Archive for December, 2010

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5 Low Cost Promotional Stationery Gifts That Your Customers Will Love and Use

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

The best promotional gifts are those that serve a purpose. Gimmicky gifts are fun to give away but their advertising life is limited. Much better for promoting your business are products that your customers use weekly or even daily. As you will see from this article, these gifts are inexpensive and get results.

Wooden Pencils

Everyone needs a pencil in their desk drawer. They are great for jotting down ideas, sketching and they are erasable. Give your customers a handful of wooden pencils and they will keep them and use them. They will also know where to find your contact details when they need them.

Pencil Sharpeners

Even if you don’e had out the popular wooden pencils, your customers will no doubt be needing a pencil sharpener from time to time. Many pencils sharpeners offer large print areas and can be printed in full colour.

Rulers

Promotional rulers are also very popular. Everyone needs a ruler. Whether you choose a plastic version or heavier wooden ruler your customers will love you for it. Rulers offer a large print area for your logo and details.

Sticky Notes

You can never have to many sticky notes. Generic sticky notes are very good quality. 3M Post-it notes are still the best but they are also more expensive.

Pen and Pencil Holders

I love desktop gifts. Gifts that sit on the desktop promoting your brand daily are great. Print your logo nice and large on them and watch your sales increase.

Note Pads

Give someone a good quality wirobound note pad and they will use it . Print the cover with your logo and details. Some can even be printed in full colour with amazing results.

Plastic Printed Paper Clips

No – I an not talking about normal paper clips here. Have you ever seen the rectangular clips with a nice flat surface for printing? The most known is the giant clip that is perfect for clipping together multi-sheet documents.

My favourites are the small clips – not much larger than normal paper clips These can sit happily in your customers desk ready to use whenever needed. Think about that. Give your clients 200 small paper clips printed with your logo and details and your information will always be within easy reach.

It is important to consider how well useful promotional gifts work to promote a business. These are the items we cannot work without and they are even better when they are given to us as gifts.

So what are you waiting for? Give your customers one or all of these low cost gifts and get your business promoted all over their work space!

By Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Gifts | No Comments »

Writing Your Way to Success with a Daily Blog

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010


Internet businesses that are not built on a firm foundation tend to fail. Unfortunately, many aspiring Internet marketers don’t realize that a solid foundation is much more than a well-designed website with clean graphics and crisp writing and the use of Google pay per click to drive traffic. While, these, of course, are important, the foundation of a solid online business is based on a positive relationship with prospects and customers.

How To Build A Positive Relationship Online

While videos and audio files on a website help with creating this relationship, because people prefer these mediums and Google likes to index websites with multi-media, what is really necessary to build a positive relationship with people online is a platform where the marketer communicates on a regular basis with visitors. This platform is blogging. Blogging is based on writing friendly, informative posts on a regular basis. In addition, it can also accommodate video and audio messages.

Why Blogging Is An Essential Key To Online Success?

The Internet is primarily a publishing enterprise; it is based on writing. In order to create a presence online, the marketer has to communicate free information that is helpful to the reader. It is this information sharing that creates a sense of trust. Ultimately, regardless of how compelling your sales letters, how slick your video infomercial, or how attention-grabbing your graphics, your product will not sell unless people know, like and trust you. The way to build up this relationship is through writing a blog.

Writing builds trust because your ideas are clearly outlined for others to follow. In addition, the keywords in your text will attract search engine spiders to get your pages ranked in the search engines. For example, suppose your Internet business is about selling promotional gifts. By blogging about business gifts like different types of wallets, you will be able to include a keyword like “business card wallets. ” Your readers will learn about why these types of wallets will make good promotional gifts and major search engines will reward you for using the keywords by ranking your article on their index pages.

So a solid foundation for any Internet marketing business is a willingness to write and to write often, as this gets a message to the marketplace that is personal, informative, and creates a sense of rapport with the readers. Blogging provides the best platform for writing regularly online.

By Dan Toombs

Posted in Article Writing, Blogging | No Comments »

3 Top Tips for Beginning an Article Marketing Campaign

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010


When it comes to article marketing, you have to take a moment to decide for yourself: do you really care?

The fact is that a lot of people get into article marketing thinking that it’s a no-risk, no-effort way to make money fast, and the truth of the matter is that that just plain isn’t really the case. If you don’t care, if you can’t be bothered to put forth any effort, if you can’t come up with an original, effective idea on your own now and then, then you’re not really meant for the world of article marketing.

If you’ve ever wondered why the web is so full of nonsense, though, why every Google search has you searching through a pile of garbage to find an interesting article, it’s because so many people think they can get rich quick on poorly written articles, then they find that they can’t, and they immediately give up.

Now, the first tip, the most important one and the one that will serve as the foundation of everything you do is this: don’t even begin marketing with articles unless you’re ready to actually give it one hundred percent. Here are the other top tips.

Keywords Aren’t Everything

Keywords are what you might call the “lure”, but without a fat, juicy worm of real content on that hook, visitors aren’t going to stick around. A lot of web marketers will pack a nonsense article with keywords and wonder why they haven’t doubled their sales yet. Keywords are how you improve your visibility on search engines, but if you want people to stick around and read your blog or seek out more articles you’ve written, it comes down to quality writing (or at least entertaining writing) and interesting content.

Select a Theme

A good SEO article marketing campaign should be built around some core theme or idea or concept. The scatter shot method can work, but the most effective campaigns are always built with a singular focus. The main thing is that you want to give yourself something more to work with than a keyword so that people will have a reason to actually read these articles. They could be structured like news articles or tied into current events or presented as short stories. Whatever it may be, selecting a unique theme can help your articles stand out in the sea of SEO content that is the web.

Remember: Customers Create the Market

Customers create a market, sellers fill a market. Too often, marketers and business people think that they can build a whole new market out of thin air. No matter how strong your marketing, a useless product will remain useless. Simply put: don’t devote a marketing campaign to something that you wouldn’t buy or invest in yourself.

By Dan Toombs

Posted in Article Writing, Blogging | No Comments »

Successful Business Blogging Begins with a Good Title

Monday, December 27th, 2010


“All Marketers are Liars” by Seth Godin is one of the most popular tomes on the subject of advertising. Funny enough, the author admits right in the introduction that the title is a bit of an exaggeration, explaining that marketing isn’t about lying but about “telling stories”, and that “All Marketers Tell Stories” isn’t nearly as powerful a title.

The title of a blog post, similarly, can make or break the popularity of the blog itself. Imagine if you’re in line at the movies and you see two different films playing, “Flight 457″ and “Snakes on a Plane”. Samuel L. Jackson explains in interviews that he lobbied against that alternate, dull title simply because it just wasn’t very good from a marketing perspective. “Snakes on a Plane” is silly, but immediately descriptive, powerful, catchy and it proved to be a real ticket-seller.

Your title is how you make your first impression. You want it to be capable of jumping right out at the reader from a list of blog posts. Here are a few key ingredients to a great title for your next blog post.

It’s Incendiary

If a blog post is controversial, you can bet that people from both sides of the fence are going to click on it. It’s a bit of a cheap gimmick, but as long as the tone of the actual post is moderate and reasonable, you can get away with an incendiary, controversial title without being called out as a crazy extremist. This is possible even when it comes to, say, computer products. A title like “Are Macs Garbage?” is going to get more clicks than “Macs Are Useful But They Have Some Flaws”.

It’s Catchy

The shorter the better. Simple as that. “Catchy” is all about strong words and short sentences. Think about some of your favorite pop songs. “Billie Jean is not my lover” is catchy, even nonsense words like “Inna Gada Vida” can be catchy if they’re short and memorable. Keep it short, sweet and powerful.

It’s Immediately Descriptive

Just like “Snakes on a Plane”, you want people to know what this blog post is about before they click on it, or else how are they going to know that they actually want to click on it? Marketing is all about letting people know that you have what they’re looking for. Descriptive keyword happy titles work wonders.

By Dan Toombs

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Using Twitter and Other Social Networks to Promote Your Blog

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

Social media is a powerful tool that allows bloggers to get in contact with one another and build important relationships. These connections are essential if you’re wanting to promote your blog through social media, so it’s important to forge open and supportive relationships with others in your niche and your audience members.

Your blog will be more successful if it is focused in a particular niche and if you follow what others in your niche are doing.

For example, if your blog focuses on the niche of promotional gift items, you should search for people on Twitter who are having conversations about things like promotional pens, keychain gift items, or promotional business gifts.

This is a great way to find some of the people who are likely to be interested in what you’re writing and who you can also learn from. Follow some of these people on Twitter, send them a “hello” tweet, or use a direct message to introduce yourself.

It’s helpful to use a similar strategy on sites such as Facebook or Twitter to get in touch with your audience members. By searching for people who are interested in the same topics and who are following other bloggers in your niche, you can increase the size of your audience. However, you should always be sure that you’re providing value to the people you’re messaging.

Avoid sending spam-like messages that only tell people about your site. Instead, you should read the person’s Facebook profile or some of their recent tweets to get an idea of their interests, and then tailor your message to something you read. By showing people that you are interested in what they have to say and then recommending a specific post on your blog that relates to it, you can develop a human relationship that will inspire them to check out your blog.

After you’ve begun to network through Twitter, Facebook, or your social network of choice, you should continue to develop the relationships with those you meet. When you establish these relationships, you can begin sharing one another’s work to your own audiences. Again, it’s essential that you always focus on providing valuable content to your readers, so only share links that they will truly find useful. When you link to material from other bloggers, they will notice the hits coming in from your link and will be more likely to mention you or your blog. You’ll be amazed by the increase in traffic!

By Dan Toombs

Posted in Blogging | No Comments »

3 Types of Blogging * It is Not all about Words

Saturday, December 25th, 2010

A common mistake in Intenet marketing is to make the assumption that blogging is all about writing. The truth is that there are thousands of popular blogs out there that don’t contain a single word of daily content.

Take for instance The Daily Batman. This blog is nothing more than a single image or video of Batman-related content every day. It might be a photo of Adam West on Wednesday and then a fan made Batman animation the next. It’s a silly idea for a blog, sure, but it goes to show that it’s not all about words.

Admittedly, a blog is typically a mix of pictures, video and words, but we’ll boil it down to just these three types for the sake of simplicity and so that we can discuss what goes into each type of blog.

Video Blogging

A video blog can be anything from a review series like a review showing the top promotional gift pens for Christmas and what makes them different or just a blog linking to promotional product videos that the blogger likes. I often do this.

When it comes to self-made content, the upside is that your subscribers aren’t as demanding of daily content. In fact, a monthly update is considered generous for a web series. This style of blogging is exciting as it really is the first step into a whole new era of media, where the line between television and the web is only going to get blurrier and blurrier.

Image Blogging

Again, image blogging can be defined as providing original images, such as a photo blog of your products, or it can involve simply linking to images that the blogger feels his readers will find of interest.

Typically, there will be a theme at play. One blogger might focus on fashion, for instance, while another might focus on images of popular promotional pens. If you’re a professional blogger, you’re probably looking for a way to keep it relevant to your business, of course.

Text Blogging

This is the most common form of blogging and, in many ways, the easiest. You don’t have to break out the web cam or learn to draw or photograph, you just write what’s on your mind, making sure to include a keyword or two, and click “post”.

As I specialise in promotional gifts, most of my articles have keywords that people often use to find these products online such as business gifts, printed gifts and personalised gifts.

I think you get the idea.

One of the most difficult parts of writing a daily promotional product blog is keeping it interesting. You may find the same to be true in your industry. Try to find ways that your products or services are and answer to a problem and then write about it and you should do fine.

By Dan Toombs

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Posted in Blogging, Promotional Gifts | No Comments »

5 Things to Consider When Choosing a Title for Your Blog Posts

Friday, December 24th, 2010

You’ve decided to expand your corporate presence, and the internet seems like a great place to start, so why not go all out? I have and believe me – I will never look back!

There are a number of solid strategies that can help you get your business off the ground with flying colours, and none are better than blogging. I truly believe this.

Blogs help you establish open dialogue with your customer base and business partners, making them perfect tools for increasing awareness of your products and services.

An important component of any internet marketing campaign, blogs foster educated consumer decisions and allow you to easily tailor your advertising strategies to respond to trends and reader comments.

A good blog begins with a title. Much like classic newspaper headlines, strong titles that indicate interesting subject matter are the best way to draw new readers to your content. For those of you just getting started, finding inspiration for your next blog is easy if you follow some of these response-oriented tips on titling.

1. Look to your work

Blog titles that address your product lines and the problems they solve are the best way to set a professional tone. By using titles that incorporate your products and services in an interesting way, you give customers seeking more information an easy reference point for their search.

Keyword rich headlines are much more likely to show up higher in the search rankings.

2. Consider consumer convenience

A blog title that hints at some useful tips is perfect for letting your readers know that it’s not all about sales.

Starting off with headlines that lead into helpful content gives potential customers the sense that you appreciate their time and are willing to go the distance to address their concerns, instead of just promoting yourself and your work.

3. Remember SEO

While a title ought to be descriptive, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) marketing works best when your titles include some of the keywords you plan on focusing with your content.

4. Mirror your marketing strategy ahead of time

When you know you’re going to be releasing a new product or starting a new service, a blog title makes a great place to introduce the concept. Because blogs are periodical, they’re perfect for describing what’s up and coming just in time for release dates.

5. Keep it simple

The best titles in literature draw interested readers in with minimalist techniques. Your content body provides an area for detailed description, so use the title to raise interest quickly, as readers are wont to skip over large sections of text. Happy blogging!

By Dan Toombs

Posted in Blogging | No Comments »

How to Search Online for Promotional Pens

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

When sourcing promotional pens, the best information will be found from those who test and write about pens. This makes sense. There are those who simply sell these popular promotional products hoping for the best and there are those who actually know about and write with the product they sell.

Simply typing in ‘promotional pens’ into Google or Bing is bound to bring up some good results. But often the sites that appear on the first page are there because their owners are search engine optimisation experts and not necessarily promotional pen experts.

A few of my competitors, for example, have high ranking sites on Google in the UK but their pen definitions are written in broken English by someone who probably knows very little about the products.

I recommend searching for sites online that offer the information you are looking for. If you find a pen you really like, don’t stop there! Key the pen name and brand into Google and Bing and see who is writing about them.

Find the people who are passionate about the writing instruments they sell and can offer you not only the positives but the negatives of the promotional pens they sell. Personally I spend hours testing different brands as I understand that most of my customers will not have the time to do so.

Searching for promotional printed pens can be a difficult chore. Try to type as much information into the search field as you can. For example, if you like promotional Senator Pens, type in the models you like. Don’t just type ‘promotional Senator pens,’ type ‘Promotional Senator Challenger pens’ if the Challenger is your pen of choice.

This is called long tail searching and it will bring up much better results. Doing so may even help you find companies who have used the pens and can give you the pros and cons. Is that not what we want when we are looking at spending a considerable about of money on pens? You wouldn’t purchase a car without test driving it would you?

There is no better way to get to know a promotional pen than to ask for a sample and to write with it. This is not always possible due to short lead-times. Long tail searching is the next best thing as it puts you in touch with the promotion pens companies that know the pens you want, best.

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Boost Your Sales With Good Quality Promotional Gifts

Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010
Promotional gifts

Just some of the many promotional gifts available at CompuGift!

One of the most effective ways to market your business is by providing promotional gifts to prospects as well as existing customers. A physical object is constant advertising for your business. When a logoed item is placed on a desk or countertop, it can provide thousands of visual impressions per day. Choosing the right promotional product can ensure that it will be used and displayed, keeping your business name in front of people for months or even years.

Of course, the promotional items should send the message that you care about your prospects. Using this method of marketing accomplishes little in the way of advertising if the items are poor quality. Does this mean that you have to spend a fortune on top-of-the-line items that will be given away as “freebies”? Not at all!

It only means that you should value your customers enough to provide them with functional and high quality promotional gifts. The purpose of thanking your customers is to acknowledge that they are valuable to you. Nothing says “I don’t really care that much” like merchandise that breaks, falls apart, looks shoddy or doesn’t work.

Effective business gifts should be appropriate, useful and functional. Think about all the items you have received from trade shows or from your vendors. Which ones do you use daily and which ones have you thrown away? Chances are the ones you have kept on your desk are the gifts that are unique, usable and still working.

People don’t want stuff that doesn’t work, and you should not use it in your marketing efforts simply because you feel you need to give something away. The business gifts that you give to your clients and customers should reflect the value that you place on your relationship, their past patronage, or your hope for future business.

If you are using promotional products as part of your online marketing efforts, it’s especially important to provide quality items. When you mail items to prospects whom you have never met in person, for example, online contest winners, fellow bloggers, guest posters or other online service providers, the item will be the only physical representation of your company. You will not be there in person to demonstrate your sincerity or gratitude, so your product will need to do the speaking for you. Therefore, it should be a useful, quality item that people will be happy to have and eager to use.

Promotional gifts that work well and are long lasting will provide the best return on your investment. For the money that you spend on promotional items, you need people to keep and use them. This keeps your logo, business name and contact information in front of as many people as possible. High quality promotional gifts will help you grow your business when your customers use them all day.

Promotional pens are the ideal item to help you make this first impression. They are lightweight and easy to mail. Most importantly, a well-chosen pen can speak volumes about you and your company. Considering how many low-end pens are distributed each year and how many end up in the trash, a high quality promotional pen is a welcome gift and one that will be appreciated, used and probably even talked about for a long time.

Pens that write smoothly and that are comfortable to hold are wonderful business gifts that make the recipient feel valued. Refillable pens are even better. Not only will the recipient use them for years, but your logo will continue to advertise for you. A pen with space large enough for your company’s imaging is essential to keeping your name visible and in the customer’s mind. A long-lasting promotional item more than pays for itself over the long haul.

By Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Gifts | No Comments »

3 Ways to get the Most from Your Promotional Gifts

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

The best way to ensure you get the most out of your promotional merchandise is to think things through. Allow yourself time to design the products and have them printed exactly as your want them. So often people wait until the very last minute and end up having to compromise. Promotional gifts always look better and usually even cost less when you plan your promotion.

Following are three things you can do to really make a big bang with your promotion.

Give Useful Gifts

It goes without saying that useful gifts will get used more! Therefore, if you want to get the more for your money, you need to gift away promotional items that are useful. Look around your own desktop. What are the things you could not do without? Chances are you will have a few pens, note pads, erasers, pencils, and other stationery products. You may also have a photo frame, clock, calculator and/or calendar. These are the gifts that are safe – the items your customers will want to own, use and will appreciate.

Target Your Customers

In addition to handing out useful all round promotional items, you will also benefit by offering products that are carefully targeted to your customers’ needs. Promotional products such as car safety kits are perfect for those who travel a lot, umbrellas are ideal for outdoor campaigns and sports bags are great for athletes. I’m sure you get the picture. There are thousands of great gifts that are available for specially targeted marketing campaigns.

Keep them Coming

Giving away a good quality plastic pen is a great idea. But why stop there? Get to know your customers and send them promotional products you know they will use. Try to cover their desktop with different useful promotional products printed with your logo and details. Doing so will help ensure they know where to go when they next require your products and/or services.

I always encourage people to request samples of the promotional merchandise that interests them. In this way you can check the quality of the product. It really is the only way to ensure that product you saw on a website or in a printed promotional gifts catalogue is the right gift for your customers.

Order a selection of promotional products also allows you to check the colours of the products. Colours can look much different in a catalogue to the actual colour of the product. If you are purchasing a range of products – some may be manufactured in the UK while others in India or China for example – you can ensure you properly colour-coordinate your promotion.

By Dan Toombs

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Posted in Promotional Gifts | No Comments »

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