I just read an article that talked about promotional products that businesses can hand out. It was an interesting read, but the items discussed were quite generic and lacked the oomph a product needs to really get your message “carried away.” It’s summertime! Give them something they can use right now!

You’ll want your recipients to appreciate your promotional products and remember your business (that’s what it’s all about, right?). To achieve this, there are two things you absolutely have to remember: be timely and topical. Recipients should be able to use the products as soon as they receive them. For that to happen, it is essential to tie your products in with current events or seasonal trends.

For starters, since summer has finally arrived, your customers are going to start dusting off their barbecue grills and picnic paraphernalia. Why not dish out some folding chairs or insulated coolers (imprinted with your logo, of course) that they can use right now! And don’t be afraid to bend the rules a little; maybe your message would be better imprinted on an ice scraper if you are trying to keep it cool.

If you would like to give something that is more affordable, but useful all the same, then products that might suit you include water jugs, sunglasses, sunscreen lotions…. Whatever your budget, Absorbent, Ink. has something to suit you and your recipients during any season.

Sometimes it’s easy to take the USPS for granted. It’s aggravating when they don’t get a letter delivered properly. But overall, they deliver a lot of mail to a lot of people with relatively few mistakes.

From a marketing perspective, as postage rates increase, so do the costs associated with direct mail campaigns. For those of us in marketing roles with our companies, this affects how we do business. With tightening budgets we have to be even more creative in how we promote our brand.

I’ve been in marketing for more than 20 years. Increasing mail costs don’t surprise me. But what did surprise me was the amount of the decline in mail last year. It was approximately a 9.5 billion piece decline in mail for 2008. According to the USPS, “Declining mail volume was a symptom of the worsening national economy, particularly related to the financial and housing industries and to trends toward the use of electronic mail.”

Business owners are looking for alternative ways to promote their business. This includes social media, email, and of course, promotional products. The promotional products industry still enjoyed a good year in 2008 with more than $18 billion in sales. Why? Because promotional products are a cost effective way to promote your business.

Head on over to AbsorbentPrinting.com and check out the changes we’ve made.  You’ll notice an orange navbar that highlights our Green products, our products that are made in the USA, our clearance section, our newest products, and our unique products.  You can now shop by brand, as well!

I just filled up my gas tank for a little over $15 bucks yesterday.  Great for me but experts say its a sign of how bad the economy is right now.  Oil is selling at 43 dollars a barrel!  Nobody is spending money.

Here are a few tips for your business to help increase awareness and sales:

-Emphasize the value of your product or service to your customers. With budgets being tight, people want to know how a product or service will benefit them.

-Offer coupons and sales. Everyone is looking for a good bargain right now.  Show you care by giving them one.

-Studies have shown that companies that keep or increase their spending on marketing during a recession end up in better shape at the end of a recession. The average cost-per-impression of a promotional product is $.0004, according to a recent ASI study.  Of the surveyed respondents, 84% remembered the advertisers of the promotional product they received.

Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco made news last summer when he issued an executive order banning San Francisco City and County governments from purchasing bottled water. The order was effective on July 1 and extended to a ban on water coolers by Dec. 1. Newsom made the decision based on economic and environmental factors, citing the environmental impact and the amount of tax payer dollars used to transport and dispose plastic water bottles.

The city of Ann Arbor, Mich. made the next move soon after San Francisco, barring city vendors from selling commercial bottled water at city events. Most recently in late January, Madison, Wis., a city partly known for its eco-friendliness is also considering a proposal to ban both bottled water and plastic grocery bags. City governments are not the only entities jumping on the no bottled water band wagon. Restaurateur and Iron Chef Mario Batali also put an end to bottled water at his Del Posto Ristorante in New York.

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For businesses with a .com domain, piggybacking on the high search authority of .edu or .org sites can improve search engine optimization. A business can earn a link on sites of area colleges, universities, or not-for-profit organizations that it has good relations with. (Keyword: Earn).

Seomoz.org says folks who receive such coveted links on .edu sites have four things in common:

1) they are generous with their time,
2) generous with their talent,
3) generous with their money, or
4) know a lot about an academic subject and are very good at writing about it.

Helping an organization with its Web site, writing professional articles that professors can recommend to their students, making donations in your business’s name or volunteering at charitable events are just some ways in which a business can earn a link. Earning a link on a .gov domain may or may not be more difficult, but try getting more involved with your city and state government through civic events. You never know when an opportunity can arise. The core tactic to earning links is to create a mutually beneficial relationship.

Keep the winter blues at bay

The holiday season is an extremely difficult time for anyone. According to therapist Joe Kort, “After the holiday season is over, many people suffer from depression. The fast pace to get presents, visit with family, send out cards and get school and work business done keeps the depression at bay. However, returning to work and school, dealing with the family issues which surfaced over the holidays and facing the winter blues can be very depressing.”

When the after-holiday doldrums set in, what is a manager to do? How can you motivate your employees to keep up the good work that they did all year long? Here are a few great ideas for your company to keep productivity up and the post-holiday doldrums down:

1. Candy gifts
After the holidays, everyone begins to miss the treats they received just a few days ago. Candy gifts are a great motivator and comfort to a worker who needs a little pick-me-up in the middle of the day. It is a small token of your company’s appreciation and can convince the employee that you care, even after the holidays.

2. Hand sanitizers and soaps
The period during and directly after the holidays is prime cold and flu territory. Keep your employees healthy by giving them hand sanitizers and soaps. Your employees will appreciate the gesture and the disease prevention.

3. Relaxation products
From bath salts to massagers, relaxation products are a great way to help your employees get through those post-holiday blues unscathed. Not only are they ideal after the relatives leave town, but they are a treat after a long day at the office. Relaxation products will be a reminder that the company cares about their mental health.

4. Yo-yos
It may sound silly, but a yo-yo is a timeless and ageless gift that your employee will enjoy for a long time. It is a great tool while brainstorming because it keeps the employee’s hands busy and eases the pressure exuded by deadlines. Yo-yos are a great break time accessory and an easyway to boost morale.

5. Ceramic mugs
The smell of freshly brewed coffee is always a great pick-me-up, but when coupled with a brand new ceramic mug, the effect is doubled because it is also aesthetically pleasing.

Pep talks are great for motivating employees, but they only go so far. A small gift can be a fantastic way to motivate and cheer up your employees. Let your employees know that you are thinking of them, even after the holidays have ended.

A couple of days ago the president of Absorbent, Ink. talked to Small Business Trends Radio about how to get the most out of giving gifts to clients. They were nice enough to post the interview on their website.

Click here to listen to the interview.

“Great job, Sally Sue! Here is a new ball point pen so you can take orders more efficiently,” exclaims Bob the Boss. As Bob walks away, he thinks to himself, “I bet my employees really appreciate the employee incentive program the company has.” What is Sally thinking right now? Sally is probably thinking the best use for the new pen she received is to throw it at Bob the Boss.

Corporate gifts given as employee incentives are worthless unless the giver consciously thinks about the person they want to reward. Ensuring that your company creates the appropriate employee incentives through the use of corporate gifts may seem trivial, but its trivialities such as these that make employees want to work overtime on a pending project.

There are three keys to identifying what employee incentives will work for your company and employees.

• Employee incentives must be tailored to the person receiving the recognition.

Employee incentives in the form of a corporate gift or a promotional product should make an employee take notice. In the article “The Effective Employee Incentive Program” in Innovative Leader, G.A. Andy Marken said that employee incentives do not need to be expensive to be meaningful. They should think to themselves, “Wow. This wine gift basket is for me. My boss must really appreciate the work I do.”

• Employee incentives should be earned and not given out haphazardly.

Giving corporate gifts to employees without reason defeats the purpose of an employee incentive program. This does not mean that bosses should not give employees things without reason, but it does mean they should save the meaningful corporate gifts for the employee incentive program.

• Employee incentives must have a purpose and inspire employees to actually help and want to aid in the process of making your company a better provider to your customers.

In the article “Bad Bait- Employee incentive programs” in Entrepreneur, Jacquelyn Lynn said, “If you’re considering a new incentive program, ask employees what motivates them.” Know if your employees would rather get golf balls or a USB drive; details such as these means a more effective employee incentive program.

Following these simple rules will help ensure that your employee incentive program will succeed and that everyone at the company will be happy.

Sitting at a phone all day and taking orders from customers who are in assorted moods can be a demoralizing job. Customer service representatives deal with customers who do not know what they want, customers who want what they cannot get and at times, customers who are unaware of what a business actually sells. These various factors make customer service a difficult profession.

Representatives who answer the phones for your business, however, may be more important in the public’s viewpoint than anyone else in the company. When customers call a promotional products and corporate gifts company, they should be treated in a respectful manner.

Problems come in various shapes and sizes. Customers can be disappointed that the spacing on the 100 cups they ordered is not wide enough or that the seat cushions they purchased are not the correct hue of red. Each of these issues, no matter how small or trivial they seem, are important.

Every issue a customer service department deals with should be done so with care and honesty, that-as cheesy as it sounds-comes from the heart or at least the heart of the company. In the article “Communicating with Credibility” on EmergingLeader.com, Christine W. Zust said, “When a message is communicated from the heart, it is more believable.” Zust said that leadership that deals with and accepts full responsibility for their words and actions from the beginning are the most successful.

Another definite way to lose a customer is if your company customer service representatives have an air of indifference. In the article How to Enhance Customer Service in the e-magazine Customer Service Professionals, Bill Gessert, president of TeleSolutions Consultants LLC, said, “68% of customers who stop doing business with you do so because of a perception of indifference. If customer service is not your passion, it will be for your competition.” Indifference or a lack of enthusiasm is something to avoid; don’t let it bring down your company.

The last thing that should be maintained by customer services and a company concerns employees who think of the ideas a company presents. This does not directly pertain to those answering the phone, but it does concern those who write the company’s newsletters, emails, blog, and those who come up with and design the products the company sells. A monthly newsletter that goes out to customers and gives them new market trends, product ideas and special company discounts can help a customer feel like they are in touch with a company. In the article “The Keys to Delivering World-Class Service” in the e-magazine Customer Service Professionals, Jay Lipe said, “In a recent study by Jupiter Research, 33 percent of all Internet companies surveyed took three days or longer to get back to customers that had e-mailed for help.”

Customer service is a department at a company that should not be ignored. Merely hiring someone who has the ability to pick up a phone is not enough to maintain and build a customer base. Hiring people who have the ability to maintain an honest message, having employees who care and who are able to interact and assist customers with specific products and interact with a customer will.