Corporate Gift Pros

You are marketing your company.  You’re building your brand.  You’re using promotional products to do both - fantastic!  What products are you marketing with?  Are you using letter openers?  Maybe you are using coffee mugs.  Yawn.  Sorry that was not super nice of me and while a mug is useful, it can be a bit unimaginative. 

When you are building your brand, do you want the same ole same ole to represent your company or do you want creative, unique and special to be associated with your brand?  Sometimes it is hard to be creative but in the promotional products world there are some 800,000 items to choose from.  So instead of ho hum why not make a statement.

Improved Mousepad

There are oodles of new products, but today I want to talk about standard products with a twist.  For example, mouse pads, everyone with a computer uses a mouse pad.  Sounds like a great idea.  The user will see your name day in and day out.  That is a good thing.  Here’s the catch, it they have a mouse pad why will they throw their current one to the wayside and replace it with one you give?  The answer is…you give a better mouse pad.  Maybe your mouse pad has a calculator or a wrist rest.  The following are good ole products with a twist or upgrade, if you will.

• That letter opener - what about one attached to a staple puller or stapler.
• Pen - why not give a dual pen, pen/highlighter all in one.
• Highlighter - give one that had the post it note flags on it.
• Stapler - wouldn’t your recipient love a stapless stapler?  Or what about tape dispenser/stapler combo?
• Key tag - bottle opener keytag or caribiner keytag.

See what I mean by products with a twist.  New, upgrade and unique will always get them to use the product you gave, will get their attention and will build your brand.

Marketing Ideas, Product Spotlight, Uncategorized branding, highlighters, improved promotional products, keytags, marketing, mouse pads, pens, promotional products, unique promotional products

So what does beer and branding have to do with one another?  Well this past weekend I went to a Beerfest.  There were literally 400 different beers offered for tasting there.  Now it is my understanding that beers are distributed by different companies or distributors.  I saw those distributors mentioned in the program that was handed out.  The program also showed the names of the beers that each distributor brought for the tasting.

While I realize that the beerfest is a fundraiser of sorts it is also a wonderful opportunity to get people to taste the distributors beers and realize that they have been missing out on some fantastic beers.  I tried so many different ones and while I won’t get into the effect that all that tasting had on me (I did have a designated driver - don’t worry) - the one thing that left me a bit cold, if you will, is the following:  Let’s say that I tried 100 of the 400 offerings.  There were many that I really liked alot.  I would say to my husband - hey remember I really like that “______”, in case I forget.

Now that is where I am headed - after trying 20, 50 or even 400 beers, how in the world was I going to remember which ones I liked.  Barring the fact that I was pretty well snockered, even if I was dead sober I would have a hard time remembering.  I am thinking that these distributors are sharing their beer in the hopes that it will increase sales.  But if I can’t remember the name of your beer how am I going to buy it?

Point being, these distributors, in my opinion, made a fatal mistake.  If I taste your beer and then I surprisingly tell you that I like it, don’t you think it would have been wise for them to hand me something with the beer name on it?  It could have been anything - a business card, magnet, a coaster - anything that would help me become a purchaser of their product.  Instead I am going around telling everyone I loved a bunch of nameless beers and when I go to the liquor store, I will probably end up with the old Miller Lite because I never got a promotional item - that would have helped me remember a wonderful beer.

Don’t miss perfect opportunities to have your company stuck in the heads of potential customers.  Call me for some good promotional ideas - heck even a not great promotional handout would have been better than no promotional handout.  Wanna bet who I will be calling on soon?

Marketing Ideas, Tradeshows branding, marketing, promotional ideas, promotional products

Yesterday, I spent the day with a tent on the 13th hole at a golf tournament.  It was a beautiful day out.  I handed out tons of logoed freebies.  I had imprinted golf tees, pens, six-can coolers, stainless steel travel mugs, magnets, business cards and catalogs.  I also had a contest where I was able to collect peoples info. 

The event was successful for me for many reasons.  First I got to meet lots of people.  Many of these people were business people.  For a lot less money, I could have just donated a logoed product to the tournament.  Instead, I spent quite a bit more money to have a tent on the course and hand out logoed product.  What is the importance of this? 

If you are a well known business in your community it is not as significant.  But for a company that is newer or not as well known, it allows you to let people know exactly what you offer.  If I had donated product imprinted with my company name it is very possible that no one would know who Corporate Gift Pros is or what we do.  But since I had a tent at the tournament and I could physically hand people my imprinted product.  I had an opportunity to introduce myself and briefly tell them what my company does.  So now when they see Corporate Gift Pros they can put a face to the company.  They now know that Corporate Gift Pros offers about 800,000 different products that we can imprint their logo on. 

In trying to establish a name for yourself or your company try to do events that you will actually attend and get to talk to people.  This insures that people know exactly what you do.  Making direct contact with them is a great first step in getting new business.

Marketing Ideas, Tradeshows branding, golf tournament, imprinted products, marketing, promotional products, Tradeshows

19 x 10 x 12 x 10

They always ask at the store, “paper or plastic”, but the trend these days is neither.  While I tend to avoid jumping on band wagons, this is one you may want to jump on a ride for a while.

Clearly the environment is a big topic and reducing your impact on the environment is much talked about.  A super simple way is to use reusable shopping totes.  Of course, you could buy them at the store, but wouldn’t it be better to provide them.  Not only would you be helping the environment, but you would be increasing your exposure dramatically.  What a great product.  Your recipient actually wants this item.  They will actually use this item and everyone at the store will see your bag and probably want one too…as long as you chose wisely.

There are tons of reusable shopping totes.  I always say that you should put a twist on every product.  So lets think about the recipient.  When you grocery shop you will need more than one tote or a very large tote.  it can also be a pain to bring 5 to 7 totes with you to the store.  The key here is to solve a problem.  Problem…People want to use a tote instead of plastic bags, but they hate dragging a bunch of totes with them.  Answer…this is where the twist come in…Offer an answer to the problem with a neat new solution…Below are some great options.  If you like these or want help with totes or other promotional products visit our website at www.cgpros.com or call 866-414-5559.

Marketing Ideas, Product Spotlight imprinted totes, promotional products, reuseable totes, tote bags

It is my birthday today.  So in celebration of my birthday and all who might have been born today, I have decided that I should give you a present. 

For today and today only, anyone who places an order will receive a $43 discount.  Yep, $43 dollars - I know that it is a crazy number.  Why $43 you may be asking yourself.  Does it really matter?  You get to save $43 - that’s a good deal.  But in case you just have to know - the answer is simple, I just like the number 43…just kidding, of course it is because on this illustrious day, Sept 10, that I turned 43.  Hey I could have chosen to do a $10 discount for September 10th.  I think you and I will agree that the number 43 sounds pretty good in terms of savings as compared to 10.

So here is the catch - there is always a catch…you must order today before the end of my business day.  Normally that would be 5:00p.m. central time, but it’s my birthday so I can end my day whenever I want, 3:00 p.m., 8:00p.m. - whatever.  You must spend at least $500 (not including shipping) to receive this discount.  You must either call in your order (btw, do mention that you read this blog post) - 866-414-5559 toll free or if you are local 316-789-1930 or you can email me an order request.  My email is on my website at www.corporategiftpros.com.  The shorter version is www.cgpros.com.  I would put my email here but I get enough spam. 

You need to hurry because it is 9:00 a.m. central time.  Get your order in before the day runs out and save save save.

Specials promotional products, Specials

From now through November I will be posting holiday gifting ideas.  I am posting these to help you find great ideas to keep building relationships with your customers.  You know it is easier to get more business from current customers than to find new customers.  Thank your customers for their business it will really pay off in the end.

So the first gift idea I have for you is the simpliest and probably one of the least expensive things to do:  A card. 

It doesn’t get more simple than that.  They are inexpensive - you can send them to everyone even people who have not spent a lot of money with you.  There is very little effort involved.  Most cards can be imprinted with your company name, some with your logo, you can even get your return address imprinted on the envelope.  That just leaves addressing and mailing.  Pretty simple.

I have a whole holiday card website where you can pick your card, the verse you like, the imprinting etc…Until the end of September you can even get free return address imprinting on the envelope so take advantage of that by ordering now.

Quick tip:  Holiday cards do not have to be sent at Christmas.  If you want to stand out try a Thanksgiving card (Thanksgiving - thank you).  Another great time to send is New Years (you can wish your customer a successful 2009).

If you want even more personalized cards you can visit www.corpreferralpros.com.  At this site you can completely pesonalize cards.  Once you establish a license with me to use the system, you can upload your customer list, pick a card, write your own sentiment (even use your own handwriting), let the system send all your cards for you (No addressing or putting stamps on by you).  You can pick already created cards from the card catalog or even create your own custom cards.  If this interests you contact me and I will let you send a couple cards free if you want to try it out.

All in all it really doesn’t get any easier to thank your customers, build relationships and build more business.  It is as easy and simple as a card.

Gifting, Marketing Ideas, Product Spotlight christmas gifts, holiday cards, Holiday Gifts

So you or your company decided as part of your marketing strategy you are going to be in a tradeshow or possibly a golf tournament or some type of event where you will come in contact with potential customers.  You will need to figure out how you are going to promote your company, stand out from the others at the event and get people to remember you and your company.  How are you going to do that?  Well I did the very same thing and here is the process I went through in preparing for an event.  

I decided to have a tent on one of the golf course holes at a golf tournament.   Now I had to start figuring out what would be the best way to promote my company at this tournament.  Beyond the tent and table I needed to figure out what promotional items I would hand out and what I wanted to do at my tent.  Here is where some people get lost.  First thought, what promotional items do I currently already have?  I knew that I still had six-can coolers left from the last tournament that I donated to - so obviously this is still an appropriate item since it is another tournament.  But what else?   Here is where you need to brainstorm and/or ask others for help.  It is important to know who your audience is.  In my case it will be mostly men, business men at that, who love golfing.  I may know tons about promotional products, but I am not a golfer, so instead of assuming that I know it all, I decided to ask my friends who golf what they like to receive.  Much to my surprise, they like receiving golf tees.  Now being a promotional products marketing guru you would think that I would have thought of golf tees right off the bat, which I did, but I really thought that everyone gave tees and the golfers would receive nothing but tees - so tees would be a big yawn.  Apparently everyone thinks everyone else is giving golf tees so no one is giving golf tees.  So my buddies said tees and emphasized the long tees - 2 3/4″.  That was key because I could have ordered 2 1/8″ tees for less money.  Here is where it helps to know your audience, because they may cost me less, but they would also get me less business because most golfers wouldn’t use them.  You want people to use your product with your logo on it or you have wasted your money. 

Then I decided that I would like my tent to be somewhat interactive.  My goal was to be able to talk to the golfers, at least briefly, so they understand what my business does.  I knew that they would not want to waste tons of time talking to me vs golfing, so I decided on a quick contest:  Guess how many golf tees are in the fish bowl.  Each player will put their guess on the back of their business card that I will collect.  Are you following me so far - if not, the idea is to get everyones business card.  The person with the closest guess will get a marketing consultation and 250 free pens imprinted with their own logo and info - so they can use the pens as their own marketing tool.  That led me to the decision to order those exact pens but imprinted my info and everyone that stops at the tent will get those too.  Now I picked the pens carefully.  I wanted inexpensive pen, but one that wrote so smoothly that everyone that used it would love it.  The goal:  to get others to want to order the pens.  By the way my imprint says Love This Pen?  To Order Call….

So I have coolers, tees and pens.  I decided on one more promotional giveaway.  I was torn between a golf tool that had a knife, divot repair tool, spike tightener and club pic or a stainless steel travel mug.  What do you think I picked?  The golf tool?  Of course….not.  Why, you ask?  It is a golf tournament right?  It is, but the tournament is also in mid September.  I knew that the tool would get thrown in the golf bag and not be seen for most of the winter, but the travel mug would be used all year long.  Are you seeing how my mind works and how yours should if you are marketing yourself at an event?  Finally I will make sure that I am wearing my logo embroidered polo shirt and I will have business cards and magnets at my tent as well.

So the method of my madness…Plan your events thoughtfully, creatively and early.  Think about the event, the people attending the event and how your giveaways will be used.  Your goal is increasing business, branding your company and making a good impression on customers and potential customers.  With the proper planning you can earn dividends on every marketing event.

Marketing Ideas, Tradeshows golf tournament, imprinted products, marketing, promotional products, tradeshow, tradeshow giveaways