Move On! Should you use promotional products in your business?  Yes and Yes! You have no excuse not to move forward and make this part of your marketing plan.  There is no logic in not taking advantage of one of the more popular and effective ways to make your business more well known. Choose the Most Useful Items Having promotional products in the marketing mix is fun along with useful because everyone wants to get something free.  Check out these reasons for using them: Simplistic and easy to begin using There are so many from which to use Each and every item can be customized to your specifications Suits every budget level The name of your business shows up all over the place Making this …

We marketers are expected to do it all these days–come up with creative ideas, put them into prose or better yet poetry, be social media gurus, and be effective public speakers. We may or may not be comfortable addressing groups of strangers yet, but there will probably come a time–at either at trade show, or a sales presentation, or a conference–when we’ll be called upon to inform, inspire, and entertain. Here are some tips to smooth the way: Size up the room. Have you ever been to a meeting where the room holds 100, but only 20 showed up? And they’re hanging on the back rows to beat a speedy retreat if the speaker is boring? The speaker has to tell the assembled to move …

With hundreds of thousands of print and online outlets, it’s almost inevitable that everyone will wind up with a microphone thrust under their chin or red light in their eye for at least a minute or so. Many of us spend considerable time and effort trying to get the media interested, so there’s a certain amount of added pressure when the media asks, “Can you be at the studio by nine?” Here are 6 tips to get the most from a few, fast minutes on the air. Arrive a few minutes early to get comfortable with the surroundings. Most radio and TV stations have a security/sign in drill. Radio interviews typically take place in a cramped booth where one might be elbow to elbow with …

One of the best songs ever written about marketing–and really how many are there?–is “Step Right Up,” by the gravelly voiced singer Tom Waits. In about five minutes, Waits hits every sales cliche known to mankind, including the need for change, “Change your shorts, change your life, change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy, get rid of your wife….” But it’s a truism that a reliable way to get consumers interested in your product is to claim it’s new. If it’s new, there’s nothing wrong with it (so far). In our fast-paced age, there are the instances of the new pharmaceutical product that cures the common headache, and then a few months later, there are the lawsuit commercials asking, “Did you take Vioxx?” But, by and …

Attending a trade show doesn’t automatically mean you’ll need to be an exhibitor. It may be that it’s a new show, and you or your company want to check it out to see if it’s worthy of your participation. Or, it may be a show outside your normal area, but you have clients in this industry and this is a good place to catch up with them and find out why they’re at this show. Here are a few tips to make your trip a success. You might want to schedule a “fly by,” where you fly into town in the morning, do the show, and fly out at the end of the day. Obviously, since you’re only going to be on the ground for …

Search for the Best How do you know the best way to make your business stand out above the crowd?  Using promotional merchandise as giveaways is a simple and very popular marketing technique implemented by most companies.  All you have to do is pick an item, customize it to your clients, and then give it away free to your customers and prospective customers. This is sure to have a huge influence on your clients. Get Started To begin you need to choose a few items which you feel will be a hit with your target audience.  To be sure one of these will be the promotional one fit cap, everyone wants one of these so there is no way can you go wrong with this …

Nothing Too Small The world is full of promotional products but some of them are really a waste of time and money.  They are either too tiny or they have no use and if a giveaway is not useful to someone then it will not be useful to your company for marketing. When it’s Free All people love to get gifts and goodies, and most people view promotional products as gifts; they don’t even realize that it is a marketing plan.  One of the classiest and comfortable promotional products is the California pen. These pens are the easiest, simplest product to giveaway for promotion of your business name and services. Every person on earth can use another pen; we all have a little place in …

Freelancing is like a playground see-saw. It has its ups and downs and requires a measure of balance to succeed. If you are a freelancer, friends will envy your independence and freedom, but they won’t realize that they come at a cost. Here are some observations for new-bies or concepts for those who’ve had a taste of the freelance life. Find your market and work it best as possible. Think of the market as a series of concentric rings. Let’s say your expertise is marketing autos–that’s the bullseye or “target market.” Even if you’ve found ample work in the target market, you’ll need to stretch yourself outside your comfort zone to develop a more diversified portfolio. Even though your clients like your work, you are …

Are consumers changing? Are they less materialistic and what does that mean for marketers? These are among the ideas explored by futurist Andy Hines in his recent book “Consumer Shift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape.” Hines challenges many traditional marketing assumptions about consumers “wanting it all” and “more is always better.” Hines says what consumers value is changing. “Understanding these changes will provide critical insight for understanding the future consumer landscape and designing products, services, and offerings that fit.,’” he explained. “The book translates the values changes into seven emerging need states, brought to life in the form of seven future personas, and provides a persona customization kits for those who want to tailor them to their specific needs. It will help …

Marketers looking for the next big thing in promotional Item might want to consider the humble lanyard. Journalists, event attenders, and trade show presenters are among the core lanyard-wearing population. Veteran attendees have been known to collect their lanyards, and turn them into a mosaic. Sporting a lanyard makes one a member of the “in crowd,” however briefly, so marketers would be advised to wonder what else the can do with not-so-humble lanyard. Give the lanyard value. The lanyard should be viewed as an advertising opportunity. If the lanyard is for a resort, perhaps having a restaurant offer a free appetizer when presenting the lanyard will give it value past the event. Make the lanyard unique. Alternatively, the lanyard could be stamped with one of …