Promotional Gifts are an excellent way to Market Your Business. They are a cost effective means of thanking your existing customers and attracting new customers. Make sure you send out Promotional Gifts or Corporate Gifts that have the WOW! Factor. When you send out Promotional Gifts you should not look at it as purely advertising it should be more than that and part of your overall marketing strategy. Most advertising is wasted so before you start thinking about Promotional Gifts that act as Marketing Tools for you business read this from Advertising Guru David Ogilvy; ”It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product. Unless your advertising contains a big idea, it will pass like a ship in the night. I doubt if more than one campaign in a hundred contains a big idea.”

Ask yourself these questions.

What functions do you want your Promotional Gifts to achieve?

Are you sending out Promotional Gifts to increase you company’s recognition and reinforce you Branding?

Are you doing this to get your target market to know you exist?

Are you trying to sell a product or service?

Are you trying to retain existing customers and get them to spend more with you?

Will the sending out of Promotional Gifts be an extremely cost effective way of advertising and marketing your business?

Will this strategy increase your sales?

We spoke to Paul Lakeman from Flying Bears UK Ltd and asked him what he thought of the Promotional Gift Market and how effective Promotional Business Gifts can be. He said this “When we opened our Corporate Teddy Bear Business we had a customer base of zero and we obviously needed to sell product, we had warehouse full of Teddy Bears. We had a look at the local market and decided to target the local hotels first. We went out with a digital camera and photographed the signage of the hotel so we would have a good idea of the font they were using and their corporate colours. We took great attention to detail. We then produced sample Teddy Bears for 90% of the Hotels in Blackpool and crafted communication to accompany these Promotional Gifts. This communication was intended to serve two purposes: One to drive customers to our newly opened retail outlet and secondly encourage the Hotels to use us as a supplier of Promotional Gifts. When we had 20 samples made we would personally deliver them to the Hotels to introduce ourselves and our product. The Hotels were most receptive to this soon Personalised Teddy Bear were seen strategically placed in bars and Hotel receptions areas throughout Blackpool. The beauty about our promotional products is that the Hotels did not need to give them away they were selling them at a profit and promoting their establishment at the same time. They were also driving traffic and customers to our retail outlets so it was a win win scenario for all concerned. We had a Big Idea, we gave it thought, paid attention to detail and we have never looked back. Due to the demand from our valued customers 2011 we see us expand our business to incorporate other Promotional Gifts”

The Author Paul Lakeman has been involved in the Promotional Gift business for over 30 years. He visits China on a regular basis and has formed strategic partnerships will leading suppliers of Teddy Bears, Promotional Gifts, Corporate Gift Items, Business Gifts and Marketing Gifts. http://www.wowpromotionalgifts.co.uk

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