Top Three Promotional Marketing & Employee Recognition Tips
Promotional Items, Inc.™ invites
you to review our top three promotional marketing and employee
recognition tips for marketing with promotional items.
Successful promotional marketing plans absolutely must incorporate the use
of promotional items in the marketing plan.
Brochures and business cards are fine but an imprinted promotional item will
be actually used by the recipient. The final
goal of promotional marketing is to gain business. A properly selected and
distributed promotional item will accomplish that.
Quality employees are hard to come by and even harder to keep. Establishment
of recognition, employee appreciation and
or safety accomplishment programs are a crucial part of overall business development
and company growth. Employees
need to be marketed just like a customer. They will fulfill your needs for
productivity to the same extent that you fulfill
their need for recognition of accomplishments. Useful promotional items imprinted
with the company logo and a
message of appreciation or accomplishment will fulfill their needs.
If we can be of service by helping you to select the appropriate promotional
items, products or gifts for your marketing
campaigns or employee recognition/safety award programs, please contact us.
Thank you for your Business.
Promotional Items, Inc.™
the right choice for business today!
1. Plan Ahead and Execute
Plan ahead for your marketing campaigns, trade shows, conventions and recognition
programs. Decide at least one month
in advance of your event and place your order for promotional items without
procrastination. Select two items for every
item you wish to purchase, just in case the first choice is not in stock in
sufficient quantity to fill your order.
Preplanning and prompt plan execution will reward you with a successful, hassle
free marketing campaign or program.
2. Promotional Item Selection and Business Marketing Strategies
Everyone enjoys receiving a promotional item, product or gift, especially
if it is of true value to the recipient.
Make certain you select a promotional item, product or gift that is that will
be of definite use to the person(s) to whom they
will be distributed. The
"What's New and Trendy Giveaway" isn't always universally appreciated.
Neither is a promotional
marketing item that is not appropriate for a given marketing promotion or special
event. When in doubt of what to select,
revert to what is "Tried and True". Promotional pens or fine writing
instruments have a class and price point to meet every
marketing situation and budget. They are the most well received promotional
items in existence today.
With the wide selection of products available today you may decide to select
multiple products for match marketing.
Distributing a pen with a note pad is a way to maximize the promotion value
of a tried and true marketing strategy.
It is nice explore something new, but always make certain the promotional item
is of value to whom it is given.
In business marketing items used in the office, preferable at the desk are
of the highest value. That will ensure your
company logo and contact information are in use or in front of customers/clients
every business day. If a customer is
writing with your company logo pen, on your company logo note pad, performing
calculations on your logo calculator,
drinking coffee from your company logo mug, who are they going to call when
they are need of your company’s line of
products or services? The answer is quite obvious, your company of course.
Do you only make one initial visit to a prospect or customer and expect them
to continue doing business forever?
Of course not and if you don't keep up the contact with your customers, you
can bet the competition definitely will!
A marketing strategy employed by our own company is to use a "Tiered Selection" of
promotional items and gifts.
This selection would ideally include general distribution items suitable for
mailings and to make initial sales calls.
Next, select, purchase and distribute 2nd, 3rd and 4th tier items of increasing
value therefore in contact volume and
appreciation by those customers of your company. You may begin targeting your "Top
25" customers, then "Top 50", then
"Top 100" etc. so that in the end, everyone that does business with
you is receiving regular reminders that appreciate their
business and wish to continue that business. Your customer loyalty and therefore
corresponding revenues will dramatically
increase year after year as long as you continue the progressive tiered marketing
program. In this day of national and
global trade and services an email is nice, but long after that email is read
and deleted a promotional item or gift will
continue to remind your customers that you truly value their business.
3. Employee Recognition and Safety Award Programs: Goal, Plan, Success
Employee recognition plays a critical part in the overall success of a company.
Whether it is increasing sales and
productivity on a continuing basis, or safety awareness it pays high dividends
to the company’s who set goals, plan
a way to achieve the goal so that they may successfully attain that goal, then "Share
the Pie" with the employees.
For a new product launch, service or for increasing sales/productivity first
management should set a realistic goal.
Then select a promotional gift item as a reward for attaining the chosen goal.
Make certain to choose an appropriate
recognition gift to be imprinted with the company logo and or a message that
heralds the goal achievement.
Purchase your recognition promotional gifts and store them. Don’t procrastinate
in doing so, that could be devastating.
Next announce the goal and prepare for a company wide meeting to actively participate
in plan to reach the goal.
It is especially important to include all the employees, everyone needs to
feel that they are worthwhile and their ideas.
Decide on a firm plan that is time based and goal oriented. Let the employee’s
know that they will reap rewards from their
participation and announce that they will receive a gift worthy of their efforts
when the goal is achieved. Immediately
implement the plan and when the goal is achieved have a "Success"
meeting complete with beverages and treats for all
who attend. Prepare a brief speech thanking them as a group, then call each
employee forward to be awarded the
recognition gift by their staff manager. Shake their hand and address them
by name as you congratulate each and every
one on attaining the goal. Here is the best part. Have a pre-set "Next
up to bat" goal that you wish for them to achieve.
Towards the end of the Success meeting announce the new goal. Expound your
confidence in them as individuals and as
group to come up with the plan to achieve the "New Goal". You will
have a company full of "Einstein's" at the end of the
day, feeling worthy and confident. A happy employee is a productive employee.
The resulting rise of sales/productivity from
this procedure will more than offset the cost of the recognition program.
Safety award programs will produce the same desired results as a product or
sales oriented recognition program.
Follow the same basic procedures of announcing the goal, a plan needed to attain
the goal then have a "Success Meeting".
The only real difference is to make certain that management set exact time
frames such as quarterly, biannually, and
yearly. Keep in mind that a truly successful safety award program must be a
progressive program that is milestone oriented.
To keep the interest high in the safety program utilize a "Tiered Selection"
of gift items imprinted with the company logo
and or the safety milestone message, ever increasing in value and therefore
desirable to the employees. This will keep fresh
attention and forward momentum on the program as it progresses by consistently
offering a "Larger Carrot" for continued
safe performance. There is a dual benefit to in a progressive safety award
program which is a rise in productivity due to less
lost man hours and the lower insurance costs alone will more than offset the
cost of the safety award program.
A Truly Successful Company Will Live By The Three Wisdoms
"Let everyone hold the trophy".
"Do right by those who do right".
"Remember everyone at Christmas, for Christ remembered you".