers. Depending on the client,you could also try yo-yos, puzzles and games, holiday novelties,shoelaces, towels--even toothbrushes or suntan lotion.
There are literally thousands of promotional products on themarket, so consider hiring a consultant to develop a themeappropriate to your budget. You can also try organizations like theAdvertising Specialty Institute (http://www.promomart.com) and thePromotional Products Association International (http://www.ppa.org) for fresh ideas, orconsult your Yellow Pages for local dealers.
Just make sure the adcentive makes sense for your company, and getto it. "Tie it in to your business," advises Crandall."Try to customize it to your [target market]."
