Archive for May, 2010

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Promotional Gifts and Social Media are the Perfect Pair

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Ever since the invention of social media, the most successful businesses are the ones that find inventive ways to use it as a marketing tool. The key is, however, that social sites need to be used in creative and inventive ways. Merely creating a Twitter account or Facebook Like page is not enough anymore. For an added touch of professionalism, try combining social media with promotional gifts to get customers noticing your business.

The use of social marketing sites is a great way to bring your business into the modern century of technology. Promotional items like mouse mats can also make your business appear more technologically savvy as well. No matter what kind of business you own, promotional items can serve your business and your customers well.

If you want a better idea of what your audience craves from your business, you may want to reward them with promotional merchandise for taking surveys regarding your business. Often, younger generations can have great ideas for new social networking sites your business can use for marketing. Try offering a variety of promotional items in a goodie bag along with a coupon or gift certificate for your company, in exchange for some fresh ideas from your customers. By getting your business out on as many social networking sites as possible, you are increasing the visibility of your site online which can result in greater profitability in the long run.

Getting customers engaged through promotional gifts is a great way to earn respect for your company. In addition, customers will feel like they are a valued part of your business. When you create positive synergy amongst your customers with promotional gifts, you can build better customer loyalty for your business and keep them coming back for more.

When considering which promotional gifts to use with social media, desktop gifts are usually a popular choice. Desktop gifts like conference folders, mouse mats, and coffee mugs are very popular items because everyone has a practical use for such items. In addition, these items can make your business appear professional to an entire other audience that is encountered by your customers with the promotional gifts everyday.

If you want to really get creative with promotional gifts and social media, try hosting a “social media” treasure hunt. Host your company on as many social media sites as possible. The person that finds your company on the most social media websites gets the promotional gift of his or her choice. This can be a fun way to increase your traffic and popularity in social media networking sites!

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Facebook, Promotional Gifts | No Comments »

Cost Effective Marketing Tips

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

There was a time when marketing your business was an expensive endeavor. Television advertisements, newspaper ads, and creating fancy brochures were once the normal way of marketing a business. These ways of marketing, however, were very costly for businesses, sometimes costing thousands of dollars. The times truly have changed. These days using promotional gifts with social media is the best form of cost-effective marketing for your business. Want to take your business to the next level and cut costs? With just a few simple steps, you can bring your business the success it deserves!

Compare how much it costs to create a Facebook or Twitter page as opposed to a television commercial or even newspaper ad. Twitter and Facebook pages are free to create, while a television commercial may cost thousands of dollars. A small one inch section advertisement in a newspaper can cost hundreds of dollars. Promotional items cost a fraction of the price of both forms of advertising, and can be used in highly creative ways when paired with social media marketing.

With business social media pages, thousands of people can receive instant updates about your business. This means that you can promote your products instantly with promotional gifts. Some creative ideas to get people joining your Twitter or Facebook pages are offering contests with promotional gifts as prizes. Some great promotional gifts to give out through a Facebook Like page are conference folders, pencils, mugs, or stress toys with your company’s logo printed on them.

The key to creating a successful social media campaign that uses promotional items effectively is to engage your audience. Rather than merely posting a status update that gives out promotional gifts to whoever stops by the fan page, try offering a promotional gift to the customer that comes up with the catchiest motto for your company. Engaging with your audience helps bring a nice personal touch to your business that customers won’t soon forget.

Other ways to engage customers with promotional merchandise contests on your Facebook page are offering gifts to the person with the most referrals. Give a nice pen set to the person that gets the most referrals to add your Facebook Like page to his or her “favorites” list on his or her own profile page.

To reach millions of people, don’t be afraid or shy to make use of Twitter and Facebook and get into the game. Using promotional gifts paired with social media can be one of the smartest forms of marketing your company to a diverse audience in an instant way.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Facebook, Promotional Gifts | No Comments »

Promotional Trolley Token Key Rings Make Great Business Gifts

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

If you are looking for inexpensive yet very useful gifts that offer a real service, you cannot go wrong with promotional trolley keyrings.  Is it not a hassle when you arrive at the supermarket just to realise that you forgot your pound or euro coin to release the shopping trolley.  This need never happen again to you or your clients if you purchase imprinted trolley token keyrings.  These can be printed with your logo and details and offer months if not years of advertising exposure.  In this article I will list five reasons why you might like to consider these very popular promotional gifts to promote your business or organisation.

Keyrings are used daily

Everyone needs a good key ring for their car and house keys.  Every time your customers reach for their keys they will be reminded about you and your business.  Your logo will become part of their daily lives and your web address could be imprinted in their minds forever.

Quality

It  is always nice to have a keyring  that feels heavy so that it is easy to locate.  Trolley token key rings are available in several different price brackets.  The more expensive are heavier than the cheaper versions but they all feel like they are of excellent quality.

Trolley tokens can be used in the shops

There is nothing more annoying than getting to the shop and not having the proper change for the trolley.  These keyrings will eliminate this problem.  Your clients and customers will love you for this gift.

Use Trolley Tokens at the Gym

Many gyms now require you to have a coin with you to lock your locker.  These trolley token keyrings will solve this problem as well.

Trolley Tokens are Inexpensive and Easy to Post

It is a bonus to be able to send your promotional gifts through the post and not have to worry about breakages.  These keyrings are solid and they are also inexpensive to post.  I recommend sending your customers a new trolley key ring often.  They can then give any extras to work colleagues or friends which will further build your brand.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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5 Reasons Stress Balls Are a Great Way to Market Small Businesses

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Often, people make the mistake of thinking online advertising is all they need to market a small business. However, this form of advertising can actually cut out an important segment of the consumer population: the elderly and older people without technological expertise. To market to a wide audience, be sure to use promotional stress balls in your advertising. This article will outline 5 reasons promotional stress balls are one of the top ways to market your business.

1. Wider Audience of All Ages
Everyone loves promotional stress balls. Children, teens, adults, and the elderly find stress balls to be useful in their lives. Kids love playing games like catch with stress balls, while the elderly may find stress balls serve a vital purpose in easing illnesses like arthritis. Other adults in their 30s or 40s may find stress balls actually relieve stress! Because everyone of all ages loves stress balls, they are a great way of advertising a business to a wide audience. The same can not be said about the Internet, since there many people unaccustomed to all its intricacies.

2. Promotional Stress Balls of All Shapes and Sizes
Promotional stressballs are an incredibly fun way to market businesses. They come in all shapes and sizes! Whoever knew that you could order promotional stress balls in the shape of food, exotic sealife, medical themes, or sports shapes? This means your company is not limited to one or two designs. If your company wants, it can create a whole line of stress ball shapes that capture the true essence of your company’s services or products!

3. Cost-Efficiency
Stress toys are an affordable form of advertising, when compared to the cost of creating internet ads or television ads. Purchasing hundreds of stress balls is not an expensive endeavor. Considering stress balls last a long time, while commercials last only a few seconds, stressballs are one of the best forms of advertising that can promote your business.

4. Making Your Business Comfortable and Relatable for Customers
If you work in an industry that can be perceived as distant from customers, such as medicine or law, stress balls can be a great way to make your company more “down to earth.” Stress balls can make your business seem more human and even add a touch of humour. In high-stress environments like medicine, stress balls truly prove an important function in easing clients into what can be uncomfortable environments.

5. Adding Value to Service-Oriented Businesses
Service oriented businesses often face the problem of not having a “product” customers can take home. Promotional stress relievers solve this problem. They give customers a great “hands on” token of appreciation to take home and can help them remember your service-oriented business!

Stress relievers make small businesses more  approachable to audiences of all ages. Promotional stress balls are an effective form of promoting your business that is cost-effective and fun.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Stress Balls, Promotional Toys | No Comments »

5 Popular Promotional Parker Pens

Friday, May 14th, 2010


Promotional Parker pens offer the top standard for sophistication, value, and quality. Parker pens are available in a variety of colours and provide an exquisite writing experience for businesses and their clients. This article will name the top 5 “All-Star” Parker Pens and the exact qualities that make them such high-quality pens. In addition, this article will include reasons your business can benefit from using Parker pens as promotional gifts to promote your business.

1. Parker Vector Jotter Pen
Parker Jotter pens are renowned as the writing utensil of choice among business executives, lawyers, and other high-class professionals. In addition, all kinds of businesses and industries benefit from the use of these fluid pens. The sleek design of Jotter pens can make any business seem instantly more professional and classy. These pens can also be personalized with any sort of business information your business desires.

2. Parker Frontier Ball Pen
Want a high-quality writing experience? Then choose Parker Frontier Ball Pens. These rollerball pens feel like a million dollars, and will give your company the look of professionalism that it needs to thrive. The silver look of these pens is just stunning. These pens also make a great, special gift to top clients.

3. Parker Sonnet Ball Pen
The Parker Sonnet Ball Pens are a favorite among the Parker series. These pens feature an all-silver design, which makes for a very sharp and posh look. These pens can also be printed with your logo and design. The chrome trim make these pens a beautiful gift for top employees and customers.

4. Parker Urban Ball Pen
For a more comfortable writing experience, Parker Urban Ball Pens offer a great solution for your business. Perhaps you own a law firm, where lawyers are constantly writing legal documents all day. Provide them with a set of Parker Urban Ball Pens, and they will actually enjoy reviewing and signing thousands of pages of documents. These pens include a nice cushion and unique design to create a comfortable writing experience.

5. Parker IM Ball Pen
These pens are the essence of a gorgeous aesthetic design and style. Created with a thicker base, these pens are also easier to hold. The area to print your logo and design is also larger than most pens.

These 5 Parker pens will offer your business a chic edge that makes it stand apart. Whatever your needs, these pens will serve your business well and can be great promotional items as well.

Posted by Dan Toombs

Posted in promotional pens | No Comments »

5 Inventive Ways to Promote Your Hotel with Hotel Themed Stress Balls

Friday, May 14th, 2010


When business executives travel to hotels, they want comfort, relaxation, and great customer service. The relief of stress is something highly valued in highly busy executives that are traveling for meetings or in people simply taking some time off from work. Showing your devotion to a relaxing environment has never been easier than with hotel themed stress balls. This article will offer 5 great ways you can promote your hotel with hotel themed stress balls.

1. Hotel Themed Stress Balls as Nightly Gifts on Pillows
A charming way to make guests value your hotel is by placing chocolates and hotel themed stress balls on their pillow after their first night. Guests will appreciate the relaxing gift after their first night and will remember the nice gesture in years to come!

2. Nightly Cocktail Hours
A fun way to get your guests socializing in a hotel is by hosting a cocktail hour every night with free cheese and drinks. At a cocktail hour, be sure to place baskets of hotel themed stress balls on tables. These toys charm guests and can even be great conversational starters about the amazing qualities of your hotel!

3. Hotel Gift Stores
Another great idea is to give hotel themed stress balls for free with the purchase of any item in a hotel gift store. Guests will feel like they are getting more for their money and will be pleased when they go to relieve stress later with the stress toys!

4. Hotel Casino Gifts
If your hotel contains a casino, then stress balls can be great for casinos. Sometimes stress balls can be a great way for winners to feel even better about their winnings, and can ease the sorrow of those who perhaps lost a bit of money. Other great promotional gifts for hotel casinos are decks of cards, pens, and note pads.

5. Gifts Upon Arriving
A wonderful way for hotels to greet guests upon their arrival is through gift bags in their hotel room. Creating gift bags with promotional mugs, hotel themed stress balls, pens, note pads, and a map of the surrounding city is a great way to make guests feel welcome.

Hotel themed stressballs are an important way that hotels can communicate their relaxing environment to guests. With these 5 ways to promote your hotel with stress balls, guests will become loyal customers at your hotel!

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Stress Balls, stress balls | No Comments »

5 Ways to Promote Your Small Business with Promotional Umbrellas

Friday, May 14th, 2010


Promotional umbrellas are a fantastic promotional gift item. Given their larger size and useful function, customers often value these gifts immensely and use them all the time. In addition, promotional umbrellas help advertise your business on the streets! This article will offer 5 ways umbrellas can promote your small business.

1. Advertising in a City or Community
Umbrellas are large and easily seen. Try creating a promotional umbrella in a bright or neon color with your company logo to attract attention in the streets. Umbrellas are a unique and often under-used way to effectively advertise small businesses in busy metropolitan areas.

2. Giving Umbrellas to Top Customers
Often, the best way to promote profitability in a company is by recognizing the customers that made a business profitable in the first place. Umbrellas can be a practical gift that top customers cherish forever. Try rewarding those customers that have made your small business successful with a “thank you” note and umbrella!

3. Gift with Purchase Ideas
For online businesses especially, offering a “gift with purchase” option to customers is a great way to gain an edge over competition. Many people forget to purchase umbrellas or need new ones. If your company is the one offering an umbrella incentive with a certain purchase, most customers will choose your business over the competition!

4. Printing a Catchy Phrase on an Umbrella
Make people look twice on the street by printing a catchy or funny phrase on an umbrella. Something like “When it’s raining cats and dogs, XYZ company brings out the sunshine!” gets people noticing your company and thinking about it. Especially on rainy days when people are frustrated, one simple and optimistic phrase can cheer people up and make them interested in your company.

5. Charity Walks and Outdoor Events
At charity events that take place outdoors, handing out umbrellas with your company logo printed on them is a great way to contribute to the cause and provide a valuable purpose. If it’s raining during a charity walk, your company can literally save the day with printed umbrellas.

When promoting your company with promotional products, the trick is to be inventive and unique. Print a catchy phrase on an umbrella or see a need at a charity event that no other company sees. Promotional umbrellas can get many people interested in your company and develop a great customer base.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Umbrellas | No Comments »

5 Ways to Promote Your Car Dealership with Promotional Gifts

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Values like excellence, professionalism, and respect are incredibly important at any car dealership. When customers know that a car dealership places a high premium on these kinds of values, customers know they can trust that car dealership. Promotional desktop gifts offer car dealerships a highly unique opportunity to express these values to customers. This article will offer 5 ways your car dealership can use desktop gifts to convey excellence and quality to your customers.

1. Promotional Leather Deluxe Folders to Advertise Car Information
When potential customers are interested in a car at your dealership, it is essential that presentation of cars is impeccable. Leather deluxe folders can help organize car information for each car in your dealership, ensuring that presentation is top-notch. Try taking photographs of each car and creating a “file” for it using leather deluxe folders. Then, a potential customer can even take home a leather deluxe folder with a car’s information if he or she is serious about the purchase. This can be the tipping point that boosts sales for your car dealership.

2. Convey Professionalism in an Organized Office and Desk Space
Office desks of car dealerships are an important place for business. Most likely, a sales person will bring potential customers back to his or her desk area to negotiate a car deal. It is essential for desk spaces to convey professionalism for customers to trust sales people and give them respect. Executive desktop gifts with company logos can enhance the professional look and uniformity of a desk area. Printed pens, leather deluxe folders, and coffee mugs are great gifts that make desk areas look sophisticated and organized.

3. “Test Drive Your Dream Car” Day
A great event to make car dealerships more well-known in a community is to host a “test drive your dream car” day. During these types of promotions, car dealerships may provide lunch or appetizers to interested members of the community. Those members then get to pick one car they are interested in test driving. Last, members can leave with gift bags that contain the purchasing information of their favorite car in a promotional folder, along with other promotional gifts like engraved pens and travel mugs.

4. Promotional Gifts for Purchasing Cars
After customers purchase a car, make sure they receive every type of promotional gift possible from your car dealership. Often, car dealerships become popular through referrals. If your client leaves feeling satisfied, then he or she may recommend your dealership to a sister, brother, or other family relative. It is important to give customers that have purchased a car extra promotional gift items so they can give them to friends and family!

5. Giveaways
Another great way to get customers into your car dealership is through giveaways. Offer customers the incentive of merely stopping in, by providing them with an entrance into a monthly or bi-monthly car giveaway. Make sure to give customers a promotional pen or bumper sticker when they leave, and you may have just found a future customer!

These are 5 great ways car dealerships can amp up professionalism and gain respect in a community. With these 5 tips, car dealerships can seriously increase profitability and customer loyalty.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Gifts, promotional pens | No Comments »

5 Ways to Promote Your Restaurant with Promotional Gifts

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

When customers leave your restaurant, you want them to remember the amazing food, great customer service, and the kind of atmosphere your restaurant provides. In a busy world where customers are rushing from restaurants back to work or dropping the children off at soccer practice achieving memorable message amongst customers can be difficult. With promotional gifts, however, making your restaurant memorable is simple and even fun! Try out these 5 ideas for using promotional gifts in your restaurant and watch your customers come back for more!

1. Promotional Products as Children’s Gifts
Children love promotional balloons, note pads, and even stress toys. Giving children a prize with their meal is one of the best ways to make your customers satisfied and happy. Giving promotional note pads to children is a great idea, since it keeps them entertained with colouring while adults chat and enjoy their meal. When families return home, adults will often end up using a notepad for their daily needs! They’ll be able to see your restaurant’s logo  and contact information day after day and won’t forget to come back again!

2. Giving Promotional Printed Pens to Everyone Possible
Promotional pens can act like a purposeful business card. People often throw away business cards but will hold onto pens since they are useful. This means they will remember the qualities that make your restaurant great. Get printed pens into every person’s hand that walks into your restaurant, in addition to all the business executives in your area.

3. Delivering Free Lunches to Offices with Promotional Products
Surprise law firms or other office spaces with a free lunch one day and include a bunch of your promotional products. Promotional products like a Parker Vector Roller Ball Pen or Cross Aventury Ball Pen work best with your company information printed on them. Most companies get the idea and are more than willing to place promotional products in their office space in exchange for a free lunch!

4. Benefit Dinners and Promotional Products
Hosting benefit dinners offers a great way for restaurants to gain respect in various communities. Along with hosting these benefits, handing out gift bags to attendees with promotional products is a great way to market your restaurant amongst influential, and often very wealthy, people. Non-conventional promotional items like umbrellas are also popular for gift bags, since they are so useful.

5. Hosting Other Social Events
Hosting other social events, such as networking hours, can be a great way to get your name out and boost business. Make it a fine dining experience, but don’t forget to place your promotional products on tables throughout the restaurant. You never know which business professional may decide to book your restaurant for their next meeting.
These are 5 great tips to get your restaurant leaving customers with a taste of satisfaction to remember your restaurant. Try them out with promotional products and watch your restaurant become the most reputable name in any city!

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Gifts | No Comments »

5 Ways to Promote Your Online Business with Promotional Gifts

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Promoting an online business is no easy feat. Marketing an online business effectively requires a well-thought out plan of action and commitment to that plan. Part of that plan should include promotional gifts that create trust between customers and your company. All too often, technology can have a distancing effect on your audience, but promotional products bridge that distance.

In creating a marketing plan for your e-commerce or online business, consider these 5 innovative ideas in using promotional gifts to gain online traffic, motivate customers to return, and build a great reputation for your business.

1. Online Surveys and Facebook
When creating your marketing plan, be sure to include online surveys. Online surveys help get your company noticed in a world with millions of people and hundreds of thousands of businesses. In addition, online surveys are a great tool for understanding customers’ desires and needs. With the ever-growing popularity of Facebook, this social network can be an effective way to get people to take your company’s surveys. However, there needs to be an incentive for customers to take time completing a survey, and promotional gifts can be that incentive. Try creating an online survey and advertising it through Facebook. Then, offer an engraved or printed pen with your company logo on it to customers that complete the survey.

2. Give Promotional Stress Toys to Your Customer Audience
Try stamping your company’s website across a promotional stress toy. Then, hand stress toys out to the kinds of audiences most likely to purchase your product. Perhaps you own a massage therapy company with an online website for scheduling instant appointments. Stress toys would be a great marketing tool for your business, because people would associate your company with the relief of stress-your main service! Stress toys are a great way to build your reputation and build interest in your online business.

3. Offering Printed Pens for YouTube Viewers
YouTube is a great way to market your online business. Sometimes, one funny or interesting YouTube video can get hundreds of thousands of people interested in your business. Try offering promotional gifts to people that make the best YouTube advertisement video for your company. You never know-there may be a young teen out there with nothing to do this summer, who creates an amazing YouTube video for your company, because he or she wants a promotional set of pens, mug, or even umbrella with your company logo! This is a sure way to make your online business profitable in an easy way.

4. Printed and Engraved Pens
This is one of the most traditional and effective ways to market your online business. Print your website on promotional pens and distribute them to whoever you meet!

5. Gain Twitter Followers
Gain Twitter followers by advertising promotional gifts to the first 100 followers. This can be a sure way to gain traffic on your website!

These are 5 great, innovative ways to use promotional gifts and social media to market your online business. With these 5 tips, your site will be soaring in no time.

Posted by Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Gifts | No Comments »

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