Business Marketing Gifts For Customers - What Options Are Available?

Marketing gifts are not simply for prospects. You may wish to provide business marketing gifts for existing customers, either as a signal of loyalty or as part of a marketing campaign to encourage up or cross selling. Your existing customers deserve different treatment to prospects. They need to feel valued and be given the red carpet treatment with any gift you supply. This doesn't mean having to spend a fortune. A brief Google search for business marketing gifts will bring up hundreds of options, ranging from the dirt cheap to prohibitively expensive.

How do you strike that happy medium; to provide a valuable, unusual gift that has the right impact, while not driving your company into insolvency to do so? In this article we will look not at specific gifts, but general categories of marketing gift that you may wish to explore further - depending on your budget and business goals.

1) Stationary Gifts

Stationary gifts are the most common type of business marketing gift. They may include pens, highlighters, markers, pencil cases, calculators or office organisers. This category also includes paper gifts, such as jotter pads, clipboards, wall planners, calendars, diaries and so on. They are cheap and practical, but not always very imaginative.

2) Edible Gifts

Edible gifts include branded lollipops, fizzy drinks, chocolates etc. - anything that the customer can take away and enjoy eating or drinking. Depending on the product and supplier, you could brand the item itself, or you may be able to customise the packaging. Your outlay for these items will depend on what the gift is. Custom wrapped mints will cost a whole lot less than custom labelled bottles of wine.

3) Desktop & Business Gifts

A common category of business marketing gift are items that can either be used as part of someone's work, or are designed to sit on an office desk. Classic 'executive toys' are a good example of this category, as are picture frames, chalkboards and desk clocks. In many areas this category overlaps with that of stationary gifts. For instance, a keyring USB storage device could be considered as both. You can spend as much or as little as you want to on a business gift, from a few pence per unit to ï¿½50 or more.

4) Personal Gifts

In the personal gifts category are items that have no direct work use. The intention is for the customer to use them in their personal life. The scope for personal gifts is enormous. They can range from ashtrays to barbecue sets, to car phone chargers, cheese knives and dog bowls. The key to success is to be creative in your ideas, without coming across as random. You need to know your customers and what they like to get up to outside of work. Personal gifts can be quite expensive per unit compared with other categories.

5) Educational Or Playful Gifts

Blurring the categories of business and personal gifts are what we call 'educational and playful gifts'. These are products that can be used at work or at home, but whose purpose goes beyond being a mere promotional device. Our own specialist products 'custom playing cards and games' fall into this category. The price per unit for these gifts is normally low, making them practical to give away as gifts in large numbers. Despite being cheap, custom playing cards still have a certain exclusivity about them, which makes existing customers feel special.

Most suppliers will give you a wide range of customisation options, giving you the flexibility to adapt your playing cards as gifts for different types of prospect and customer. For instance, you may include one set of messages and contact details with the cards you give away at trade shows, and use another angle on your gifts for existing customers. The low-cost means you can afford to experiment with different approaches and analyse the comparative results.

Bespoke Business Marketing Gifts From Ivory Graphics

At Ivory Graphics we specialise in custom promotional cards for businesses in all sectors. Bespoke playing cards, trump cards, tarot cards or simply novelty cards are memorable marketing products that will surprise customers and be genuinely used time and again. Creating a fun, useful product such as a pack of playing cards, complete with branding and messaging, is a far more effective use of your marketing spend than other promotional gifts, including calendars, notebooks and pens.

To find out more, have a read through our free guide: How To Promote Your Business Using Custom Playing Cards. The guide includes sections on playing card design, how to target your cards to the right audience and how to strike the right balance between quality and affordability. Click here to download your copy.

Posted 15th January 2018 2:32 PM