High End Promotional Products

When most people think about promotional products they don’t think high end, they think – cheap giveaways, trinkets & trash or tchotchkes. Personally I’m not enamored with any of those descriptions for a very effective promotional marketing tool.

Promotional Products Increase Brand Awareness

It is also rather inaccurate. Promotional products are a proven, cost effective way to increase your brand awareness, sales and long-term visibility. Yes, there are many promo items that

are available for mere pennies but you can also find promo items that can cost thousands of dollars each. For instance, did you know that you can get a grandfather clock with your logo? Talk about a high end promotional product. Now, granted that is an extreme example but promotional products are an excellent way to stay top of mind with your clients and prospects with quality executive gifts.

But why would you want to spend more money on promotional gifts if there are so many inexpensive options? Well, if you are giving out large quantities (say at a trade show) to unqualified leads then yes, inexpensive is the way to go (but still remember you want a quality item). However, if you know your target customer and are trying to get more of their attention then a more expensive item might be in order.

First, make sure you are giving out an appropriate gift. You don’t want to be giving a thank you gift of a $.50 pen if your client just spent $10,000 or more with you. That’s not really showing appreciation, is it?

Second, make sure that your client can accept a gift. Some companies don’t allow gifts of any kind while others may restrict the gift to a value of $25 or $50 that an employee can accept. And there are some very nice quality executive gifts in that $25-50 price range.

Third, make sure it’s a relevant gift. If you know most of your clients travel regularly maybe a great pair of noise-reduction headphones would be greatly appreciated. And think each time they

travel and use them they will see your logo and think of the thoughtful gift you gave. Remember, staying top of mind is one of the keys to repeat sales!

Reinforce Behavior with Loyalty and Referral Programs

Or maybe you have a more formal loyalty or referral program. If not it might be time to initiate one. If you have a program with guidelines for giving, it makes it easier for your salesforce to give regularly without having to come up with ideas or ask permission. It makes it easy for them to thank clients for reordering and/or referring others to you. Some current popular high end promotional products include: leather tablet holders, computer backpacks or briefs, Bluetooth speakers, power banks, car travel accessories, executive pens and charging stations to name a few.

These types of gifts are also great to use in an employee incentive program. Or you can expand them even further to associate the level of gift with the level of performance. We’ve done many programs over the years from employee recognition to departmental achievement where the gifts vary depending on the achievement. In these programs we include very high end promotional products for the most engaged. We’ve had programs that included luggage, IPods, digital frames, crystal vases and more.

Your executive gifts can also be a great door opener or as a reward for allowing you to make a sales pitch. A recent LJ Market Research study found that 52% of participants that were given a promotional item ultimately did business with that company and the remaining 48% of the participants indicated that they were more than likely to do business with the company in the future as a result of the gesture.

Just reconfirming that high end promotional products can be a very wise investment of your marketing budget.