Click4Promos Blog

If you have a retail store, or have any sort of online product base, you can drive customers to your website using promotional products. Using promotional items is an excellent way to reach people you come in contact with each day. Whether you are giving them away to people in your local neighborhood, selling them as gadgets on the counter in your retail establishment, or giving them away as gifts with your customers online purchases, you will be handing them a convenient way to remember your website address.

If you have a cash register at your business, place a few promotional magnets in an easy-to-grab area, where customers can take your web address home with them, and stick it on the fridge – where they will see it each and every day! Place some colorful lanyards near the checkout line, grabbing the attention of all who wait in line. In today’s busy world, we just don’t always have the time to get out and buy the things we need, and reminding your customers that they can buy your products online makes purchasing from you easy and convenient. That’s something they’re sure to remember!

Giving your online customers something tangible with your website address prominently displayed will be perceived as an added value to their purchases. When customers receive something pleasantly unexpected, they tend to remember who gave it to them, and it may even create a feeling of gratitude – reminding them that you are there next time they need your products! Promotional products are the perfect way to let them know you’re there.

When you choose certain apparel items, such as caps and hats, or blankets, towels or bathrobes, you will most likely be having them embroidered. An embroidered design is one that is stitched into the fabric using high-speed, computerized sewing machines. Since embroidery produces a high-quality design, and often outlives the product that has been embroidered, it offers a high perceived value, and makes a thoughtful corporate gift.

Before the artwork can be embroidered onto the item, it must be digitized, which is the process of converting a two-dimensional image into a stitched pattern of threads. Embroidery will generally require a high-quality EPS vector file for the digitizing process. During the digitizing process, a tape is created, holding the information that generates your specific design. There is generally a “digitizing fee” or “tape charge” involved with this process, but you may have access to the tape for future embroidered promotional products.

For an embroidered design, you will need to know the colors for your pattern, the approximate size that you would like the design to be embroidered, and the type of product and quality of the item you are having embroidered. Some intricate or large designs could cause lower quality fabrics to pucker, or other problems may occur, so be sure to discuss any concerns with your promotional products representative.

The number of stitches that it will take to generate the artwork is known as the stitch count. There is generally a set amount of stitches that are automatically included in the price of embroidery, generally between 2000 – 5000, and is usually product specific. If your design requires more than the allotted number of stitches, there may be a charge per additional 1000 stitches.

Ever wondered what the most popular promotional products are – and how you can make them work for you? Knowing which products can give the most marketing power will help you spend your money where it counts the most. This is especially true if you have a small marketing budget, where the effectiveness of every advertising dollar truly matters.

Wearables – Apparel, including caps and hats, are some of the most sought after promotional products in the promo industry. They are great for all types of people, business, and organizations. From sports teams such as baseball and bowling leagues, to uniforms for and retail and restaurants, such as polo shirts and aprons, wearable promotional products are hot items.

Writing Instruments – Pens and pencils are a necessity. We all need them and use them, and strangely enough – we all find them and loose them! The advertising power you can harness through putting your business message on a pen is incredible – and well known throughout the industry!

Calendars – These are especially hot items with great marketing potential! Calendars are useful promotional items that save people time – and in most businesses, time is money! Calendars provide your company info with a whole year of advertising visibility, displaying your promotional message at the top of each day, week, and month!

Drinkware – Promotional products like plastic stadium cups are not just for beverages anymore, but are being used as containers and giveaways that display your promotional message – while serving a useful purpose at the same time! Fill them up with drinks, pencils, magnets, or flyers! Promote your company on popular items like sports bottles, plastic cups, mugs, travel mugs and tumblers for a longer lasting impact. Also check out these cool – great take-home items after they drink your tasty beverages!

When you order promotional products or advertising specialties, you will almost always come across set up fees. Each design that is imprinted requires specific equipment and design-specific materials to be used. Every time a unique design is altered or resized, new materials would need to be produced in order to generate the altered design. Set up fees are in place to cover the cost of the materials used in the imprinting process that are unique to your imprint, as well as the cost of setting up the equipment used to generate the imprint.

Do you always have to pay set up fees? No. There are times when you will be able to use the previously created materials to generate the same imprint, such as on re-orders. The costs involved with re-orders are generally less than with new orders because the materials used to generate the imprint can often be reused. However, you will often be charged a re-order fee to cover the cost of setting up the equipment necessary to print the promotional products you choose. Any change in size or details in the imprint, and product changes (other than item color) will likely result in a new set up fee. This is because new materials are created for each type of imprinting, each design, and specific materials used for imprinting on specific promotional items.

Safety kits are once again rising to the top of promotional products hot lists. Not only do they help promote safety awareness, but they provide an easy and convenient way to ensure that your company contact information sticks around. Giving away something that’s eye-catching is a great way to be noticed, but giving away something useful is a highly effective way to be remembered. With these first aid kits, your name will be associated with helping and feeling better, but best of all – your name will be associated with trust! Give your customers a positive message when they reach for a band aid from these handy promotional first aid kits.

They are a wonderful addition to athletic and sports bags, gym duffels, or to have in your suitcase while traveling. Team up with a school sports team or non-profit organization or a safety presentation, and give away these handy first aid kits to each participant! Not only will you get your business name out there where people can see it, but you will be giving an item that hold continued usefulness, ensuring that prospective customers will have your contact info ready when they need it the most!

Choose from a variety of styles, colors and sizes to fit your specific needs. From convenient bandage dispensers – handy for the school nurses office or a teachers desk, to the Deluxe First Aid Kit that features a zippered carrying case, and comes complete with antiseptic wipes, two sizes of band aids, two first aid creams, and a Tylenol caplets pack. Most of our first aid kits also feature a first aid guide!

As warmer weather approaches, construction companies and building supply stores gear up for the summer season. Get a jump start on the advertising opportunities that come with the growing need to advertise in this diverse and competitive field, and hot promotional items like measuring devices and carpenter pencils may be exactly what you need! Measuring tools like yardsticks are wonderful to have around the shop,

Popular promotional products like hot stamped enamel carpenter pencils are the perfect countertop display product for hardware stores, cabinet shops, building supply stores, and advertising your contracting or construction business. We have a nice selection of natural and enamel carpenter pencils, with several sizes of lead, as well as many colors to choose from – including fluorescent, for maximum visibility and impact!

As more people construct new homes, build additional rooms, or redecorate existing rooms, furniture stores and home furnishings businesses have been in high-demand, and you want to get your name out there for people to see! Measuring devices like tape measures and carpenter pencils are useful items that offer value to your customers, as well as advertisement for your business! Try keeping a bucket or decorative container near the entrance of your store, filled with promotional measuring sticks or yardsticks to help customers measuring furniture or household items, each stick displaying your company contact information. They are inexpensive enough to allow your customers to take the yardstick with them to measure their current home furnishings – and have your name and number handy when they need it!

For special events, promotional products are like icing on the cake - they take your carefully planned function and make it that much better. By building anticipation, accenting themes and creating positive impressions, promotional products help make your company’s event a corker!

You’ve spent weeks, maybe months, planning a company picnic, awards ceremony or other corporate event. But take a minute and consider - have you really thought of everything? If you haven’t thought about how promotional products fit into your event, you’re likely missing an opportunity to generate a long-lasting positive impression of your company. Promotional products can help make any event more memorable - creating excitement in the time leading up to the function, complementing its theme and making sure it’s fondly remembered for months or years to come.

Build Excitement

It doesn’t matter how much careful planning went in to your company’s affair if no one shows up. That’s why it’s important to start trying to generate interest well ahead of time. For example, when Chippenham & Johnston-Willis (CJW) Medical Center wanted to notify local medical personnel and community leaders about the future opening of its new cardiac care center, it sent out a promotional piece two months before the opening ceremony. “Basically, we were getting ready for the summer kick-off of the new heart pavilion in the months leading up to its grand opening,” explains promotional consultant Joe Winston. “And with February featuring Valentine’s Day and being National Heart Month, we thought it would be a natural to do it then because of the obvious tie-in.”

The product Winston and CJW developed was a CD titled Songs From Our Heart, featuring 10 songs with the word “heart” in the title or lyrics. It also included artwork and information about the new hospital.

Then, when it came time to actually open the cardiac center, Winston worked with CJW to carry the theme through the grand opening event. “For the doctors, we had hearts made out of crystal with the name of the heart center. We used the heart theme for the grand opening favors, reinforcing the event itself. It was so well received and was a really exciting project.”

For The Long Haul

Other events, such as trips awarded for achieving sales or other work-related goals, require even more advance notice and, consequently, more products to keep participants motivated and on-task. Promotional consultant Mitch Silver says it’s these types of functions that require extra careful planning and relevant themes that can be easily carried throughout the experience. “Let’s say the top salespeople in a company go to Hawaii with the president of the company. To kick off the contest, 12 months prior to the trip, they should have a theme, like ‘Race to the Finish,’” Silver says. “To announce the contest and the chance that people can win the trip to Hawaii, they would do some type of pre-event invitation mailer or drop it off on the desks of all the salespeople - something with a checkered flag or some sort of raceway message.”

Other logoed products then serve as small reminders throughout the year: stressballs, desktop accessories, computer products - all featuring the racing theme. Posters and signs can also help keep the goal in-mind.

The theme then carries through to the event itself. “The winners get to the event and there’s a gift on their pillow waiting for them, playing up the fact that they made it to the finish line. It could be a clock with a racing car on the base that has their name etched on a plaque. Maybe one of the evening events would be remote-control racecar driving. And then parting gifts: just before they go home they have a giant meeting and have the foam things that you see at sporting events but shaped like a racecar,” he explains. “There are a number of different ways you can tie it all in together, with analogies that work for almost any business. Once you know the theme you can take it in a number of different directions.”

Community Causes

An entire community can get behind an event that’s held to benefit a good cause. For the past few years promotional consultant Tony Genova, who is also president of his local Kiwanis chapter, helped organize a street fair to benefit local needy children. It’s a huge production - it offers more than 100 vendors, carnival rides, games and food and draws between 12,000 and 14,000 people.

When planning an affair of this scope, one important thing is establishing a team of people to help keep things running smoothly. “When you’re starting an event like that, you really need to get a team that’s going to pull together for the same cause. That way you can delegate responsibility, you can split it up and not one person is burdened so much that it takes over their entire life,” Genova says. He adds that you also have to work closely with your local fire department, police department, county government and other officials.

Vendors that participate in large events generally like to give away useful items to people who visit their stands, Genova says. Long after the fair is over, people will look at an item and remember the company, and that it was involved in the charitable event. “Pens, magnets, business card magnets, water sport bottles letter slitters, jar openers … most of the time people use the inexpensive products,” he says.

“Typically you’re going to have thousands of people attend but you’re only going to see 600 or 700 people at your booth,” Genova notes. “So you want to make sure that you have at least 1,000 of something to give away.”

The sponsors of the fair also use lower-cost kids’ products as prizes for the carnival games. Items such as whistles, balls, walking springs, paddleballs, kazoos, puzzles, crayons, etc., don’t cost too much for the buyer, but are priceless to the children who win them. “We have one area for kids under 5-years-old where Kiwanis has games and prizes. They all get imprinted with the Kiwanis logo and they’re given away at the fair to every kid that participates - so nobody’s a loser,” he explains.

First Things First

When it comes to special events, the key to creating a successful one is careful planning. Here are some things for you and your promotional consultant to consider when planning the big day:

What do I want to accomplish? Cleary define the reason for having the event. Do you want to create goodwill? Find new customers? Reward employees for a job well-done? Determining the purpose of an event is the first step to designing one that will accomplish your goals.

What is my budget? How much is allotted per person? Does that include food? Gifts? Transportation? Let your promotional consultant know up front how much you have to spend on the affair. That way she can help tailor the project to meet your budget, and also alert you to any expenses you may not have considered.

What is the timeframe? How far in advance do you want to start hyping the event? Is it the culmination of a months-long contest? The more involved an affair is, the earlier you will have to announce it. An event that requires many people to travel, via car, plane, train, etc., requires much more advance notice than one that is held at work or at a local meeting place.

Who do I want to attend? Will your company be entertaining top clients? Successful employees? The whole company along with their families? Will the group primarily be men or women, young or old, blue collar or white collar, etc.? It’s important to realize who your audience is when planning other aspects of the affair.

What will the theme be? From the stately and serious to the fun and frivolous, there are all types of themes to help make your company’s event successful and, perhaps more important, memorable. The question is, how do you want the event to be remembered? Emphasize stability with classical, historical or monumental themes.

There’s lots of room for fun themes too. Many can range from the slightly comical to the downright silly, depending upon their execution. Consider: Mardi Gras, casino, circus, street fair, New York, Chicago, Paris, fantasy, futuristic, Mars, the Moon, Broadway, murder mystery, the four seasons, sports, Western, Southern hospitality, blockbuster movies, classic TV, ’20s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s … the list goes on and is only limited by your imagination.

Still need inspiration? See what celebrations fall near the event. What famous figures were born that day, week or month? (Check out Imprint’s “Day Tripper” calendar.). How about the city or town - either where your company is located or where the event will be held - can anything in its history complement the affair?

What types of products do I want to give out, and when? Starting with the invitations and products that generate awareness of the event, the promotional items chosen will have a strong effect on guests’ impressions. Will you be awarding trophies during the function? How about prizes for raffles or contests? Will all attendees receive a gift? Will there be children, spouses, etc., there requiring different types of gifts? Do you want to leave a pillow gift or other nicety in hotel rooms? How about parting gifts to remind attendees of the event?

What might I be overlooking? Will there be food at the event? Beverages? How about entertainers? Will you need to provide transportation or accommodations for the guests?

No matter what size function your company is planning, promotional products play an important part in how the event is perceived and remembered. By working closely with your promotional consultant, you can ensure that the products used convey the desired message and create goodwill among recipients.

If you’re limited to a small imprint area, you can make a larger impact with bold colors, high contrast against the product color, and using a clear quality image for imprinting. If you have a large amount of text to place on a small item, consider breaking up text or taking advantage of multiple imprint areas on certain items.

Take special care to test chosen colors on a printed piece of paper before placing your order for promotional items. If your color choices don’t appear vibrant and eye-catching, you might consider using a different product color or imprint color. If changing the imprint color is not an option for you, look for items that will allow your logo to stand out, and be highly visible against the product color. For example, a navy blue logo against a white background creates a highly visible, maximum impact impression. However, the same navy blue logo would be lost on a black background.

Pens, pencils and screwdrivers have small, curved imprint areas, but you can maximize the visual impact of your logo or contact information by opting for a metallic imprint, adding flare and style to your promotional item. Colors that “pop” tend to bring much more attention to smaller images and text, so take a few moments to experiment with what works for you.

If the promotional item you’ve got your eye on has an unusually shaped or curved imprint area, play around with the design possibilities of your imprint layout, or offer the imprint dimensions to your graphic artist so that you can make the most out of the small print area. Play around with the layout and colors – you might be surprised by what you come up with!

Food is always a popular option at trade shows. Offer up some sweet treats for booth visitors. Food is shared and passed along, so it’s ideal for spreading the word about a new product or service.

Food items make a great promotional tool to pass out after business dinners, give away after a luncheon or set a few tins on the conference table of your next business meeting. Peppermints in convenient cases and containers can be refilled, reused, and continue to promote your business for quite some time! Every time your customers grab a mint from the tin, your company logo will be visible! It’s the perfect opportunity to keep your contact information in your customer’s pocket!

Item #’s 8603 and 8675 feature peppermints in convenient and collectible tins, and are great examples of the long lasting impact of using these tins as promotional products to proudly display your company logo.

Item # 8620 is perfect for the busy real estate or mortgage professional. Your clients will appreciate their delightfully tasty mints as they hunt for the house of their dreams. You can rest assured knowing that these handy containers will end up in someone’s purse or pocket!

Item # 8636 is a 6-compartment that is specifically and perfectly designed to be used as a pill pox once the mints have been enjoyed. It’s almost as if you’ve reserved a promotional advertising parking space on your customer’s nightstand!

Pass these out to sales people, who pride themselves on their gift of gab. These popular little breath-fresheners can help to boost their confidence, and help you gain name recognition at the same time!

If you’ve been looking for a great way to impress – start think drinkware. Just think, from party cups and disposable options, to high quality ceramic mugs, travel mugs, and insulated tumblers, your logo will be highly visible. Imagine your employees handing their travel mugs to locals for their fill of daily blended coffee drinks, advertising your company logo to your community.

High quality mugs and tumblers that are imprinted with your contact information offer a very impressive touch when meeting with potential clients or investors. You certainly wouldn’t want to offer a potential business investor a drink in the kitty-cat mug Aunt Peggy gave you for last year’s birthday. Offering clients coffee or tea in a mug boasting your company logo is sure to leave a lasting impression.

With so many options to choose from, you can add your advertising message to the drinks of everyone that attends your next event. This is a great option for event coordinators and party planners, advertising their logo or contact information in a small line of text under the event logo.

We offer a wide variety of cups, mugs and tumblers to choose from. Plastic stadium cups are ideal for drinks during sports and school events. They also make terrific giveaways when filled with treats, school supplies, dental care products, and other trinkets! You could team up with a local organization and donate cups to their next event – each one proudly displaying your company logo, phone number, or website address!

Stainless steel mugs and tumblers are perfect for corporate gift giving. Place one on the desk of all new employees as a “Welcome” gift. Wide-bottom travel mugs are great for preventing spills around the office, or keeping coffee clean in the shop or on the job site. You’ll find a wide variety of dishwasher safe tumblers, perfect for holiday gift giving.