Promotional products can serve a number of purposes for your business marketing. One of them is using them as ice-brakers when meeting with a new prospective client for the first time. Weather your business calls for you going to your prospect’s place or he/she coming to yours, a “thank you for the opportunity” gift will contribute to creating a positive experience, also helping differentiate your business from your competitors and draw attention to your product or service, if done correctly, on a daily basis. To accomplish this, the promotional item must trigger a positive response on your recipient, it must be something they’ll find useful otherwise it will end up in the bottom of the drawer. With the extensive, almost endless, selection of promotional items available, finding the one that will work for this purpose can take some thinking, here are some important considerations when making your selection:
1. Choose an advertising theme that complements your product or service and get the product that fits in. For example, if you are a computer service provider, a keyboard cleaning brush might be something your prospect is unlikely to buy for themselves and find useful.
2. Make sure to select a quality item that will properly represent the quality of your product or service. A letter opener that comes apart will have your logo ending up in the trash and getting you disqualified. A good quality letter opener that lasts might cost the same, so it’s not always a matter of price.
3. Favor items with large imprint areas so you can put your phone number, web address and an action oriented message, besides your logo. Keep in mind, your ultimate goal is to turn your goodwill gesture into sales, so the easier you make it for them to contact you the better.
As a general rule, think of items your prospective client will keep where they spend most of their time and they’re likely to be when needing your service, like a desk item if they work in an office, something for their car if driving is required, etc.
