Archive for April, 2010

The UK's Best Promotional Gifts

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

What products to you use, day in and day out at your office? Which are the products you simply could not do without? Most likely you will have a favourite pen, a mug for your coffee or tea breaks, a few desktop products such as a mouse mat, a desk tidy and a pen pot. These are the products that most people use daily and they are a sure fire way of promoting your business to your customers. Print your logo and details on any of these products and you are in for months if not years of continuous promotion.

Choosing such highly valued and used gifts for your clients will inevitably keep you in their minds. Each time they reach for their top quality plastic pen or metal roller ball they could be staring at your logo and details. Top that up with a good quality heavy mouse mat printed with a similar design and a matching photo mug and they will work like a useful and handy billboard for your business.

Think about it… You advertise and your customers love you for it! That does not happen with other forms of advertising such as telesales and spam emails.

Many people find it difficult to choose the right promotional gifts. Remember, usefulness is key. Give your customers a stuffed teddy bear or a printed card cowboy hat and you may get a laugh but the long lasting advertising results will be minimal. If you choose products that you and your colleagues use in the office, chances are your customers do too.

Promotional business gifts both reinforce what it is you do and also help ensure that your customers can easily contact you when they require your products, services or facilities. They help to keep your clients focused on your business and they also demonstrate how much their business means to you.

Business gifts that remain on the desktop or are carried around the office like promotional mugs also have the potential to advertise to people and businesses that are not familiar with you. This is a bonus!

You will find the best deals for promo gifts online. This is where you will find the lowest prices and the fastest lead-times. I always recommend obtaining samples before placing a bulk order. Pictures can lie and often do. It is always better to be safe than sorry and this simple step will help ensure your customers only receive the best.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Promoting Your Business with Business Gifts and Twitter

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

The way we promote our businesses has a lot to do with how we portray ourselves.  It is all about standing out from the competition. With the current business environment as competitive as it is, this is becoming increasingly difficult.  We all know and accept this as part of our ongoing struggle to be noticed by our target customers for all of the right reasons.  Promotional gifts and Twitter can help you do just that! 

Do you have a Twitter account?  Have you spent much time on Twitter getting to know your followers?  I have had an account for nearly one year but it was not until recently that I really started spending some quality time on the site getting to know the people who follow me.  Most of these people are in business and could benefit from different types of products that are used in the office daily.

The one thing I like about Twitter is that it discourages the hard sale.  People do tweet about their businesses and websites from time to time but for the most part it is a community of people going about their day to day business and letting others in on what they are doing or thinking.  Getting to know these people could earn you knew customers over time and promotional gifts are the perfect tool, to help you really stand out.  These gifts do not need to be nor should they be expensive.  They are just another way of standing out form your competitors.  Here are some of my favourite inexpensive gift ideas.

Promotional Pens

Promotional pens are used by most people daily both at home and in the office.  Printing your logo and details along with a message such as -‘Looking forward to keeping in touch in the New Year on Twitter!’ will do just fine.  It will make them think of you when they read your tweets and perhaps when they need to purchase your products.

Highlighters

These are another very popular gift that are generally kept for a long time.  Many people keep them in their desk drawers for years and bring them out when required.

Plastic Rulers

Inexpensive rulers can be purchased for pennies and offer a large print area for your logo and tweeting message. Again, your loyal Twitter followers are people who will probably be in contact with you daily.  These inexpensive gift ideas are there just to reinforce your message and perhaps give them a little more information about you.

Adhesive Pads

These are inexpensive and can be printed up to full colour.  They are the perfect way to get more information about your business in front of your followers. They are also quite useful around the office.

Plastic Mini Paper Clips

Everyone needs paper clips from time to time.  Each clip only costs a few pennies and can be printed with your web address and other important details.  They are so inexpensive you may want to send each of your Twitter followers a handful.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Inexpensive Gift Ideas – Stress Balls versus Zen Gardens – No mess, Less stress!

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Have you ever heard of a ‘Zen garden?’ It’s one of those goofy little sandboxes that you drag a miniature rake through. Tending your Zen garden is meant to alleviate the symptoms of office-related stress. The sand represents water and the rocks represent mountains, guiding your mind around the obstacles and through the calm of a pulsing ocean…

… Yeah, right.

Most people who deal with stress don’t want a box of sand hovering all feng shui around their keyboard. What happens when those zillions of grains of sand get spilled all over your workspace?

What is supposed to relieve the stress of losing your Zen garden?

Something squishy and wonderfully tangible… something that can simultaneously double as a finger workout… something cheerful with an inspiring motto printed on it… something like an inexpensive promotional stress ball.

If you are like most normal people enduring stress, the last thing you want to do is calmly drag a rake through a sandbox. No, you want something you can squeeze the life out of. If it can’t be a colleague’s neck, it might as well be a foam ball—the perfect substitution! A stress ball should really be a workplace safety requirement, reducing the outbreak of cubicle violence everywhere!

And where are desperate office employees going to get those precious stress balls?

From your next marketing plan, of course.

Associating your business with relief by printing stress balls with your colors, motto, and contact information is one of the most effective ways to build your brand name. Most office workers will be so grateful for the immediate relief of their anxiety, rapid heartbeat, and clenched jaw—as well as thousands of dollars spent in stress-relief therapy—that the least they can do is visit your website to get more information about your products, services and/or facilities.

Your company’s stress balls can even provide hours of entertainment with games of catch, or serve as ‘talking balls’ in crowded meetings… and all the while, your name will be ingrained into the minds and memories of employees nationwide.

That is what you want. You want something tangible to give, something to inspire gratitude, something to remind your prospects just why they want to become customers. You want your item to become the ever popular “Starbucks ball” (or whatever the name of your company is). Promotional stress balls are a great value for the money—low investment for a high return—and are high quality, useful reminders of your brand name.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Budget Durham Photo Mugs for Promoting Your Brand

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Promotional Photo mugs are promotional photo mugs, right?  Wrong!  I have been in the promotional gifts industry for over 20 years and have seen mugs come and go.  If you are looking for a good quality promotional mug, than you need to look at the budget Durham photo mug first.  Here is why;

The Durham mug is well known

Long before photo mugs became the rage, the Durham mug was already a top seller.   The 90mm x 83mm mug has a large 330ml capacity.  Many people like this fact and look forward to using the Durham for their coffee and tea breaks.

Large Print Area

This popular mug offers a 216mm x 92mm print area.  This goes from the handle all the way around the mug to the handle again.  If you have a colourful design that you would like to get in front of your customers, this large print area offers you an amazing area to do so!

Low Cost

As inexpensive promotional mugs go, the Durham is one of the least expensive.  This is not down to the quality of the mug but to the fact that it is mass produced to meet demand.  Ask for a sample - we would be happy to send you one. 

Print Quality

The flat, straight sides of this mug are ideal for photo printing or dye sublimation printing techniques.  At CompuGift we will be able to offer you outstanding results that you will be proud to give to your customers. 

Express Printing

This mug can be express printed.  If you are reading this article looking for promotional gifts for a closely approaching event, the fact that it can be express printed could be a real benefit to you.  What’s more, it should not cost you any more than the standard delivery service. 

You will want to begin your search for the Durham promotional photo mug at CompuGift Promotional Mugs.  This is where you will find the best deals.  If the Durham turns out not to be the mug for you, you should be able to find a large range of photo mug styles online that will suite your requirements. We would be happy to send you samples to assist you with your decision.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Mugs, Promotional Photo Mugs | No Comments »

7 Popular Mouse Mats for Promoting Your Business

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Mouse mats are excellent promotional gifts that can get your business name, logo and details right in front for your customers: on their desktops. They are more likely to pick the phone up to you or send you an email from their desktop. You want your contact details and logo there so that they can easily find you when they require your services, products and/or facilities. Here I list the top seven mouse pads for promotion.

Aqua Mats™

This is a mouse mat that offers a soothing, stress relieving liquid filled service area. Two non-mixing liquids are encapsulated under a clear cover with a printed background. When you move your mouse over the mat, the two different coloured liquids move around inside. You can even add glitter or custom shapes that can move around in the liquid as well. When the mats are manufactured, small air bubbles get trapped inside which gives the illusion of there being more liquid inside than their really is.

Armadillo Mats

These are my personal favourite. Simple in design and also inexpensive these mats have a tough top layer which is welded to a soft expanded PVC base. The standard shapes are square, rectangular and circular but special shapes are possible and often requested.

HardTop Mouse Mats

This is the biggest selling mat in Europe. You see them everywhere. These mats offer the opportunity to print very high quality graphics for very little spend. The surface print is encapsulated under a clear overlay so the print will not wear off ever. The standard HardTop mats feature a 3mm foam base but thinner and 5mm foam base options are available.

Precision SoftMats™

These lightweight thin mouse pads are ideal for postal campaigns. They are manufactured out to lay flat without slipping on the surface. Available in a large selection of colours they are perfect for use with optical mice.

Precision ToughMats™

These new mats are made to last. They are heavy and durable meaning they will last longer and stay on the desktop for longer too. The surface has been specially engineered for use with optical computer mice. People love heavy mouse mats. They are slightly more expensive than other mats but if your budget allows, you may want to consider these superior tough mouse pads.

ToughMats™

As the above mentioned precision mat but without the precision surface for optical mice. Not everyone has an optical mouse and even if they do, chances are they will find these mats do the job just fine.

SmartMats™

This is a low cost option that offers you top quality, sharp and bright print for those colourful images you want to get in front of your clients. This mat is by no means as durable as more expensive options but if you are on a tight budget and still want to give your customers a nice mouse pad printed with your details.

OK then, so where do you start? Contact compuGift on 01642 782455. We would be happy to supply you with samples of our work to assist you with your decision.

As always, it would be great to hear from you.  Please feel free to leave a comment.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Three Ways to Promote Your Small Business With Promotional Mugs

Monday, April 19th, 2010

What could be a better promotional gift than a mug? Everyone has the favourite mug that they use day in, day out which sits on their desk or work area constantly in the face of its recipient.

Below are a few popular ideas on how to use promotional mugs proactively in your company or organization:

  • Mugs being chunky and heavy are relatively expensive to post. Therefore for the most cost effective marketing tool why not have a store of one or two hundred at your premises. When clients, suppliers or even sales people visit you can hand them a mug printed with your details. The recipient then takes it away and hopefully uses it daily at their work place displaying your message.
  • Another idea is to present anybody that registers on your web site with a promotional mug. Although a postage charge will be incurred for this option it would be more than worth the expense. If your potential customer has registered on your web site then they are already interested in your products or services. Therefore sending them a gift in the form of a mug with your logo and details will ensure that after the initial contact with you they will not forget about you. It is worth noting that there is very good quality packaging available for mugs such as Styrofoam postal boxes and card boxes printed in full colour.
  • The most cost effective way of using printed mugs as a promotional tool would be to hand them out at an exhibition or trade show. You can then reach hundreds of people as they visit you to enquire about your services. They can then be handed this gift on which you can advertise your services and products to maximum effect.

You will then ensure that after investing in the time to attend such an event that your name will long be remembered after the event to gain maximum exposure from your marketing methods.

I hope that the above information has maybe prompted you to consider the use of promotional mugs in your marketing campaigns. Corporate mugs really are a great gift that will not be disposed of in a hurry. Everybody needs a sturdy mug! If you choose well, the mugs you hand out could become your customers’ favourite mugs which means daily advertising for you for months if not many years to come!

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Mugs | No Comments »

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