Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Find A New Marketing Partner With Promotional Merchandise

By Alexander Calvin

You can indulge in a promotional marketing endeavor for a wide variety of reasons...introducing new products, offering new services, thanking your customers for their support, and even to the extent of motivating your own employees for their dedication. You can even use promotional items to reinforce a direct mailer campaign, building customer loyalty, enhancing brand awareness at a tradeshow, etc. Tradeshows and seminars are the best locations for distributing promotional items as a tool for highlighting your company amidst the wide range of competitors. Audiences at a tradeshow are always fascinated by free gifts, and a well planned and well designed promotional item can well serve your purpose.

Which item to select as a promotional gift is a bit complex. Here, a number of factors come into play. Your industry, your area of service, your clientele, geographical area where you do business are some of the basic considerations that determine the selection. However, the most important determinant is usability. In other words, it has repeatedly been observed that that usable items as promotional items have scored higher than promotional items that look good but are not useful. In other words, the value that you deliver through your promotional items matters.

You may want to think about distributing promotional pens, likely the most widely used promotional item today. They come in a variety of styles and materials, some with flashlights, some with other catchy features. Just make sure you buy the best pens that your budget will allow. You don't want to be remembered as the company that suppied the cheap pens that ran out of ink after a week.

If you are planning to make your promotional marketing endeavor more innovative, you may consider delivering promotional mouse mats. Not as common as promotional pens, mouse mats too can serve as an excellent tool for brand awareness. In fact, promotional mouse mats have a number of advantages over pens. First, mouse mats are bigger enough to display your marketing message in a much more visible way than a pen. Secondly, mouse mats are more target oriented than pens. You can distribute promotional pens to everyone but not mouse mats. Your customers will even prefer to have a mouse mat to promotional pens, which they already have in plenty.

No matter which promotional item you choose, it must be appropriate to the person you give it to. It is important to match the gift to the end user if you are to get a return on your investment. The whole concept of promotional giving is to let your clients know you are thinking about them and you appreciate their business. Giving them a usable gift will help your cause. - 17944

About the Author: