By: Matt Histand
Many deals start off as a simple writing instrument sale. After all, who doesn’t want cheap promo pens? It’s the up-sell, though, where promotional products distributors can make big money. Here are five promotional programs that can be built off a single pen.
Successful promotion starts with one great product, and often it’s a writing instrument. Think about it. Almost every successful branding program or giveaway includes a pen, whether it’s for a local business, corporate event, or national retail campaign. And there’s good reason for it: nothing works as efficiently at reinforcing a message as a writing instrument.
What’s most special about them – and what people often overlook – is the way they can turn a promotional sale into a program. They are the proverbial foot in the door; the test product and staging area for the next great slogan or logo. What other product is better suited for the job?
Writing instruments are inexpensive and easily imprinted, are available in an unlimited number of styles and colors, never go out of style and – most importantly – are useful to everyone who receives them. They don’t just round out a program. They are the seed from which a program can grow.
In the pages that follow, we present some product ideas that can be used to up-sell a client who’s considering a pen. Broken into five different programs – ranging from safety and educational to golf tournaments and sales incentives – these cheap promotional products are perfectly suited to help turn your pen sale into a program sale that garners double and triple the profit.
Sales Incentives
The success of the promotional business items industry is built around the idea that people love anything that’s free. That said, when it comes to incentive gifts, perceived value really does matter. This is especially true for sales incentives and executive gifts. The recipients are high achievers and expect more than just an average promotional product.
One of the best items is a high-end writing instrument that can be used to close a deal or sign a contract. It becomes a valued part of somebody’s image and can be used as the initial item for further gifting opportunities. Just one piece of advice for executive writing instruments: the “wow” factor is everything so make it something special.
School Programs
Writing instruments and schools are no-brainers, but few realize how much more can come from that simple sale. Many school-related events such as sporting events and club outings are partially, if not entirely, supported by fundraising efforts. This is often done through the sale of imprinted school products at the school store and sporting events.
While pens promotional, pencils, and highlighters (Don’t forget highlighters; this is school, after all) form the building blocks, be sure to follow up with notebooks, pennants, foam fingers, megaphones, sweatshirts. Anything that can show support for the school, at the game or in the community is a potential profit maker.
Golf Tournaments
There are over 25 million golfers in the U.S. and they all have one thing in common: they need to keep score. That makes cheap pens a gotta-have-it product as far as they are concerned. It’s also usually imprinted with the golf club’s name and can be your entrance into a very profitable sport that uses tons of accessories and giveaway items at thousands of golf tournaments and charity events year-round.
The list of Long Island promotional products for golfers is many and varied, including divot tools, tees, towels, shirts, and ball cleaners, among others. Pretty much everything used in golf, aside from the golfers themselves, is currently available as a promotional item, so all it takes is putting that first product in play.
Office Space
The desktop has long been considered prime real estate by promotional products distributors. And there’s good reason for it: The constant reinforcement of a company’s name, logo and message. While wearable items are the largest category of promotional products, cheap promotional pens, which are used everyday, remain the premiere product when it comes to corporate exposure. But why stop there? There are a host of desktop products that can be used as giveaways in conjunction with writing instruments for sales incentives, leave-behinds or ongoing branding programs to make sure your client’s name stays front-and-center in their customer’s lives. Promotional notepads, promotional mouse pads, bobble-heads and toys. All of this starts with a great pen.
Safety Programs
The key to occupational safety is keeping the idea of working smart in the forefront of workers’ minds as they go about their job. The best way to do that is through a safety program that reinforces that notion throughout their day. Nothing does that better than a writing instrument because it’s used on a daily basis and provides ample space for your clients’ safety messages. In fact, pens should be the first product given out because it forms the heart of the program. From there, other safety-related promotional items – such as first aid kits, flashlights and stress relievers – can be distributed over the course of the program to echo and expand that message.
Interested? If so, head on over to our online store and get an order placed right away! Or, contact us so we can get any questions you may have answered. Real business promotional solutions are just around the corner!
