Customers often ask “why should I spend money on promo products – aren’t they just a waste of money?” Well here is a prime example of just how small branded promo giveaways can have big impact on your marketing 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!
Having some back pain issues a few weeks back I had an appointment with a new chiropractor in the area. As a new patient I received a “Welcome Bag” which included a t-shirt, some great muscle soothing gel, a mug, pens and keychain – all personalized with the chiro’s logo and contact info: This week while riding my bike, I happened to wear the shirt and coincidently ran into a friend looking for a chiro, they saw my shirt and asked if they were good – i said yes and they took down the chiro’s number – that was referral #1.

Later on that week – my father was having shoulder pain, I remembered I had the muscle soothing gel in my purse so I gave him the packet. This week he called and told me he had made an appointment with that same chiro! That was referral #2. So from one little “welcome bag” that chiro got two new patient referrals –  unknowingly, I was his walking advertisement, and as most people know – chiro appts turn into several — so the return investment on his promo bag was tenfold.

Using logo-imprinted giveaways, promotional items, corporate apparel and personalized gifts can help spread your company info at any given moment. A little thing can go a big way and can help in so many ways:

• build brand awareness
• raise funds for a cause
• reward a job well done
• spread the word
• create buzz
• strengthen team unity
• stand out at a tradeshow

Check out some of our new 2012 promotional products  and let us help develop a branding campaign that gets you noticed!

As the holiday season approaches, promotional products are often used as giveaways to employees, business associates and customers with the intention of increasing your brand awareness and exposure.
The fundamental aim of promotional products is to reinforce your marketing message, like with all other marketing tools. Any brand needs different mediums to reach its target audience, promotional products are just another way of creating publicity for your brands. Promotional products constitute a significant part of the interactive marketing strategy as they allow you to connect with your target market on a different level.
Promotional products are customizable and for that reason they add an element of tangibility to your brand. They give substance to all your advertising efforts, and always make your brand stand out no matter whether it’s a branded stationery, shirts, baseball caps, mugs, jewelry, key chains, gift items and the like.

Since promotional products are one medium that engage all five senses i.e. the target audience can see, hear, touch, taste, and even smell them, they have a greater impact on their perception of a brand. These promotional products not only leave a long lasting impression on the audience, but have readily measurable effectiveness.
What’s more is that these promotional products come in pretty affordable rates, and offer great value and usability to customers, while strengthening your brand’s awareness and recall. Marketers can use promotional products as gift items to clients, employees and customers, sales items for Corporate Social Responsibility causes, as mass giveaways in tradeshows and other special marketing events, and as rewards for your vendors and distributors.
The process of effective branding includes using various marketing strategies for keeping the demographically diverse target audiences engaged with the brand. Promotional products allow you to create a place for your brand and company in the target market’s minds. So if your company is looking to build its brand equity then creating brand awareness is the first step towards the goal, which can be effectively achieved by transferring your brand logo to promotional items that you can give away to promote your business.

Promotional products can help you:
• Drive traffic and prospective customers to your brand’s stall in a tradeshow.
• They help develop a greater consumer response rate to your direct mail campaigns.
• With their help, you can increase your referrals, and consequentially, the business returns.
• Increase employee morale and as a result, their productivity level.
• They boost brand loyalty and help customers retain your brand in the top of the mind category of recall.
• Constantly remind customers of your brand’s existence.

Using promotional products can increase your brand’s awareness and its involvement with customers in a cost-effective manner. They help in brand reinforcement by improving the advertising returns, meanwhile also increasing the power and awareness of your brand. Furthermore, they work like an incentive for potential customers by compelling them to buy your brand in order to avail the free promotional products. For that reason, promotional products are always a part of a smart marketing strategy. Why not check out some of our products and we can find the right item to fit your budget and your brand@

How to get Twitter follower is a question we often get this asked and in our quest to find the the right answer – we came across this great graphical representation from Twiends that explains it all~ and since visuals always help we’d thought to share, enjoy!

In the constant struggle to keep up with the social media train and the ever-conquering quest for social media ROI, I came across a great read that I would highly recommend to any small business. It truly emphasizes that if your a business – big, small, entrepreneur, solopreneur – and you’re not utilizing the vast capabilities of social media – you are missing out on a huge  marketing shift that is happening NOW. 

This book is so full of little nuggets of information and wisdom, that I was so excited to finish in 2 days!  The book, The Thank You Economy, by  Gary Vaynerchuk total focus is on how we’ve entered into a new business era. The businesses and brands that harness the word-of-mouth power from social media, those that can shift their culture to be more customer-aware and fan-friendly, will pull away from the pack and profit in today’s markets.
Gary Vaynerchuk, renowned entrepreneur, keeps you flipping the pages fast with his irrestible candor and wit. He was interviewed by Brian Elliot of Behind the Brand not to long ago and I happend to find the YouTube video – take a look to get an insight into Gary and his passionate sense for the small business.

We all know that the internet marketplace runs rampant with cut-throat competition, so, having a strong brand identity is all the more important to survive in the business world, especially in todays internet marketplace. The success of your brand depends upon your brand identity, the more authentic and appealing it is, the more customers you can attract.

Therefore,  if you have a sophisticated, distinguishing, and professional brand identity, it can do wonders for your business. A brand identity is based on a set of consistent marketing materials, which includes numerous pieces like logo, brochures, business cards, letterhead, online advertising, web promotions, internet articles, company profile, corporate website, e- newsletters, just to name a few.

When the competition runs tough, and as your target market comes in touch with your brand online, you have only but a few seconds to leave your mark and make a positive impression in the mind of a visitor to make him a more loyal and regular customer or to covert him into a potential customer.

So where exactly does the point of difference between your brand and the million others out there in the market lie? The answer is brand identity, which defines who and what your brand is. It is what makes your brand simple and yet unique, while strengthening its positioning and adding to its effectiveness. Following are some ways in which having a polished brand identity and marketing materials can create an impact on your online business:

· Brand identity to influence people:

If your brand does not possess a professional, high-quality, and consistent look in its marketing materials then it is likely you won’t make an impact on your audience. This is because of the fact that you need to attract customers by convincing them to sign up or buy your product offerings through using various visual materials. Globally, all successful brands have a brand identity, and with a good reason: it lends them credibility and increases their brand awareness.

· Benefits to be gained from brand identity and marketing materials:

Brands are the personality of your business. They have feelings that that they express, opinions that they voice, messages that they communicate, behaviors that they enact, causes that they support, background that they hail from, so that is a personality that they depict.

A brand’s identity is what creates the desired and right brand perception in the minds of your target market, represented by the quality of the marketing materials you utilize. You can ascertain your brand’s success by maintaining a polished online presence.

• If you have a professional looking webpage, blog, advertisement, offering, etc., they are more likely to generate a huge fan following and be distributed widely over the internet.
• A corporate and elegant look implies that your brand comes from a reliable and financially sound company and, thus, adds to your customer base.
• The buying behavior and purchasing decisions of the customers are greatly affected by the image that your brand identity causes in the consumers’ perception.
• Brand identity is the driving force behind increasing brand recall and brand recognition, which ultimately leads to brand awareness across different online platforms by aiding the target audience’s memory.

So basically, brand identity is how you differentiate yourself and stand out among all the clutter. A well-designed and executed brand identity will communicate your message effectively, attract customers, and also build your brand equity. Have you thought about what your brand identity is saying about your business and what you could do to make yourself stand out better?