Promotional Calendars have always been a great promotional item. Not only are they extremely useful to others but they are a fantastic way to market your company or organisation as they are used all throughout the year by the potential client. You can be sure that if you give out your promotional calendars just before Christmas or early on in the New Year, they will be used throughout the year and come December your brand will have become very familiar and that can only be a good thing.
In the last few years calendars are better as promotional items than ever because they come in such an extensive range of styles, types and designs. When choosing your calendar, it is very important that you choose one which will market your brand best, suit your price range and also be appropriate for the target audience. Read on below to get some inspiration for what you want:
Desk Calendars
These are a great giveaway if you are targeting people who have office jobs and are often at their desks and on their computers. This is because they can stand the calendar in front of them on their desks where it will come in very handy to them but also be a constant reminder of your company. This is a great way to promote yourself as your brand will be in the forefront of their minds if your services are ever required. Desk calendars come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours and of course can be branded with personal names, brands and logos.
Wall Planners
Wall planners are great for the office as well as for the home. This type of calendar comes in a large A1 size and its purpose is to be put on the wall and written on as a day-to-day planner. The paper is laminated so the calendar can be written and wiped off as necessary. These planners are excellent practical items and again a great way to promote your company as your name is mounted on the wall for all to see!
Advent Calendars
Obviously advent calendars have a very limited time frame because they can only be given out before Christmas but they can still be very effective promotional gifts especially when filled with chocolate! They are guaranteed to be a popular giveaway and could definitely help to boost your sales in the New Year!
I have only discussed a fraction of the calendars that are available out there on the promotional market so come and get a piece of the action and try out your success with some promotional calendars!
Friday 19 February 2010
Thursday 18 February 2010
Tips on how to choose cost effective Promotional Items
Marketing your company is essential to create business but it can be a very expensive thing. Advertising yourself is by no means cheap, not by any stretch of the imagination. This can prove a problem, especially for new small businesses who are trying to compete with the larger ones but simply do not have the budget. For an up and coming business, one of the most important things to do is to promote your brand to make it popular and to get its name out there and its objective understood. Perhaps the most popular, successful and cost effective way of doing this is to use promotional items.
Promotional items are available in a huge range of prices, from rather expensive to dirt cheap so they are suitable to both small and large budgets. It obviously depends on what you are looking for but if its cheap promotional items you are after, the choice is abundant. Many of the cheaper items are just as good at achieving what you want to achieve as the higher end range of promotional items. This is because it is not a matter of price but a matter of how well you utilise the promotional item to market your brand. For example, a cheap and cheerful pen in an eye-catching colour, printed with your companies details can be just as useful if not more than a high end umbrella which may not be used half as much as the pen. The sheer variety of the promotional items which are available will ensure that you will find the perfect item for you and your company.
Below are some tips and examples of cheap promotional items and how to choose the right one for you:
Choose your item!
First things first, you need to think carefully about the item you are going to choose and try to tie it in with your company and what you represent. For example if you have just started up a construction company, an idea might be to choose stress items, perhaps in the shape of hard hats or tools, with your company name and logo on. By making your promotional easily identifiable with the sort of business you running, potential customers can straight-away see what your company is all about. Another example may be sharpeners or rubbers in the shape of hard hats. These sort of products are useful to the person you have given them to and at the same time, are boosting business for you.
Design your product
How you choose to design the product you have chosen, is a very important aspect of the process. Especially if you have chosen a lower end product, you need to design it very carefully so it looks the best it can possibly look. Colour, size, shape and how you brand the item all need to be thought about in the design process. The product design should be eye-catching, fun, stylish and interesting and designed with the target group in mind. For example, if your target group is something very specific like teenage girls, brightly coloured shopper bags with an interesting logo would go down very well.
Shop around!
If you have a tight budget and are looking to find the best deal possible, some good advice is to shop around for promotional items. There are so many companies out there all trying to compete for your business and you would be surprised at how accommodating they can be. The best deals can usually be had when you are buying in bulk so remember to always keep that in mind. For example the cost of a pen will go down in price if you were buying 500 instead of 50.
So if its cost effective promotional items you are looking for, be sure to follow these few simple tips to get the best possible deal and product which in turn will have the best reflection on your business and hopefully make you some money.
Promotional items are available in a huge range of prices, from rather expensive to dirt cheap so they are suitable to both small and large budgets. It obviously depends on what you are looking for but if its cheap promotional items you are after, the choice is abundant. Many of the cheaper items are just as good at achieving what you want to achieve as the higher end range of promotional items. This is because it is not a matter of price but a matter of how well you utilise the promotional item to market your brand. For example, a cheap and cheerful pen in an eye-catching colour, printed with your companies details can be just as useful if not more than a high end umbrella which may not be used half as much as the pen. The sheer variety of the promotional items which are available will ensure that you will find the perfect item for you and your company.
Below are some tips and examples of cheap promotional items and how to choose the right one for you:
Choose your item!
First things first, you need to think carefully about the item you are going to choose and try to tie it in with your company and what you represent. For example if you have just started up a construction company, an idea might be to choose stress items, perhaps in the shape of hard hats or tools, with your company name and logo on. By making your promotional easily identifiable with the sort of business you running, potential customers can straight-away see what your company is all about. Another example may be sharpeners or rubbers in the shape of hard hats. These sort of products are useful to the person you have given them to and at the same time, are boosting business for you.
Design your product
How you choose to design the product you have chosen, is a very important aspect of the process. Especially if you have chosen a lower end product, you need to design it very carefully so it looks the best it can possibly look. Colour, size, shape and how you brand the item all need to be thought about in the design process. The product design should be eye-catching, fun, stylish and interesting and designed with the target group in mind. For example, if your target group is something very specific like teenage girls, brightly coloured shopper bags with an interesting logo would go down very well.
Shop around!
If you have a tight budget and are looking to find the best deal possible, some good advice is to shop around for promotional items. There are so many companies out there all trying to compete for your business and you would be surprised at how accommodating they can be. The best deals can usually be had when you are buying in bulk so remember to always keep that in mind. For example the cost of a pen will go down in price if you were buying 500 instead of 50.
So if its cost effective promotional items you are looking for, be sure to follow these few simple tips to get the best possible deal and product which in turn will have the best reflection on your business and hopefully make you some money.
How to market a small business in an inexpensive way
How to market a small business in an inexpensive way
When you think of marketing your company what instantly springs to mind? Well if you are only a small business with a lower end budget, cost is going to be at the forefront of the equation. You may think that promoting your business has to be a costly affair but the truth behind this is that it does not. In the last few years as the internet has become more and more advanced, ways have emerged to make yourself known and promote yourself for free. Yes you did hear me right, i said FREE!
You and your small business can now potentially keep up with the much bigger businesses doing the same thing as you, as long as you put a bit of time and effort into the promotion of your company. Here are some completely FREE ways of marketing your business...
Writing Online Articles
If you wanted to publish an article in a local newspaper or trade magazine, you are looking at paying a substantial amount of money to buy the space in the magazine, get it published and maybe even pay a professional writer to suit the style of the magazine. Sure, if you have a big business with a large budget, this would not be a problem but for you small businesses out there this may not be an option. So why not write an online article? You can submit your articles for free to article sites and share information about your company and even give advice and expertise. If you then create a link somewhere in the article to your website, people that read it and decide they want to know more can be transferred straight to your website with no hassle whatsoever. Increasing amounts of people are using these websites to promote their businesses and look for inspiration and they really do work.
Blogging
Blogging is a relatively new and upcoming way to promote yourself and your business. It began as quite a popular thing with young people as you can blog about absolutely anything you want and the writing style can be fairly loose and conversational. However as the blogging craze has caught on more and more, people have realised that they can use blogging as a way of marketing their companies and potentially create business. Blogging works in a similar way to online article writing, it is completely free to submit your blogs and you can add in links to your website. It also is best if you submit articles on a regular basis as people can begin to follow your blogs and this in turn creates more of a buzz round your business.
Twitter and Facebook
If you have not heard before (which is highly unlikely) Twitter and Facebook are social networking websites which have in last couple of years, took off on a grand scale. What started off as a way to locate old friends, Facebook has turned into perhaps one of the most popular websites and one can now advertise themselves and their businesses on it. Both Twitter and Facebook are excellent free platforms to promote and market your business so set yourself up a business account today and get networking!
All the marketing tools I have discussed above are very useful and effective ways of promoting your company for free. They may be slightly time consuming but believe me, when you see the results that putting in a little time and effort produce, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Obviously there are many other ways to promote your company if you do not mind spending a little money. A perfect way option being Promotional Gifts. If you are interested, read on in my next article...
When you think of marketing your company what instantly springs to mind? Well if you are only a small business with a lower end budget, cost is going to be at the forefront of the equation. You may think that promoting your business has to be a costly affair but the truth behind this is that it does not. In the last few years as the internet has become more and more advanced, ways have emerged to make yourself known and promote yourself for free. Yes you did hear me right, i said FREE!
You and your small business can now potentially keep up with the much bigger businesses doing the same thing as you, as long as you put a bit of time and effort into the promotion of your company. Here are some completely FREE ways of marketing your business...
Writing Online Articles
If you wanted to publish an article in a local newspaper or trade magazine, you are looking at paying a substantial amount of money to buy the space in the magazine, get it published and maybe even pay a professional writer to suit the style of the magazine. Sure, if you have a big business with a large budget, this would not be a problem but for you small businesses out there this may not be an option. So why not write an online article? You can submit your articles for free to article sites and share information about your company and even give advice and expertise. If you then create a link somewhere in the article to your website, people that read it and decide they want to know more can be transferred straight to your website with no hassle whatsoever. Increasing amounts of people are using these websites to promote their businesses and look for inspiration and they really do work.
Blogging
Blogging is a relatively new and upcoming way to promote yourself and your business. It began as quite a popular thing with young people as you can blog about absolutely anything you want and the writing style can be fairly loose and conversational. However as the blogging craze has caught on more and more, people have realised that they can use blogging as a way of marketing their companies and potentially create business. Blogging works in a similar way to online article writing, it is completely free to submit your blogs and you can add in links to your website. It also is best if you submit articles on a regular basis as people can begin to follow your blogs and this in turn creates more of a buzz round your business.
Twitter and Facebook
If you have not heard before (which is highly unlikely) Twitter and Facebook are social networking websites which have in last couple of years, took off on a grand scale. What started off as a way to locate old friends, Facebook has turned into perhaps one of the most popular websites and one can now advertise themselves and their businesses on it. Both Twitter and Facebook are excellent free platforms to promote and market your business so set yourself up a business account today and get networking!
All the marketing tools I have discussed above are very useful and effective ways of promoting your company for free. They may be slightly time consuming but believe me, when you see the results that putting in a little time and effort produce, you'll be pleasantly surprised. Obviously there are many other ways to promote your company if you do not mind spending a little money. A perfect way option being Promotional Gifts. If you are interested, read on in my next article...
Wednesday 17 February 2010
Thursday 11 February 2010
How to attract customers to your business
If you have just recently set up a company and are at the stage when you are looking to entice in customers and create business than you may need some inspiration of how to do so. It can be a difficult time when a company is just starting out as one needs to make an impact to get a foot on the ladder and become successful. Your budget may be low and your contacts sparse so how can you generate customers?
The two key words to help you achieve success are Market and Promote. You need to market your company to let others know that you are here. It may seem like a simple thing but very often when businesses are starting up they can forget about the simple things as there is so much else going on. People are never going to turn into potential customers unless they know who you are and what you do. So here are a few things you can do to boost your business:
Go Online
Perhaps the most crucial thing you can do for your new company is to go online. Make sure that you have a fully functioning website that is easy to use, attractive and straight-forward in its description of what you do and what your company is about. Masses of people now go online and use search engines to try and find what they are looking for. When they do this 100’s of companies will appear who all do the same things that your company does. That is why your website has to have an edge and be accessible so that that person decides to come to you for business instead of going elsewhere. Most importantly, make sure your contact details, number and e-mail address are visible on your homepage so that customers can easily get in touch for any quotes, questions or queries.
Use Promotional Giveaways
If you are having a store opening, holding a conference or have a stall at an exhibition to promote your new business, promotional giveaways are a fantastic way of being noticed and getting your company name out there and heard. Perhaps if you are opening a shop and inviting potential customers and contacts, you could give out printed shopper bags with your company details and even put some giveaways inside the bag for that person to look at when they arrive home. At an exhibition you may want to use a lower cost product as you may have to order a lot of them. In this case, printed pens can be extremely useful as they come in handy to everyone, are lightweight, cheap and can fit on a few company details.
Be Loud and Proud!
Last of all, do not be shy. When a company is just starting out, it needs as much publicity and promotion as possible. Do not be afraid to get yourself out there and do what it takes to get your company on the map. Make phone-calls, send e-mails, advertise yourself in the local paper or yellow pages, hand out leaflets, send out mailers. The possibilities are endless, and if you take all these steps you should be on your way to a booming business.
The two key words to help you achieve success are Market and Promote. You need to market your company to let others know that you are here. It may seem like a simple thing but very often when businesses are starting up they can forget about the simple things as there is so much else going on. People are never going to turn into potential customers unless they know who you are and what you do. So here are a few things you can do to boost your business:
Go Online
Perhaps the most crucial thing you can do for your new company is to go online. Make sure that you have a fully functioning website that is easy to use, attractive and straight-forward in its description of what you do and what your company is about. Masses of people now go online and use search engines to try and find what they are looking for. When they do this 100’s of companies will appear who all do the same things that your company does. That is why your website has to have an edge and be accessible so that that person decides to come to you for business instead of going elsewhere. Most importantly, make sure your contact details, number and e-mail address are visible on your homepage so that customers can easily get in touch for any quotes, questions or queries.
Use Promotional Giveaways
If you are having a store opening, holding a conference or have a stall at an exhibition to promote your new business, promotional giveaways are a fantastic way of being noticed and getting your company name out there and heard. Perhaps if you are opening a shop and inviting potential customers and contacts, you could give out printed shopper bags with your company details and even put some giveaways inside the bag for that person to look at when they arrive home. At an exhibition you may want to use a lower cost product as you may have to order a lot of them. In this case, printed pens can be extremely useful as they come in handy to everyone, are lightweight, cheap and can fit on a few company details.
Be Loud and Proud!
Last of all, do not be shy. When a company is just starting out, it needs as much publicity and promotion as possible. Do not be afraid to get yourself out there and do what it takes to get your company on the map. Make phone-calls, send e-mails, advertise yourself in the local paper or yellow pages, hand out leaflets, send out mailers. The possibilities are endless, and if you take all these steps you should be on your way to a booming business.
Promotional Chocolates- A delicious way to market your company
Are you a chocolate lover? Of course you are, everyone is! That is why chocolates make a great promotional gift or giveaway. Promotional chocolates are a very versatile product and can be used in many different ways as a promotional tool. For example, individually wrapped chocolates with your company details printed on them are a great giveaway at a trade show or conference as they will draw people to your stall and get them talking. Another example of how to utilise them could be to use them as gifts for contacts or colleagues. A high end box of Belgian chocolates can be given as a business gift to a colleague as a thank you for hard work or loyalty.
Promotional chocolates are such a fantastic promotional product as they are welcome by everyone and enjoyed by everyone. If you are sending out brochures or letters to introduce people to your business or fish for customers then why not drop a few promotional chocolates in along with them to up your chances of success. If you include a promotional product like this with your brochure or introduction pack, you give yourself another dimension and give a bit of interest and enjoyment to the person you are sending them to. You will have more chance of that person sitting down to flick through your brochure or leaflets while they enjoy their free chocolate you have given them. Even if they do not eat the chocolate then, they may put it on their desk or in their bag to have another time. But when they do pick it up again they will be reminded of you and your company, which is why it is crucial that your details are printed on the promotional chocolate’s wrapper.
As discussed above, promotional chocolates come in very handy when trying to market your company at a trade show. For example, when a colleague and I attended an exhibition similar to this last year, we were attracted to a certain stall as they were handing out very scrumptious Belgium chocolates. While we were initially drawn in by the tasty promotional treats, we then got talking to the stall holders and ended up doing some business with them. This example just shows you how effective chocolate is as a promotional product. It may seem like a simple idea, but by using a promotional product like this, you will have an edge over other stalls at the exhibition as they can be a way of starting conversation with a potential client.
So if you are looking for a promotional product for a tradeshow, a conference, as a giveaway or a as a special present for a colleague, choose promotional chocolates for an unusual, popular and delicious alternative.
Promotional chocolates are such a fantastic promotional product as they are welcome by everyone and enjoyed by everyone. If you are sending out brochures or letters to introduce people to your business or fish for customers then why not drop a few promotional chocolates in along with them to up your chances of success. If you include a promotional product like this with your brochure or introduction pack, you give yourself another dimension and give a bit of interest and enjoyment to the person you are sending them to. You will have more chance of that person sitting down to flick through your brochure or leaflets while they enjoy their free chocolate you have given them. Even if they do not eat the chocolate then, they may put it on their desk or in their bag to have another time. But when they do pick it up again they will be reminded of you and your company, which is why it is crucial that your details are printed on the promotional chocolate’s wrapper.
As discussed above, promotional chocolates come in very handy when trying to market your company at a trade show. For example, when a colleague and I attended an exhibition similar to this last year, we were attracted to a certain stall as they were handing out very scrumptious Belgium chocolates. While we were initially drawn in by the tasty promotional treats, we then got talking to the stall holders and ended up doing some business with them. This example just shows you how effective chocolate is as a promotional product. It may seem like a simple idea, but by using a promotional product like this, you will have an edge over other stalls at the exhibition as they can be a way of starting conversation with a potential client.
So if you are looking for a promotional product for a tradeshow, a conference, as a giveaway or a as a special present for a colleague, choose promotional chocolates for an unusual, popular and delicious alternative.
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