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This is a good time to think about promotional products and marketing your business

September 8, 2008 by John Dilbeck
Filed under: Advertising and Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Promote Yourself, Promotional Products, Squidoo Lenses 

If you own or manage a company, now is a good time to think about using advertising specialty products to promote your business.

Always remember, if you don’t use promotional products to market your business and the products and services you offer, you’re giving your competitors a free pass. Some of them are definitely promoting their companies with products featuring their name, address, phone number, website, special offers, and possibly their company logo.

My mechanic doesn’t have business cards, but he does have ball-point pens with all his contact information. The car towing business a couple of miles away gives out small calendars that are just the right size for keeping in your car.

What are you doing to thank your customers for their business and to remind them on an on-going basis that you are still in business and would be happy to serve them in the future?

Seasonal marketing opportunities

In the USA, Thanksgiving is a good time to show your customers that you are thankful for them and their business.

Most companies send out corporate gifts, cards, calendars, and other advertising specialty items in December, just before Christmas. If you thank your customers in November, just before Thanksgiving, then you may get more of their attention because you’ll be competing with fewer other businesses.

Some of us think Thanksgiving is a better time to thank your customers than Christmas and it avoids all the other issues and stressful days that many people experience in December.

Christmas gifts are a traditional time to show your appreciation, too. Gifts of food, candy, cookies, cheese, etc., are popular.

Giving gift baskets to your best clients and customers is a tradition that seems to be growing in some markets. They are appreciated when those clients have holiday parties of their own, and everyone loves a snack during the holidays.

This is also the time that many companies give products with their logos to individual customers to thank them for past business.

New Years Day is also the start of a new business year. Calendars are great for reminding your customers about you.

Most companies don’t wait until January to give out calendars, however. Most start distributing them in November. September is a good time to place your order for calendars, because many companies offer discounts on calendar purchases in early September.

Put your company logo and contact information right into the hands of people who have already purchased from you or who fit the same profile as your best customers.

While promotional products are popular year-round, they are especially popular in the last four months of the year.

Now is the time to think about your marketing plan and how you want to thank current customers and how you will prospect for future customers in the coming year.

There are many places where you can purchase promotional products and some have affiliate programs that pay well.

I have a Squidoo lens, Promotional Products, with links to VistaPrint and Branders. You can purchase by clicking on the links on that lens.

VistaPrint

VistaPrint started out by offering inexpensive full-color business cards, but they have expanded their services considerably over the last couple of years.

Summer Clearance - Save up to 90%

Today, as I write this, VistaPrint is running their end of summer clearance special and you can save substantially on items you can use to promote your business.

If you do nothing else, you should take advantage of their free offers.

Branders

Branders is more of a traditional promotional products company and you can get your company logo and/or other contact information on thousands of popular products.

Branders.com

If you have an affiliate marketing business, you can apply as an affiliate at their websites. VistaPrint uses Commission Junction to manage their affiliate program. Branders manages their own affiliate program.

Promote Yourself

Every company needs to promote itself. There’s no doubt about that.

At the very least, you need to hand out business cards to all your prospects and customers. I’ve bought thousands of business cards from VistaPrint and I hand them out like they’re free. Actually, they can be free. Click the VistaPrint graphic link, above, to find out how you can get free advertising products from them.

What are you doing to promote your business?

Act on your dream!

JD

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6 Comments on This is a good time to think about promotional products and marketing your business

  1. Lindsay on Mon, 8th Sep 2008 10:55 am

    2. I agree that promoting your business is essential, especially in these lean times.

    I’ve started writing a blog about the right (and wrong) way to send holiday business greetings. I probably should add gifts to the discussion. Thanks for the good ideas! Nice post!

    Lindsays last blog post..To sign or not to sign — that is the Christmas card question

  2. Orien from 4imprint.com promotional products on Mon, 8th Sep 2008 1:01 pm

    3. Good article JD! I agree that this is a great time to look into buying promotional products. The industry as a whole reflects that, actually. By Christmas time most promotional product companies are at their slowest time of the year.

  3. John Dilbeck on Mon, 8th Sep 2008 10:41 pm

    4. Hi Lindsay,

    Thanks for your comment and welcome to my blog!

    I read several items on your blog and tried to leave a comment on your “To sign or not to sign” post. I can log into Google, but Blogger wouldn’t let me leave a comment.

    If I receive a card from a company and it’s not signed, I think, “that’s nice,” and set it aside. I probably don’t give it any more attention when I receive it than they did when they sent it.

    On the other hand, when it is personally signed and has a short note, then I think about the person at the company with whom I have done business. A short note gets my attention and reinforces the idea that a real person cared enough to send the card. It helps build a relationship between two people.

    Those are my perceptions, regardless of what the original intentions of the sender were.

    Yes, if you’re going to talk about gifts, this would be the time to do it.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  4. John Dilbeck on Mon, 8th Sep 2008 10:47 pm

    5. Hi Orien,

    Thanks for the kind words, and welcome to my blog.

    I spend some time on 4imprint.com earlier today and I think you have a very good site. Do you have an affiliate program?

    I was reading some of the latest blog posts and noticed the upcoming series of case studies, so I had to subscribe to the RSS feed so I won’t miss them.

    How would you say that 4imprint.com differs from Branders.com?

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  5. Douglas - Promotional Products on Sat, 9th May 2009 10:44 am

    6. Excellent article and right up my alley. There are so many great ways to say thank you to your staff and to your customers with real gifts big or small while still promoting your company and ensuring your customers especially remember you. Check out what is on offer you will probably be surprised at the options available.

  6. John Dilbeck on Wed, 20th May 2009 5:57 pm

    7. Good afternoon, Douglas.

    Welcome to our discussion.

    I’ve been using promotional products for years with good results.

    When you pick the right product, the right message, and the right distribution method, it can work very well.

    If you leave a box of pens sitting in your closet, they won’t work for you.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

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